Lorenzo Sepede’s Post

From this NPR article today (https://lnkd.in/gEM9RUB4) "Reducing methane pollution can help the world meet its climate targets, but for years researchers had little understanding of where exactly methane leaks were coming from." Tracking methane leaks has been problematic for years. Why? "The oil and gas industry has historically had a culture of confidentiality, says Antoine Halff, chief analyst at Kayrros, a climate analytics firm. "They like to keep their data private," he says. "There's, I think, a cultural discomfort with the transparency provided by independent monitoring." What is being done to overcome this? Well, today the MethaneSAT satellite was launched by SpaceX, along with several other satellites. It's purpose is to detect methane. As Steven Hamburg, Chief Scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund said, "For the first time [we'll] have high quality empirical data for an entire sector across the globe." "The beauty of having MethaneSAT," says Adam Brandt, a professor in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering at Stanford University, is "we don't have to ask [oil companies] permission nicely to go on site and make measurements..." Register today for the Summit for Sustainable Organizations: https://lnkd.in/gq5kHmhU #businessasaforceforgood #businesssustainability #sustainablebusiness #sustainability #doingwellbydoinggood #leadbyexample #climatechange

The nation's first outdoor test to limit global warming by increasing cloud cover launched Tuesday from the deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier in the San Francisco Bay. The experiment, which organizers didn't widely announce to avoid public backlash, marks the acceleration of a contentious field of research known as solar radiation modification. The concept involves shooting substances such as aerosols into the sky to reflect sunlight away from the Earth. The move led by researchers at the University of Washington has renewed questions about how to effectively and ethically study promising climate technologies that could also harm communities and ecosystems in unexpected ways. The experiment is spraying microscopic salt particles into the air, and the secrecy surrounding its timing caught even some experts off guard. "Since this experiment was kept under wraps until the test started, we are eager to see how public engagement is being planned and who will be involved," said Shuchi Talati, the executive director of the Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering, a nonprofit that seeks to include developing countries in decisions about solar modification, also known as geoengineering. "While it complies with all current regulatory requirements, there is a clear need to reexamine what a strong regulatory framework must look like in a world where [solar radiation modification] experimentation is happening," she added. The Coastal Atmospheric Aerosol Research and Engagement, or CAARE, project is using specially built sprayers to shoot trillions of sea salt particles into the sky in an effort to increase the density — and reflective capacity — of marine clouds. The experiment is taking place, when conditions permit, atop the USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum in Alameda, California, and will run through the end of May, according to a weather modification form the team filed with federal regulators. Solar radiation modification is controversial because widespread use of technologies like marine cloud brightening could alter weather patterns in unclear ways and potentially limit the productivity of fisheries and farms. It also wouldn't address the main cause of climate change — the use of fossil fuels — and could lead to a catastrophic spike in global temperatures if major geoengineering activities were discontinued before greenhouse gases decrease to manageable levels. https://lnkd.in/efBiwzUP

It was fantastic to see Kayrros, a NewSpace Capital portfolio company and the world leader in climate intelligence, featured in yesterday’s The New York Times. Their landmark new study reveals that many of the signatories of the Global Methane Pledge, the aim of which is to bring down methane emissions worldwide by 2030, are failing to honour their promises. '2030 is rapidly approaching,' warns Antoine H., Chief Analyst and co-founder of Kayrros, 'Emissions are still being released in huge amounts.' By combining satellite data and AI-powered geoanalytics, Kayrros are able to provide rich, timely and highly accurate climate insights both to private actors and to governments around the world. They’re a shining example of what space-enabled technology can do – and why it’s essential to tackling the climate crisis. Great article. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/eTjKFYWB #climate #methane #spacetech #newspace #commercialspace

A new study by CU Boulder researchers reveals that microbes, not fossil fuels, have been the primary driver of the recent surge in atmospheric methane levels. This finding challenges previous assumptions and offers a new perspective on addressing climate change. Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, has been increasing rapidly in recent years, contributing significantly to global warming. By understanding the source of this increase, scientists can develop more effective mitigation strategies. The researchers found that microbial sources, such as wetlands and landfills, now account for over 90% of the recent methane rise. While fossil fuels remain a major contributor to climate change, their role in methane emissions may have been overestimated. The study highlights the importance of considering isotopic signatures to accurately identify methane sources. The team plans to investigate whether the increased microbial emissions originate from natural or human-driven sources. Overall, the findings suggest that targeting methane emissions, particularly from microbes, offers a promising avenue for mitigating climate change in the near term. https://lnkd.in/d5ci3i2n #GlobalWarming #GreenHouseGas #MethaneEmission #Biotechnology #ClimateChange #MitigateClimateChange #Wetland

“You can do big things in the ocean — the oil industry does... So why not look at a system where you could have essentially an independent system offshore that actually removes CO2 from the atmosphere and puts it away forever?” reads an article from Undark Magazine. As sustainability sectors continue to question where we'll redirect excess #carbon emissions, the prospect of burying the emissions beneath the earth keeps surfacing. This solution has made impressionable waves, prompting some scientists to take it a step further: burying the emissions beneath the ocean floor.🌊🌏 There are risks involved in the process, but offshore #carboncapture holds immense potential in climate change mitigation. Some opportune parts of the ocean are "large enough in theory to store carbon from all global annual emissions many times over." Get further details by reading more!

This methane-sniffing satellite will leave climate polluters nowhere to hide Set to launch as early as next week, MethaneSAT will partner with Google to map leaks from the oil and gas industry and beyond. Developed by a coalition of environmentalists, scientists and aerospace engineers at a cost of around US$88 million, MethaneSAT is designed to provide an unparalleled view of methane emanating from oil and gas fields across the planet — as well as from agricultural facilities and landfills. Working with Google, MethaneSAT’s operators will process data from the satellite using an atmospheric model that can track methane in the air back to its sources on the ground. They will then make the data freely available. Google also plans to use artificial-intelligence algorithms to help map oil and gas infrastructure worldwide and identify where the pollution is coming from. MethaneSAT will enable corporate and government accountability through “radical transparency”, says Steven Hamburg, chief scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), an advocacy group based in New York City that led the satellite’s development. “This will be the first time that we have ever had this type of information for any greenhouse gas,” he says. More than 80 times as potent as CO2 at trapping heat around Earth, methane is collectively responsible for around 30% of global warming since the Industrial Revolution. Methane lasts around 12 years in the atmosphere, whereas CO2 persists for centuries. This means that curbing methane emissions could have a notable cooling effect on global temperatures over the short term. “We could basically cut warming nearly in half over the next couple of decades if we were to eliminate our methane emissions,” says Ilissa Ocko, an atmospheric scientist at EDF, whose research suggests that the oil and gas sector can reduce the bulk of its emissions at little to no extra cost1, for example by replacing leaky seals or broken valves. “In a lot of cases, fixing the problem is easy,” she says. “The capabilities of this satellite are phenomenal,” says Róisín Commane, an atmospheric scientist at Columbia University in New York City. But she points out that MethaneSAT is limited: each day, it can transmit imagery to Earth from only around 30 swaths of land measuring 200 square kilometres each. That is enough to accomplish its core mission of monitoring global oil and gas operations, as well as some agricultural sources, but Commane says that it will miss other scientific opportunities. https://lnkd.in/eYuVpRux

Without cutting emissions and not giving methane attention it deserves we predictably gravitate towards solar radiation control. Here’s a very interesting article about this. Plenty of nuance, lack of control. “The ministry of the future” seems to put things right. With pressure against this solution mounting someone might just do it. Here’s a quote: But many believe it’s essential to learn more about the role that solar geoengineering could play in easing global warming, and whether the side effects could be moderated. There’s a simple reason: if it does work well, it could save many lives and ease suffering as climate change accelerates… While the Harvard team’s public plans were going nowhere, several other individuals claimed to have simply started launching stratosphere-bound balloons without any announcements in advance. They include the CEO of Make Sunsets, a venture-backed geoengineering startup, as well as Andrew Lockley, an independent researcher in the UK. Meanwhile, earlier this week, a University of Washington-led research group conducted a small experiment in marine cloud brightening, another form of solar geoengineering, on a decommissioned aircraft carrier anchored off the coast of Alameda, California, according to the New York Times.

#IED: It´s a beautiful world - Happy International Earth Day, everyone! 🌎 Today is about celebrating the wonders of our Planet and reflecting on our relationship to the environment and how to protect it in a sustainable way. Environmental stewardship, not only on the ground but also in orbit, will be a decisive factor in securing a promising future for generations to come. 🛰️ It is also the opportunity to appreciate the role of space systems in fighting against climate change. Let's zoom in on MethaneSat: one of the most ambitious, exciting and forward looking space missions recently deployed and proudly supported by ENPULSION`s propulsion technology. 👉 About MethaneSAT: Launched about 2 months ago by SpaceX, MethaneSat is aimed at monitoring 80% of methane emissions - responsible for 30% of global warming, across the globe. At the CO28 last December in Dubai, around 50 oil and gas companies - representing nearly half of global production - committed to reach near-zero methane emissions and end routine flaring by 2030. Many observers and environmental NGOs criticized this announcement and considered the so-called 'Global Methane Pledge' to be a smokescreen. As the only first satellite developed and funded by an environmental NGO, the Environmental Defense Fund, is the new watchdog for efficient climate accountability. MethaneSat will provide a solid technical backbone to support science-based policy making and will hold companies for their sustainability pledges. To this end, Google is expected to start integrating and analyzing MethaneSat's data by the end of the year already! #EarthDay #GreenFuture #MethaneSat

The #fossilfuel industry funded some of the world’s most foundational #climatescience as early as 1954, newly unearthed documents have shown, including the early research of Charles Keeling, famous for the so-called “Keeling curve” that has charted the upward march of the Earth’s #carbondioxide levels. A coalition of #oil and #car manufacturing interests provided $13,814 (about $158,000 in today’s money) in December 1954 to fund Keeling’s earliest work in measuring #CO2 levels across the western #US, the documents reveal. Keeling would go on to establish the continuous measurement of global CO2 at the Mauna Loa Observatory in #Hawaii. This “Keeling curve” has tracked the steady increase of the atmospheric carbon that drives the #climatecrisis and has been hailed as one of the most important scientific works of modern times. The fossil fuel interests backed a group, known as the Air Pollution Foundation (#APF), that issued funding to Keeling to measure CO2 alongside a related effort to #research the smog that regularly blighted #LosAngeles at the time. This is earlier than any previously known climate research funded by #oilcompanies. In the research proposal for the money – uncovered by Rebecca John, a researcher at the Climate Investigations Center (#CIC) , and published by the climate website DeSmog– Keeling’s research director, Samuel Epstein, wrote about a new carbon isotope analysis that could identify “changes in the atmosphere” caused by the burning of #coal and #petroleum. “The possible consequences of a changing concentration of the CO2 in the atmosphere with reference to climate, rates of photosynthesis, and rates of equilibration with carbonate of the oceans may ultimately prove of considerable significance to civilization,” Epstein, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology (or #Caltech), wrote to the group in November 1954. Experts say the documents show the fossil fuel industry had intimate involvement in the inception of modern climate science, along with its warnings of the severe harm #climatechange will wreak, only to then publicly deny this science for decades and fund ongoing efforts to delay action on the #climatecrisis. “They contain smoking gun proof that by at least 1954, the fossil fuel industry was on notice about the potential for its products to disrupt Earth’s climate on a scale significant to human civilisation,” said Geoffrey Supran, an expert in historic climate #disinformation at the #UniversityofMiami. “These findings are a startling confirmation that #bigoil has had its finger on the pulse of academic climate science for 70 years – for twice my lifetime – and a reminder that it continues to do so to this day. They make a mockery of the oil industry’s denial of basic climate science decades later.” API and Ralph Keeling, Charles’s son who is also a scientist, were contacted for comment about the documents but did not respond?

Global warming Part 3 Emission Reductions From Pandemic Had Unexpected Effects on Atmosphere The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting limitations on travel and other economic sectors by countries around the globe drastically decreased air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions within just a few weeks. That sudden change gave scientists an unprecedented view of results that would take regulations years to achieve. A comprehensive new survey of the effects of the pandemic on the atmosphere, using satellite data from NASA and other international space agencies, reveals some unexpected findings. The study also offers insights into addressing the dual threats of climate warming and air pollution. “We’re past the point where we can think of these as two separate problems,” said Joshua Laughner, lead author of the new study and a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech in Pasadena, California. “To understand what is driving changes to the atmosphere, we must consider how air quality and climate influence each other.” Published Nov. 9 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the paper grew from a workshop sponsored by Caltech’s W.M. Keck Institute for Space Studies, led by scientists at that institution and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which is managed by Caltech. Participants from about 20 U.S. and international universities, federal and state agencies, and laboratories pinpointed four atmospheric components for in-depth study: the two most important greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane; and two air pollutants, nitrogen oxides and microscopic nitrate particles. Carbon Dioxide The most surprising result, the authors noted, is that while carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fell by 5.4% in 2020, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere continued to grow at about the same rate as in preceding years. “During previous socioeconomic disruptions, like the 1973 oil shortage, you could immediately see a change in the growth rate of CO2,” said David Schimel, head of JPL’s carbon group and a co-author of the study. “We all expected to see it this time, too.” Using data from NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite launched in 2014 and the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System atmospheric model, the researchers identified several reasons for this result. First, while the 5.4% drop in emissions was significant, the growth in atmospheric concentrations was within the normal range of year-to-year variation caused by natural processes. Also, the ocean didn’t absorb as much CO2 from the atmosphere as it has in recent years – probably in an unexpectedly rapid response to the reduced pressure of CO2 in the air at the ocean’s surface. https://lnkd.in/dhzNxNgq