Adam Clare

COP26 Starts Soon, We Need to Capture Carbon Now

A company in Iceland captures carbon right out of the air and injects into the earth, the operation is a working proof that we can take carbon out of thin air. The carbon capture and storage (ccs) process is one of many options we have as a species to advert our own demise. With COP26 starting next week we not only need to get politicians to enforce policies to help the environment (like cutting market manipulating polices like oil subsidies) but to invest in building ccs solutions.

The Economist magazine (which is incredibly slow in acknowledging the world changes) has a good article exploring the state of ccs and what options we have. There are multiple solutions and we should explore them all.

Without a doubt our focus should be on reducing carbon emissions, but there’s no reason we can’t reduce our carbon output while also looking into capturing it.

The negative emissions is held to offer play two roles in climate stabilisation. One might be seen as balancing the current carbon account. Although most emissions can theoretically be eliminated using technologies that exist now, aviation, shipping and some industrial processes remain hard to decarbonise.Some agricultural greenhouse-gas emissions look as if they will prove recalcitrant. As long as emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases persist, stabilisation will require negative emissions.

The other role for is getting rid of historical excess. As we have seen, the cumulative CO₂-emissions budget consistent with a 50-50 chance of meeting the 2°C goal is 3.7trn tonnes. The budget for 1.5°C is just 2.9trn tonnes. With 2.4trn tonnes already emitted, that leaves a decade of emissions at today’s rates for 1.5°C, maybe 25 years for 2°C.

Live Longer by Lathering Less

Showering too much is a problem that too many people have, but if you do like to over-shower you should stop using shampoo. Turns out that a popular and frequently used chemical in shampoos, phthalates, is bad for your longevity. Yes, shampooing too much can shorten life. Don’t fret! There’s an easy solution of just switching to buying unscented shampoo.

The chemical class is so common that phthalates are nicknamed “everywhere chemicals.” The chemicals pose a threat if inhaled or ingested, so children are at an especially high risk of exposure as they tend to put their hands in their mouths.

In an email to Insider, Trasande shared a list of tips for keeping phthalates out of your home:

Use unscented lotions and laundry detergents.
Use cleaning supplies without scents.
Use glass, stainless steel, ceramic, or wood to hold and store foods.
Buy fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables instead of canned and processed versions.
Avoid air fresheners and all plastics labeled as No. 3, No. 6, and No. 7.
Avoid microwaving and machine dishwashing plastics.

Big Box Stores Remove Products Used to Violate Human Rights

Two of the largest retail chains in the United States have stopped the sale of Chinese-made surveillance products used by the Chinese government to violate human rights. This move to ban the sale of particular Chinese surveillance goods is a direct reaction to those companies benefiting from the ongoing Uyghur genocide happening in China. Indeed, Chinese companies are both using forced labour to produce products and using those products to further suppress the Uyghurs.

The pressure from human rights groups seems to have worked to convince Best Buy and Home Depot to stop selling these goods made to oppress people.

The U.S. government says Beijing relies heavily on Hikvision, Dahua and other technology companies to supply the surveillance equipment to surveil the Uighur population. The Biden administration called the human rights abuses in Xinjiang a “genocide,” and blamed Chinese video surveillance manufacturers of having “been implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups.”

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Dolkun Isa, the president of the World Uyghur Congress, welcomed the “meaningful actions” by the U.S. government with bans on forced labor and sanctions for Chinese companies, but said that it’s “unacceptable that there are still American companies directly helping further the repression.”

Greenland Bans Oil Extraction

Greenland will no longer allow exploration for new oil fields in their territorial waters and newly exposed land. Climate change obviously impacts the country greatly with their ice fields melting at increasing rates. They’ve been experiencing the effects of burning too much oil first hand and refuse to participate it in to protect future generations. This change in policy shows that Greenland is serious on climate change as they’re giving up potential billions of dollars to protect the planet.

“The future does not lie in oil. The future belongs to renewable energy, and in that respect we have much more to gain,” the Greenland government said in a statement. The government said it “wants to take co-responsibility for combating the global climate crisis.”

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The government’s decision to stop oil exploration was welcomed by environmental group Greenpeace, which called the decision “fantastic.”

“And my understanding is that the licences that are left have very limited potential,” Mads Flarup Christensen, Greenpeace Nordic’s general secretary, told weekly Danish tech-magazine Ingenioeren.