Lethal Heating: 11/29/20

29/11/2020

The End Of The Internal Combustion Engine?

It revolutionised the world, from transport to means of production, but after 160 years, a new electrical future awaits.

Muaz Kory/Al Jazeera

The internal combustion engine revolutionised human life.

It made the commonplace possible: the car, the Uber, the bus, the motorbike. We took to the skies in aircraft and spread our wings across the world. It even mobilised war with tanks, ships and submarines. Agricultural productivity soared with the development of the tractor and other farm machinery. It gave oil-producing countries unimaginable wealth.

But after 160 years of shaping the world we live in, the demise of this extraordinary force-for-change is in plain sight.

The growing push for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 means that a new revolution is upon us, one that will change the way we power our lives, in the home, in our farmers’ fields, and on the road.

Electric vehicles

While some would say that being carbon neutral by 2050 is not enough to stave off the worst effects of climate change, we can say for certain the era of the electric vehicle is upon us. From the United States to the European Union and beyond, nations are pledging to phase out the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles within 15 years.

In China, car buyers bought more plug-in vehicles in 2019 than the rest of the world combined. In Norway more than 60 percent of new cars registered in September this year were electric.

Globally, battery technology is getting cheaper. According to research by BloombergNEF, the cost of a lithium-ion battery pack for an electric car fell 87 percent from 2010 to 2019.

Right now Tesla is the most valuable carmaker in the world despite making far fewer cars than its competitors like Toyota and Volkswagen.

A Tesla charging station in California. Electric cars are becoming more popular in countries around the world. [EPA]Fossil fuels

Meanwhile, fossil fuels still account for 80 percent of the world’s energy. But as energy analyst Ramez Naam pointed out in a fascinating episode of the Outrage and Optimism podcast, fronted by Former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, the balance is shifting fast.

“The cost of energy from wind power has dropped by a factor of 10. The cost of electricity from solar power has dropped by a factor of 30,” Naam said.

“None of this is happening as fast as we want. But it’s happening a lot faster than people in industry, especially in the fossil fuel industry or the automotive industry, think it’s going to happen.

“And what’s clear is the Internal Combustion Engine for ground transport is dead, dead, dead, dead.”

Challenges ahead

While car and truck tailpipe emissions slowly phase out in the coming decades, other transport sectors present an altogether more daunting challenge.

Aviation accounts for 3 percent of the world’s carbon footprint (some say more), but powering passenger planes sustainably is a tough call. Yet there is optimism that by 2050, short-haul flights at least, will be fuelled by green technology like hydrogen fuel cells.

One of the hardest areas to transition is shipping. The global merchant fleet carries 90 percent of world trade.

After moving from sail power in the mid-19th century, to coal-burning steamships, and then the modern era of heavy fuel oil, the industry now looks to natural sources of propulsion again. This is a considerable and difficult problem, especially for the colossal bulk carriers that ply our oceans.

But the transition has begun. China promises to be carbon neutral by at least 2060. US President-elect Joe Biden is proposing to make electricity production in the US carbon-free by 2035, providing millions of jobs in the process. And across the world, nations are upping their ambitions to reduce emissions.

Again, more needs to be done, but it all helps drive technological progress, in all sectors.

And in the coming years, the internal combustion engine, that extraordinary feat of scientific progress, will become a chapter of history as we quietly buzz about in our electric cars.

A portrait of Karl Benz and a copy of the patent for the world’s first car powered by a gas combustion engine, a three wheeler named “Velociped” which was issued January 29, 1886 for Benz’s invention. Internal combustion engine vehicles could soon be a thing of the past [AP]

The final word

And so you have to ask yourself ... am I the CEO of an oil and gas company or the CEO of an energy company? Because the first one is doomed. The second one, there’s massive growth, for the world’s going to use much more energy in 2050. But it’s going to be clean energy.
Ramez Naam, Energy Analyst

Links

Solar Panels Made From Food Waste Win Inaugural James Dyson Sustainability Award

Dezeen - Jennifer Hahn

Engineering student Carvey Ehren Maigue has been named the James Dyson Awards first-ever global sustainability winner for his AuReus system, in which waste crops are turned into cladding that can generate clean energy from ultraviolet light.

Unlike traditional solar panels, which only work in clear conditions and must face the sun directly because they rely on visible light, the translucent AuReus material is able to harvest power from invisible UV rays that pass through clouds.

As a result, it is able to produce energy close to 50 per cent of the time according to preliminary testing, compared to 15 to 22 per cent in standard solar panels.

AuReus cladding can be applied to windows or walls

When applied as a kind of fluorescent covering to windows or facades, AuReus can capture UV rays bouncing off of pavements and the surrounding architecture, turning entire buildings into vertical solar farms.

This maximises the amount of energy that can be generated.

AuReus takes its name from the aurora borealis and is inspired by the physics that power the northern lights. Luminescent particles in the atmosphere absorb high energy particles like ultraviolet or gamma rays, before degrading and reemitting them as visible light.

The material is made using waste agricultural crops

Similarly, Maigue's system uses luminescent particles derived from waste agricultural crops. To pull out the bioluminescent particles from specific fruits and vegetables, Maigue goes through a process of crushing them and extracting their juices, which are then filtered, distilled or steeped.

The particles are suspended in resin before the resulting substrate is moulded into cladding and clamped onto walls or sandwiched between the two panes of a double glazed window.

These particles convert UV light into visible light, which is reflected to the very edges of the panel.

"The light relies on internal reflectance of the material to self-correct and guide itself towards the emitting edge," said Maigue, who is a student at Mapua University in the Filipino capital of Manila. "This can be controlled by specific laser etching patterns
as well."

This visible light can then be captured and converted into electricity by a string of regular photovoltaic (PV) cells, like the ones found in regular solar panels, which fringe the outside of the cladding.

Maigue developed the system while a student at Mapua University in Manila

With the help of integrated regulating circuits, this electricity can then either be stored or used immediately.

"In that way, it can be directly used as a stand-alone or can be connected in groups to produce a higher output," he told Dezeen. "It can also be easily integrated into existing solar photovoltaic systems since its electrical output is suitable for such systems as well."

The fruits and vegetables are crushed and filtered to extract bioluminescent particles

The crops used are sourced from local farmers, who have been affected by severe, climate change-induced weather disruptions.

Around a quarter of people in the Philippines rely on the agricultural sector for their employment but due to global warming, the industry is being affected by more frequent and extreme weather events, which damaged more than six million hectares of crops between 2006 and 2013, worth an estimated $3.8 billion.

By repurposing some of the crops that were rotting on the fields, Maigue makes use of an untapped waste stream and gives farmers a way to monetise their lost yield.

"Combatting climate change is a journey that will need several generations to complete. This means great products alone would not suffice," the engineer said.

"In the conception of AuReus, I aimed to create a future-facing solution in the form of renewable energy and at the same time integrate a present-day value-creating solution for our farmers, who are being affected negatively by the present-day effects of climate change," he continued.

"In this way, we can show people that adapting sustainability to fight climate change is something that can benefit both the present and the future generation and in doing so, we can rally more people in this fight against climate change."

Moving forwards, Maigue plans to turn the AuReus substrate into threads to form fabrics and curved plates to be attached to vehicles and aircrafts.

Maigue says the system could be applied to entire buildings such as the Montreal Convention Centre

The Sustainability Award is a new addition to the annual James Dyson Awards, equal to the competition's top prize.

This year's international winner was Spanish engineer Judit Giró Benet and her at-home breast cancer testing kit. Both she and Maigue take home £30,000 to fund the further development of their projects.

Among the 2020 national winners was the UK's Tyre Collective, with a wheel-mounted device that can capture microplastic emissions from car tyres, and an artificial voice box by Japanese engineer Takeuchi Masaki that can mimic the wearer's former voice.

Note: Images and videos are courtesy of The James Dyson Foundation.

Links

(USA) From Wildfires To Disease, Here Are The Top 5 Ways Climate Change Is Already Hurting Your Health

ABC America - Ramie Fathy

Some scientists say it may have contributed to the current COVID-19 pandemic.

'It’s Not Too Late' with Ginger Zee: Climate change experts demand action
ABC's Ginger Zee breaks down the science behind climate change and why experts are calling for the climate change debate to move beyond settled science and focus on action.

With the COVID-19 pandemic dominating the headlines, President-elect Joe Biden has just released his administration's plan to address another potentially catastrophic global threat: climate change.

Scientists warn that it's not just plants and animals threatened by rising temperatures -- climate change is impacting humans as well. And for medical experts, this is particularly troubling.

"We're in it now," said Dr. Paul Auerbach, an emergency medicine physician at Stanford University and author of "Enviromedics," the pioneering book on climate change and health. "It's happening, and it all boils down to health. This is a health care issue."

Though the effects of climate change on health are numerous, they remain unfamiliar to many. Climate change has now been linked to heat-related illnesses, the spread of infectious disease, physical harm from extreme weather, health complications related to poor air quality, and other individual and public health harms.

Perhaps most importantly, climate change could become one of the main drivers of future novel outbreaks, and may have contributed to the current COVID-19 pandemic.

"The next global pandemic could be, in some capacity, due to climate change," said Dr. Jesse Bell, Professor of Health and Environment at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health.

ABC News spoke with a variety of health experts to determine the top five ways climate change is affecting human health.

Heat-related illness

As the planet gets warmer, people across the globe are beginning to feel the heat.

"Right now, the clearest effects of climate change are through heat," said Dr. Aaron Bernstein, a pediatrician and Interim Director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

"More people die each year from heat -- more than from many medical problems," Bernstein said, noting that heat waves may aggravate a wide range of illnesses, from asthma to mental health disorder to diabetes and kidney disease.

So dire is the threat to human health that Bernstein helped compile guidelines for educating medical trainees about the health effects of climate change.

"Heat waves likely kill more people in the U.S. than any other climate-related disaster, because heat waves occur everywhere across the U.S., including places as different and distant as Nebraska, Los Angeles, New York City, and Seattle," said Bell.

Infectious disease

As anyone who has eaten leftovers that have been left out too long can attest, infectious agents -- and the bugs that carry them -- thrive in particular environments and conditions. And as climate change alters environmental conditions across the planet, so too does it affect the geographic distribution of infectious diseases.

"Some infectious diseases that were already present in North America, like Lyme disease, leishmaniasis, and various fungal infections, have already become an issue in areas that were previously unaffected by them," said Dr. Misha Rosenbach, a dermatologist and climate change activist at the University of Pennsylvania.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the number of Lyme cases in the U.S. has more than tripled since 1995, and rates continue to rise.

Meanwhile, climate change has also facilitated the spread of waterborne infectious diseases.

A man receives a COVID-19 vaccination from Yaquelin De La Cruz at the Research Centers of America (RCA) in Hollywood, Fla., Aug. 13, 2020. Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images

"Warmer temperatures around the globe cause rising sea levels, warmer seawater, and either more frequent or increasingly severe natural disasters like hurricanes and floods," said Rosenbach. "And each of these events is associated with a range of infectious diseases, including life-threatening diarrheal disease, respiratory infections, and skin infections."

Natural disasters, such as recent hurricanes Harvey and Sandy, brought diseases like cholera and bacterial infections in their wake, according to Dr. Saul Hymes, an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics and a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases at Stony Brook Children's Hospital.

Climate change is also a driving force behind "spillover" events, in which viruses leap from their animal hosts into humans, Hymes said.

"Climate change causes disruption to natural animal habitats, and also movement of people into new habitats to avoid flood regions or drought-prone areas," Hymes said. "This can bring humans and animals into more contact and lead to increased likelihood of disease crossover events like those we are seeing more often, including SARS-CoV-2."

Extreme weather events

Along with the ongoing pandemic, 2020 has also witnessed a record-breaking hurricane season as well as wildfires and floods across the globe -- and climate change is thought to be contributing to the severity of all of these extreme weather events.

Experts predict that these are not outlier events but rather the start of a new normal.

"These trends will likely continue over the next century," Bell said.

Houses leveled by the Glass Fire are viewed on a street in the Skyhawk neighborhood of Santa Rosa, Calif., Sept. 28, 2020. Noah Berger/AP

And extreme weather events have indirect health impacts by creating refugee areas.

"As with the Astrodome in Houston after Katrina, these can become overcrowded and thus are hotbeds for transmission of flu and other common person-to-person viral infections," Hymes said.

Air quality

Another way climate change affects human health is through its impact on air quality. While the burning of fossil fuels directly pollutes the air, global warming that's a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion also contributes to and exacerbates worsening air quality.

"For one, climate change has led to drought and to heat waves that have caused the California wildfires, and the smoke and particulates in the air directly harms those with respiratory issues like COPD or asthma," Hymes said.

Cars drive along the Golden Gate Bridge under an orange smoke filled sky at midday in San Francisco, Sept. 9, 2020. Harold Postic/AFP via Getty Images

Even without wildfires, rapid temperature swings and ozone depletion can exacerbate respiratory illnesses like asthma, according to Hymes.

Meanwhile, climate change can influence air quality and human disease through an intermediary: plants.

"Warmer climate and longer summers have led to alterations in pollination and flowering cycles -- some plants now undergo a second flowering in a season, for example," said Hymes. "In general, there's been either a significant increase in pollen counts or a major shift in their timing, or both. And these are often significant asthma triggers as well as affecting other allergic conditions."

Mental health and trauma

According to Bell, extreme weather events can spur mental distress.

"The psychosocial impact of extreme weather events is huge," he said. "People have their possessions and homes destroyed. They must move and rebuild and often are doing so with much of their wealth obliterated. This can cause significant mental distress, rates of depression and anxiety, as well as PTSD rise in survivors of such events."

Some researchers have already begun documenting the psychological impacts of climate change, including major depression, anxiety, PTSD and adjustment disorders, as well as increases in drug and alcohol use and domestic violence. The chronic stress caused by climate disasters has also been associated with worse cardiovascular health.

"It is absolutely imperative that we address these psychological issues because they have impacts on everything: personally, socially, economically, politically," said Dr. Lise van Susteren, a psychiatrist and environmental activist.

But to van Susteren, climate change's effects on mental health extend far beyond the individual level.

"Injuries, deaths, houses being burned down or flood, the loss of possessions and general disruption of life -- these all have a psychological toll," van Susteren said. "In turn, all of these psychological damages have an impact on our physical health, and this has repercussions on all aspects of our lives."

Though climate change has already begun to impact our health and well-being, scientists and doctors say it's not too late to take action to combat it and to mitigate its effects -- through personal choices to reduce your carbon footprint, through community action, and through smart policy.

"Realize that everything you do is part of the collective, and realize that you're setting the social norm," said van Susteren. "It all begins at home."

Links