Environmental Research Letters

The meat and dairy industry is not 'climate neutral', despite some eye-catching claims

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, January 2, 2024

They then pour a little less gas and want credit for doing so, despite still feeding the fire.

Key Points:

They then pour a little less gas and want credit for doing so, despite still feeding the fire.
Yet that is more or less what some influential supporters of the livestock industry have done.
For example, one study claims that the US dairy industry could reach climate neutrality by 2050 through reducing its annual methane emissions by just 1%-1.5%.
That methane is a product of the digestion processes in cattle, sheep, and other ruminants, emitted when they belch.

In a paper now published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, my co-author Donal Murphy-Bokern and I argue that these claims represent a distorted understanding of the science.
There’s a risk that they could be used for greenwashing and undermining confidence in this area of climate science.

Changing definitions and climate metrics

That’s why in 2018 some academics introduced a new metric called GWP* to better represent the warming impact over time.
This risks undermining climate science by confusing businesses, consumers and policy makers.
These recent climate neutral claims distract us from the urgent challenge of reducing emissions of all greenhouse gases from all sectors, including agriculture.
He told The Conversation: “Reaching climate neutrality is a good goal to have, but it doesn’t have to be the last goal.

Caspar Donnison does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Visualized sea level projections reveal risks for U.N. Climate Change Conference host cities as temperatures rise

Retrieved on:

Thursday, November 30, 2023

Carbon, Environmental Research Letters, Climate change, Climate, City, Conference, Survival, Cop, COP, Government, Climate Central

PRINCETON, N.J., Nov. 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- New visualizations released today by Climate Central compare projected sea levels at iconic sites, based on different global warming scenarios. Localized analyses found that well-known areas of Dubai and other United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) host cities, which are projected to remain above sea level if warming is halted at 1.5 Celsius degrees over pre-industrial temperatures, would fall below the high tide line if warming reaches 3.0 degrees.

Key Points:

COP 18 host Doha, Qatar (2012) and COP 20 host Lima, Peru (2014) show similar dependencies in Climate Central's visualized analyses, with local landmarks remaining above sea level if global warming is limited, but falling below the high tide line if temperatures rise above set thresholds.
Sites in Casablanca, Morocco and Jakarta, Indonesia – countries that have hosted past COPs – also show diverging futures based on global temperatures.
Analyses beneath Picturing Our Future visualizations are based on peer-reviewed sea level rise projections and localized land heights from Climate Central's digital elevation model, CoastalDEM .
The methodology is detailed in the peer-reviewed paper, "Unprecedented Threats to Cities from Multi-century Sea Level Rise," published in 2021 in Environmental Research Letters .

Visualized sea level projections reveal risks for U.N. Climate Change Conference host cities as temperatures rise

Retrieved on:

Thursday, November 30, 2023

Carbon, Environmental Research Letters, Climate change, Climate, City, Conference, Survival, Cop, COP, Government, Climate Central

PRINCETON, N.J., Nov. 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- New visualizations released today by Climate Central compare projected sea levels at iconic sites, based on different global warming scenarios. Localized analyses found that well-known areas of Dubai and other United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) host cities, which are projected to remain above sea level if warming is halted at 1.5 Celsius degrees over pre-industrial temperatures, would fall below the high tide line if warming reaches 3.0 degrees.

Key Points:

COP 18 host Doha, Qatar (2012) and COP 20 host Lima, Peru (2014) show similar dependencies in Climate Central's visualized analyses, with local landmarks remaining above sea level if global warming is limited, but falling below the high tide line if temperatures rise above set thresholds.
Sites in Casablanca, Morocco and Jakarta, Indonesia – countries that have hosted past COPs – also show diverging futures based on global temperatures.
Analyses beneath Picturing Our Future visualizations are based on peer-reviewed sea level rise projections and localized land heights from Climate Central's digital elevation model, CoastalDEM .
The methodology is detailed in the peer-reviewed paper, "Unprecedented Threats to Cities from Multi-century Sea Level Rise," published in 2021 in Environmental Research Letters .

RMI analysis proves methane leakage brings natural gas climate risk on par with coal

Retrieved on:

Friday, July 14, 2023

RMI, Duke University, RMI (energy organization), Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, International, Public affairs, Carbon, Environmental Research Letters, Harvard University, Coal, Non-governmental organization, NASA, Oxford University Press, Brown University, CO2, Methane, Climate, Successors of Standard Oil, Book

BOULDER, Colo., July 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A new analysis—to be published in the scientific journal Environmental Research Letters on Wednesday, July 19—concludes that a methane leakage rate as low as 0.2 percent brings a gas system's climate risk on par with coal given methane's climate warming potency (82.5x higher than CO2 over a 20-year timeframe). Satellite data shows that many US gas systems far exceed that 0.2 percent threshold of leakage.Essentially, any amount of methane leakage contributes to the worst effects of climate change.

Key Points:

BOULDER, Colo., July 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A new analysis—to be published in the scientific journal Environmental Research Letters on Wednesday, July 19—concludes that a methane leakage rate as low as 0.2 percent brings a gas system's climate risk on par with coal given methane's climate warming potency (82.5x higher than CO2 over a 20-year timeframe).
Satellite data shows that many US gas systems far exceed that 0.2 percent threshold of leakage.
"This analysis compares gas and coal at varying methane leakage rates.
We find that very small methane leakage rates from gas systems rival coal's greenhouse gas emissions," said Debbie Gordon, senior principal of RMI's Climate Intelligence Program and co-author of the analysis with scientists from NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, Harvard and Duke University.

Looking for Answers in a Warming World

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Crossing this seemingly minor threshold could mean a world without coral reefs, a meter in sea-level rise, and frequent ice-less summers in the Arctic.

Key Points:

Crossing this seemingly minor threshold could mean a world without coral reefs, a meter in sea-level rise, and frequent ice-less summers in the Arctic.
That’s the rationale for climate intervention research.”
Mitchell is part of a team of DRI researchers examining the potential for climate intervention strategies to reduce global warming impacts.
Unlike other clouds, they have an overall warming effect on the climate, trapping thermal radiation near the surface that outweighs the solar radiation they reflect.
Cities across the world experience enhanced warming because of the way manmade surfaces, like asphalt, pavement, and buildings, absorb and radiate heat.