Fires burning across the Amazon rainforest have renewed the debate about solutions to climate change. Bill Gates is backing the first high-altitude experiment of one radical approach called solar geoengineering. It’s meant to mimic the effects of a giant volcanic eruption. Thousands of planes would fly at high altitudes, spraying millions of tons of particles around the planet to create a massive chemical cloud that would cool the surface.
“Modeling studies have found that it could reduce the intensity of heat waves, for instance, apparently it could reduce the rate of sea level rise. It could reduce the intensity of tropical storms,” said Andy Parker, project director at the Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative.
The technology is not far from being ready and it’s affordable, but it could cause massive changes in regional weather patterns and eradicate blue sky.
“These consequences might be horrific. They might involve things like mass famine, mass flooding, drought of kinds that will affect very large populations,” said Stephen Gardiner, author of “A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change.”
For years, NASA has used the vantage point of space, combined with airborne and ground-based field campaigns, to decipher the impact of fires—from first spark to final puff of smoldering smoke— and help other agencies protect life and property.
But the effects of fires linger long after they’re extinguished: They can upend ecosystems, influence climate and disrupt communities. While NASA keeps an eye on today’s fires, it also tackles the big-picture questions that help fire managers plan for the future.
This summer, NASA is embarking on several field campaigns across the world to investigate longstanding questions surrounding fire and smoke. Aircraft will fly through smoke and clouds to improve air quality, weather and climate forecasting, and investigate fire-burned forests to capture ecosystem changes that have global impact.
Music: Motion Blur by Sam Dodson, End of the Quarter by Austin Jordan Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/LK Ward
Mobility is one of the world’s biggest drivers of energy consumption. The switch to renewable energies will affect people’s everyday lives. How will we get from A to B when fossil fuel reserves run out in the future? How will we fly around the globe without oil and gas?
Mobility is one of the world’s biggest drivers of energy consumption. The transportation of people and goods by road, rail and air accounts for around 34 percent of total energy consumption. The electrification of mobility has already begun and, as the example of Norway shows, it could be one solution – but not for trucks and industrial vehicles. Is fuel cell technology a viable alternative here? Japan firmly believes it is.
Could electrification also revolutionize air transport? Siemens and Airbus want to make aviation history here and are working on a regional aircraft with a hybrid electric drive – but it won’t work for long-haul flights. But scientists from ETH Zurich and the German Aerospace Center are working on a spectacular solution to the long-haul problem: synthetic kerosene from sunlight.
An alternative to heavy oil is also being sought for shipping. Neither electric propulsion nor fuel cells will work for gigantic cruise liners and above all for the container ships that account for a large part of world trade. Methanol, which can be produced sustainably, could be the answer and a large prototype vessel is currently undergoing trials.
In addition to mobility, digitalization is one of the great power guzzlers of the 21st Century. Streaming services, cloud computing and the Internet of Things are all increasing our energy requirements. Experts anticipate consumption will increase by around 40% over the next 12 years. Microsoft’s server farms alone will consume as much electricity as a medium-sized European country. Where’s that power going to come from? We have to cut back our consumption.
This will also apply to our future lives. The world’s first self-sufficient apartment building is located in Switzerland and shows how you can become energy independent. The future will be in networked houses that exchange electricity among themselves.
