Happy Friday everyone! This week we are extra excited to introduce our featured writer and newest member of the ClimateRoots team, Alex Ang! Alex will be joining us as our marketing and creative coordinator and has written a bit about her past experience in the environmental word. From there we dive into our headlines, with a focus on the upcoming COP26 meeting. Rounding out our Friday newsletter this week is the introduction of yet another renewable energy source; bioenergy! 

Alex during her REU lab experience / Image courtesy of Alex Ang

Featured Writer - Alex Ang

In this edition of the ClimateRoots Newsletter, we are incredibly excited to introduce our Marketing and Creative Coordinator, Alex Ang! Alex is a senior at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN and is originally from Queens, New York. She is currently studying Environmental Studies and Creative Writing with plans to pursue a graduate degree in Marine Biology and Oceanography after Undergrad. Last summer, she worked on harmful algal bloom mitigation as an National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates Intern at Mote Marine Laboratory. For the past few years, Alex has created a successful following on various social media platforms, including youtube and instagram. While she is mainly a “bookstagrammer”, Alex frequently highlights her interest in sustainability and marine biology in her posts. She is currently exploring a career in marketing as a Marketing Intern with S’well. Alex comes to ClimateRoots with a passion for sustainability and marketing and we are so lucky to have her leading the ClimateRoots creative! 

In today's issue, Alex reflects on her time as intern at Mote Marine laboratory, and offers insight into the importance of internship experience, struggling with imposter syndrome and her work studying efficacy of brewer’s spent grain (BSG), a known algae inhibitor, on the mitigation of Karenia brevis! Also, check out her cameo on the podcast “So You Want to be a Marine Biologist” where she shares her insights to help launch a career in marine biology, and discusses her internship at Columbia University.

Click below to read the full piece on our blog.

Interested in being a Featured Writer? Fill out this survey and let us know!

Weekly Headlines

New Report Shows that 25% of all Critical Infrastructure in US is at Risk from Flooding (Axios, PublicHealthDisasters.com, MSN)

• A report published by the non profit First Street Foundation found that a quarter of all critical infrastructure in the US (airports, fire/police stations, hospitals, power stations, etc…) are at extreme risk of being deemed inoperable due to flooding.

• The report takes into account the risk from both sea level rise and inland flooding. Both are tied to climate change through a warming climate that causes ocean levels to rise and leads to more large precipitation events.

• According to those involved with the research, the US is not even prepared for today’s climate, let alone the increasing risk over the next few decades.

• Interested in how prepared your neighborhood is for flood risks? Follow this link with public data from First Street Foundation.

Over Thirty Countries Sign Pledge to Reduce Methane Emissions in Advance of COP26 (Axios, Reuters, Grist, The Hill)

• Thirty countries have signed on to a voluntary pledge to reduce global Methane emissions by roughly 30% by the end of the decade.

• Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than Carbon Dioxide in the short term over a couple of decades, making it a valuable gas to target for near term emissions reductions.

• While this pledge is a step in the right direction, countries will need to take concrete steps to make these goals become a reality.

Key World Leaders Will Not Be Attending COP26, a Blow to Global Climate Mitigation Collaboration (Wall Street Journal, BBC, The Washington Post) 

• The “Conference of the Parties” (COP)  is a meeting of the 197 nations that agreed to the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which ratified a treaty to combat human interference in the climate. COP26 takes place October 31st-November 12th and is the 26th meeting of its kind. 

• As of October 20th, President of Russia Vladamir Putin has announced he will not be attending in person. President Xi Jinping of China is also unlikely to attend.

• While they will be present virtually, some worry that the absence of key leaders will hinder efforts to write a new deal to reduce rising temperatures.

• Russia insists that climate remains a top priority, and is expected to send about 300 delegates. 

California Concludes its Driest Year on Record since 1924 (HuffPost, The Hill, Climate Signals, CBS)

• California just recorded its driest water year, which is measured from October 1st, 2020 to September 30th, 2021, since 1924.

• The intense drought was highlighted by the continuation of extreme wildfires that continue to burn throughout the state and much of the American West.

• Droughts like these can be linked directly to climate change and experts fear that this year is a prelude of what’s to come as extreme weather events like these continue to worsen due to climate change.

Rainfall across the American West during the 2021 water year / Image Courtesy of California Department of Water Resources

Education Piece - Bioenergy 101

In today's issue we will be covering one of the oldest and more complicated forms of renewable energy;  bioenergy! For those that don't know, bioenergy is a form of renewable energy that harnesses the stored energy in recently living organic matter, also known as biomass (“Bioenergy Basics”). Essentially, bioenergy is the burning of dead organic matter (think felled trees, human trash and other biomass in general). Humans have been utilizing bioenergy for thousands of years, since we began burning wood to cook food and stay warm. Before being eclipsed by coal at the beginning of the industrial revolution in the mid 1800s, bioenergy was the dominant form of energy consumption in the United States (Renewable Energy Explained - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)). The most common form of biomass is still wood, but we can also utilize agricultural crops, biogenic materials in our trash, and animal or human sewage (Biomass Explained - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)). There are three ways that biomass is used to produce energy and electricity; burning, converting it to fuel, and decomposition. 

Burning:

Burning, also known as direct consumption, is the most common way to convert biomass into usable energy. The most common biomaterials burned in the United States are raw materials (like wood) and municipal waste/garbage (Society). These materials are first dried out and prepped for burning through a process called torrefication. Through this process, the biomaterial “... loses about 20% of its original mass, but retains 90% of its energy” (Society). Once dried, biomaterials are burned in a boiler to produce steam which powers a generator, creating electricity. 

Converting to fuel: 

Biomass is converted to fuels through two main types of thermochemical processes; pyrolysis and gasification. According to the U.S Energy Information Agency both processes are, 

“... thermal decomposition processes in which biomass feedstock materials are heated in closed, pressurized vessels called gassifiers at high temperatures.” (Biomass Explained - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)) The key difference between the two processes is the role of oxygen. Pyrolysis heats the biomass material “in the near complete absence of free oxygen” which results in fuels like bio-oil and renewable diesel. Gasification heats materials with controlled amounts of free oxygen to “... ​​produce a carbon monoxide and hydrogen rich gas called synthesis gas or syngas” (Biomass Explained - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)). Both of these refined materials can be used to produce energy, but syngas can also be used to create biofuel (Society).

Anaerobic decomposition: 

Anaerobic decomposition is the process in which bacteria breaks down biomass material in the absence of oxygen, which in turn produces biogas, a renewable form of natural gas (Biogas-Renewable Natural Gas - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)). Anaerobic decomposition happens throughout the natural world (in soil, swamps and in the bodies of animals and humans) and in the material world (in landfills and sewage systems). In landfills, as the bacteria works its way through the biomass, the decay produces methane which can be captured by a landfill gas collection and control system and used as an alternative for natural gas (Biogas-Renewable Natural Gas - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)). 

In the world of renewable energy, bioenergy is one of the more complex forms of energy creation. While technically renewable, it is not necessarily carbon neutral. This is because by harnessing decaying or dead biomass, we are intercepting the natural carbon cycle and repurposing it to produce larger amounts of energy. In doing this, we are burning and releasing the stored carbon in the biomass into the atmosphere in the short term, rather than the carbon being released directly back into the environment under a natural timeline (“Biomass Energy”). Since biomass can be restored within the human lifetime through processes such as growing trees, it is considered a renewable source of energy.  According to the EPA, “A determination of carbon neutrality requires an assessment of the particular conditions under which a type of biomass (e.g., feedstock) is grown and consumed.” (US EPA)

In the past few years, researchers have raised concerns about the net emissions of the bioenergy sector, particularly as it relates to the strained timeline we have for global climate change mitigation. This is of particular concern because biomass is the source of about 40% of the renewable energy consumed in the United States (The United States Consumed a Record Amount of Renewable Energy in 2020 - Today in Energy - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)).  Bioenergy is a fascinating and valuable source of energy today as we transition away from fossil fuels, but it is still to be seen if it has its place in a long term sustainable future.

To read this full piece with works cited, check it out on our blog!

US Renewable Energy Consumption across sectors / Image Courtesy of  U.S. Energy Information Administration

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