Displaying items by tag: co2

With their zero-emission drive, these quiet buses operate with 100% electric propulsion. Each electric bus helps prevent nearly 300,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions in our community annually. That’s like planting 2,283 trees.   Knoxville Area Transit

Shut up and get on the bus

KNOXVILLE — Everyone needs to be everywhere at once: School, work, the grocery story, the mall and back home.

Locked into a society run by time, we tend to prefer methods of transportation that make for the quickest journey from place to place.

The modern car, usually powered by gasoline, provides individuals with quick transportation, which saves time. Private transportation embodies convenience.

Smithsonian: In Russia, even rocks emit greenhouse gases

The melting Siberian tundra north of the Arctic Circle released millions of tons of methane last year as regional temperatures rose to 11 degrees (°F) above average.

Methane has a shorter effect than carbon dioxide on global atmospheric change but is still 70 times more potent than CO₂ in its overall global-warming potential. Its accelerated release on such a vast scale represents an immediate challenge to restricting overall global warming to less than 3 degrees (°F) by the end of the century, which scientists agree is necessary to prevent dramatic climate change. Methane’s potent global warming potential is why many conservationists oppose the use of natural gas as an energy source.

But in Siberia, even the rocks are emitting methane. Scientists were surprised to find that limestone exposed by disappearing permafrost itself generated high levels of methane. Tundra fires have also accelerated the release of methane and other gases, and have come at great cost to the Russian government and the rural inhabitants of the vast region.

That means economical and practical means must be developed elsewhere, at least, for methane management.

But according to the United Nations Economic Council for Europe:

“Despite methane’s short residence time, the fact that it has a much higher warming potential than CO₂ and that its atmospheric volumes are continuously replenished make effective methane management a potentially important element in countries’ climate change mitigation strategies. As of today, however, there is neither a common technological approach to monitoring and recording methane emissions, nor a standard method for reporting them.“

Remember TVA’s 2008 Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill

The Tennessee Valley Authority plans to retire the Kingston plant and its four other remaining coal-fired power plants by 2035.

But it is seriously considering replacing them with large fossil gas power plants and new gas pipelines!

Natural gas is cleaner than coal, but is yet another fossil fuel source that releases carbon dioxide. Such a replacement would be contrary to the national and global consensus that we must reduce the use of fossil fuels quickly to constrain the runaway climate crisis as much as we can.

A plan based on emerging technologies for increased energy efficiency combined with distributed use of renewable energies and energy storage can increase community resilience; create more good, long-term jobs; diversify local business opportunities; and provide immediate public health benefits.

TVA accepts public comments electronically through the end of July 15, 2021. 

Don’t miss the opportunity to tell TVA that customers don’t want to pay for a yesteryear “solution” that does not really address the clear and present dangers to humanity. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy has made it easy for you:  

Submit your comment to TVA by tapping or clicking this link NOW:  

Tell TVA, No New Fossil Gas Plants + Pipelines  

You can also email TVA directly attn: Chevales Williams, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Source: TVA — Kingston Fossil Plant Retirement 

Global Optimism: “We Have to Be At War With Carbon”

The first 15 minutes of this podcast analyze the Shortcomings of the G7 Summit.

The second 15-minute segment is a conversation with the CEO of Rolls Royce about its goal to make long-distance flights Net Zero by 2050.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Air Resource Specialist is seen at the Look Rock air quality research station.   Courtesy National Park Service

The lack of regional and local vehicle traffic during the pandemic greatly reduced measurable pollution in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

This is your Hellbender weekend read, and the first in an occasional Hellbender Press series about the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the natural world

Great Smoky Mountains National Park shut down for six weeks in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Recorded emissions reductions during that period in part illustrate the role motor vehicles play in the park's vexing air-quality issues. The full cascade of effects from the pollution reductions are still being studied.

Hellbender Press interviewed park air quality specialist Jim Renfro about the marked reduction of carbon dioxide and other pollutants documented during the park closure during the pandemic, and the special scientific opportunities it presents.  He responded to the following questions via email.

Hellbender Press: You cited “several hundred tons" in pollutant reductions during an interview with WBIR of Knoxville (in 2020). What types of air pollutants does this figure include?