Climate Break

The Vital Role of Wetlands Wetlands are critical ecosystems that play a fundamental role in maintaining the stability and well-being of both local and global environments.  Coastal salt marshes , flooded and drained by tides, and often composed of deep mud and peat, provide a wide range of ecosystem services that contribute to biodiversity, water quality, carbon storage, and climate regulation.  B...

What are “Resilience Hotspots”? Technology and high-tech solutions are not the only responses to climate change. Nature can also be a powerful form of climate resilience. Resilience hotspots are small pockets of nature that, when restored and maintained, act as barriers to climate impacts. For instance, wetlands can insulate shores from storm surges and trees can provide shade in urban heat island...

What is “Green Ammonia”? Ammonia is a vital chemical that sustains half of all food production around the world (through the creation of agricultural fertilizer), but the process we use to make it results in significant greenhouse gas emissions. Ammonia, which is made up of nitrogen and hydrogen, requires extreme heat and pressure and large amounts of energy (usually from fossil fuels) in order to...

What is CRISPR? DNA contains the fundamental information about an organism, and is used as an instruction manual to guide organism structure and function. Until CRISPR (short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology was developed by Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier , editing DNA sequences was very difficult. Here’s the short version of the CRISPR process...

What is Geothermal Energy? Geothermal energy is heat generated in the earth. It is a renewable source of energy, and it is extracted from the inner earth for energy use. Typically, geothermal energy is harnessed through holes that are drilled allowing hot water or steam to be extracted. These resources then drive a turbine to generate electricity and energy. Harnessed in this way, geothermal energ...

Zero-Emissions Public Transportation: Demand and Supply Globally, transportation accounts for approximately one quarter of all CO2 emissions and grew by 3% in 2022 . “Buses and other heavy-duty vehicles are responsible for a disproportionate share of the carbon and air pollution emissions from the transportation sector.” As a result, many governments are focusing policies and financial assistance...

Carbon-Free Trucks The European Green Deal , passed in 2020, sets policy initiatives approved by the European Commission to boost efficient use of resources to green, clean, circular economy and stop climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Reducing emissions from the transportation sector is an important part of the EU’s 2050 zero-emission goal, as the transportation sector accounts for 2...

Lithium Batteries While the use of lithium to power electric vehicle batteries has been around for close to a decade, and while car manufacturers and scientists have been on the hunt for a more efficient battery, today most manufacturers rely on lithium batteries as their primary go-to for power. This leads to a higher demand for lithium mining. Traditional alkaline batteries cannot be repeatedly...

Editorial Note The interview for this episode was recorded in June 2021. The basic point of the episode remains relevant, but the mentioned campaign is no longer active. ClimateVoice’s current campaign is Escape the Chamber , which calls on companies to leave the US Chamber of Commerce and to speak up and lead on climate policy at local, state, and federal levels.    What is Corporate Lobbying for...

What is the “30 by 30” Movement? The 30 by 30 movement is a global initiative aimed at conserving 30 percent of the Earth’s land by the year 2030. In October 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed executive order N-82-20, which committed California to this movement. The state aims to protect 30 percent of its lands and coastal areas by 2030.  With an investment of $11 billion, California is...

What are the problems with current beer production methods? Beer is primarily composed of water—making up about 90 percent of its content. Annually, over 100 billion gallons of beer are produced and shipped, meaning nearly 90 billion gallons of water are being transported in the form of beer. This is significant because approximately 20 percent of a beer’s carbon footprint is attributed to transpo...

Educating Girls is a Climate Solution Today, an estimated 80 percent of people displaced by climate disasters are women and girls, and women living below the poverty line are as much as 14 times more likely to die in a climate disaster. An already more at-risk population, women and girls are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, particularly if they live in economically disadvant...

Background on Luxembourg Luxembourg is a tiny country in Western Europe wedged between Belgium, France, and Germany. It has one of the highest vehicle densities in the EU, with nine out of ten people relying on personal vehicles. The country is currently facing rapid population growth, stressing its mobility infrastructure and complicating efforts to meet emission goals in line with the European G...

Youth-Led Climate Litigation Worldwide, litigants are turning to the courts as a forum for fighting climate change, filing lawsuits against governments in an attempt to force climate action. Plaintiffs in these lawsuits are often children and young adults, who represent those most affected by government climate inaction. A notable early example of youth-led litigation related to climate change was...

What is plastic?  Plastic is a material derived primarily from carbon-based sources like natural gas, oil, and even plants. It is created by treating these organic materials with heat and catalysts to form various polymers .  Producing plastic is energy-intensive, often relying on the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, both for power and as a primary source. As a product of f...

The Carbon Cost of Aviation Transportation is a leading contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, with air travel playing a significant role. In the United States, the transportation sector accounted for 29 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in 2021. Commercial airplanes and large business jets contributed ten percent of U.S. transportation emissions, and three percent of the nation’s t...

What’s the state of air quality in Ghana? Over the last century, environmental pollution and air quality have been worsening in Africa. An estimated 28,000 deaths in Ghana and 780,000 deaths across the continent each year are associated with poor air quality. The World Health Organization found air pollution in 2020 to be the second highest risk factor for premature death in Ghana. Vehicle emissio...

What are Paleo Valleys?  Paleo Valleys were created at the end of the last ice age by melting glaciers that carved into the sediments deposited in the Central Valley. When the glaciers receded, high-velocity meltwater carried sediments and grain material into the valley. These sediments are extremely porous, and the permeability means they can absorb 60 times more water than surrounding clay. Beca...

What are motorcycle taxis?  Motorcycle taxis are indispensable in East Africa and other developing countries. In large cities  experiencing unplanned growth , agile moto-taxis can navigate congestion while transporting millions of people. In Rwanda, more than half of all vehicles on the road at any moment are motorcycle taxis. But gasoline-powered motorcycles are not cheap: fuel is expensive, main...

What is a Prescribed Burn? Prescribed burns “reduc[e] excessive amounts of brush, shrubs, and trees, encouraging the new growth of native vegetation, and maintaining the many plant and animal species whose habitats depend on periodic fire,” according to Smokey Bear . Prescribed burns are conducted by intentionally igniting a fire on a day with very little to no wind in the forecast, in an area wit...

What are solar windows?   Solar windows, also known as building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), are windows that generate electricity from sunlight.  They are typically made with thin, transparent layers of photovoltaic material that can capture and convert solar energy into electricity while still allowing light to pass through, so as to avoid sacrificing visibility .  Solar windows are an emerg...

Youth-Led Climate Litigation Worldwide, litigants are turning to the courts as a forum for fighting climate change, filing lawsuits against governments in an attempt to force climate action. Plaintiffs in these lawsuits are often children and young adults, who represent those most affected by government climate inaction. A notable early example of youth-led litigation related to climate change was...

What are Climate Change Disclosure Labels? Highlighting the link between a product’s consumption and its carbon footprint could potentially alter harmful consumer behavior that contributes to climate change. Similar to how warning labels on cigarettes changed the smoking habits of some users, placing climate change disclosure labels on gas pumps could introduce discomfort that serves as an effecti...

What is a cool surface? Cool surfaces are roofs, walls, or pavements that are generally light-colored and highly reflective. When sunlight hits a white surface, its rays bounce off the surface rather than being absorbed, and are reflected back into space. Darker surfaces tend to absorb sunlight, trapping heat. Cool surfaces release this heat back into the atmosphere and space.  What are the benefi...

Peninsula Clean Energy Peninsula Clean Energy is a community choice aggregation (CCA) founded in 2016 that serves about 310,000 customers in San Mateo County and the City of Los Banos. Peninsula Clean Energy has focused on increasing renewables since beginning service, setting higher targets for renewable energy procurement than those mandated by California under the Renewable Portfolio Standard (...