In Between Times 9-22-2023
The politics of carbon pipelines, Farming carbon, Utopian enviro architecture, Loving soil
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The complicated politics of carbon capture pipelines
Enviros are for less carbon right? Almost without exception the answer is “yes”.
So then enviros should be for pulling carbon from the atmosphere via carbon sequestration also, right?
Well, sometimes. At best, sometimes. In fact, in Iowa many enviros are partnering with “conservatives” to oppose carbon capture pipelines.
The anti-carbon sequestration wing of the environmental movement argues that carbon sequestration is a get out of jail card for the oil companies, which will use sequestration to reduce their carbon footprints while continuing to burn fossil fuels.
We in this space have argued that this is an unwise stance. If there is a technology that reduces carbon in the atmosphere, that literally pulls legacy carbon and sequesters it in the ground, assuming it is cost effective, why wouldn’t we do it? The truth is the world needs energy and fossil fuels (barring massive developments on the fusion front for instance) are going to be part of the energy mix in the years and decades ahead. So why not counter their negative impact while transitioning to a less carbon-intensive energy situation?
Well, old habits are hard to break, and many on the green side of the political equation want to break oil and gas. It is, some would argue almost a religious tenet. This is the reason in our estimation for at least some of the enviro skepticism around carbon sequestration technology.
If carbon emissions are indeed the existential risk that many believe they are how, we ask, can some of these same people be anti taking carbon out of the atmosphere?
Similar issues surround nuclear, which a large contingent of enviros continue to oppose despite the relative safety of the technology (the US Navy has certainly shown this, many reactors power many ships, and have for decades without incident), and the fact that nuclear in carbon free.
But nuclear is another issue. Back to pipelines.
Conservatives in Iowa have a stronger leg to stand on when it comes to opposition to carbon pipelines, philosophically and rhetorically speaking. When we say “conservatives” here we are talking about the main players in the attached article and it is worth noting that there is significant variation within conservative circles on this specific area.
The conservatives who are opposed to the Iowa carbon pipelines are because the pipelines, one, are being paid for with taxpayer money. Two, this money will largely go to large connected companies. Three, the government wants to use eminent domain to force landowners to allow these pipelines to cross their land. Four, because these carbon sequestration projects have a strong patina of “globalism-ness”.
These are four compelling reasons for opposition from the conservative side. Coupled with the green opposition the carbon capture pipelines are going to have a tough go in the land of corn and caucuses.
(From EnergyWire)
Big pipeline and carbon sequestration projects in the Midwest, which would involve thousands of miles of pipelines to ship carbon dioxide to disposal sites, have support from some well-known GOP figures.
But the Republican Party’s populist wing is attacking the use of eminent domain to secure land for pipelines. They’re also going after subsidized efforts to reduce emissions as boondoggles concocted by “globalists” and environmentalists — even as green groups are fighting the projects, too.
Click here for the article.
As federal money flows to carbon capture and storage, Texas bets on an undersea bonanza
Meanwhile in the Lone Star State, specifically off its coast, things are going a little better for the carbon capture crowd.
(From The Texas Tribune)
Angling for a share of $12 billion in federal funding for such projects under the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, companies are competing to build carbon capture plants next to onshore oil wells, gas wells and other polluting facilities along the coast. At the same time, they are applying for offshore leases that will allow them to store that heat-trapping carbon dioxide deep beneath the seafloor.
Click here for the article.
Carbon farming in Oregon
Much of Oregon, in fact most of Oregon, doesn’t look like what many of us think of when we think of Oregon. It’s not all lush mountains and rainy weather. Much of the state is high desert or close to high desert.
It turns out that deserts and dry lands generally are excellent places to sequester carbon naturally.
(From OPB.org)
In 2020, Carver hired a team of scientists to study the results of all these changes. Several years of data show that the combination of restoring grasslands, changing grazing patterns and producing crops without tilling didn’t just improve the soil health on the ranch. It also pulled significantly more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and into the ground.
The data from 21 sampling sites on 32,000 acres of land show the Imperial Stock Ranch practices are adding 1.86 tons of carbon per acre to the soil every year, offsetting all of the greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations and banking an additional 60,000 tons of carbon in the soil.
This appears to be one of those common sense solutions we look for at In Between Times.
Click here for the article.
Storing carbon in The Black Sea
In a recent edition of IBT we discussed the discovery of two new carbon “lungs” on Earth, the kelp forests off of the coasts of Africa and Australia respectively. They rival the Amazon for the amount of carbon captured from the atmosphere. Kelp grows very fast and as such pulls carbon from the atmosphere more quickly than trees etc.
And kelp grows practically everywhere there is cold seawater and sunlight.
But there may be other ways the ocean can help us solve the carbon equation.
(From CityLife)
Researchers at Israel-based climate change solutions company Rewind have developed an innovative method of carbon storage that utilizes the Black Sea as a natural sink. The process involves taking plants and other biomass with high concentrations of carbon and sinking them to the bottom of the sea. This prevents the carbon from being released back into the atmosphere, effectively storing it for thousands of years…
…The Black Sea was chosen as the ideal location for carbon storage due to its geological shape, which prevents oxygen from reaching the deeper layers where the carbon-rich biomass is sunk. Lack of oxygen creates an environment that preserves the plants and prevents them from decomposing. Additionally, the Black Sea region produces a significant amount of residual biomass from agriculture and wood products, making it a suitable location for this process.
Click here for the article.
Poland issues environmental permit for first nuclear power plant
Nuclear technology is definitely seeing a renaissance, especially in Europe. Sweden recently announced that it is building multiple new nuclear plants in the effort to reduce carbon emissions. Now Poland has announced its own project.
It is worth noting that Chernobyl is just across the Polish border.
(From Reuters)
Poland has issued an environmental permit for the country's first nuclear power plant, state run news agency PAP reported on Friday, citing Climate Minister Anna Moskwa.
According to Poland's General Directorate for Environmental Protection (GDOS), the building and operation of the plant will not adversely affect the environment, and its impact will be monitored, PAP reported.
Warsaw plans to build its first nuclear power plant on the Baltic coast by 2033. Construction is set to begin in 2026.
Click here for the article.
MoMA's “Emerging Ecologies” exhibition explores the ecolution of environmental architecture
Your editor has long been a fan of both The Museum of Modern Art and of what is sometimes called “environmental utopian” art.
Well I’m (and you’re) in luck as MOMA has just announced an exhibition that will focus on this type of art. Specifically it will highlight “environmental architecture" design.
One example is this piece by Don Davis that I’ve always loved. It’s the inside of a giant, gravity creating, space “ring”.
(From ArchDaily)
The Museum of Modern Art New York has announced the opening of an exhibition focused on the first realized and unrealized projects that address ecological and environmental concerns. Featuring works by architects who practiced mainly in the United States from the 1930s through the 1990s, the exhibition titled “Emerging Ecologies:
Architecture and the Rise of Environmentalism” is on view from September 17, 2023, through January 20, 2024. The over 150 works showcased reveal the rise of the environmental movement through the lens of architectural practice and thought.
Click here for the article.
Ground rules for healthy soil
The cute headline is not ours, but since it is cute we kept it.
In another life I didn’t think much about soil. Really if I ever thought about the stuff under my feet I just thought of it as dirt, more or less the same wherever I was and generally inert. To the extent I thought of dirt ever, I knew that I shouldn’t get it on my new sneakers or my mom would kill me. I knew not to get it under my nails because my mom made it clear then that microbes might kill me. But aside from new shoe time and washing up for dinner, soil was not a concern.
As you might have guessed I didn’t grow up on a farm.
But a farmer who I met later in life schooled me on soil.
Soil, he said is key to good, high quality food. This was as true for grapes, as it was for wheat, asparagus, or steak. Where the soil is healthy, everything else tends to be healthy. Where the soil is polluted, or depleted, or both, things tend to be unhealthy. Soil was alive he said.
With time and lots of gardening I have come to understand what he meant.
Soil is fundamental to good environmental health, mental health (some would argue), and just plain old health.
(From JSTOR)
As characterized by the soil scientists, soil is far from being “an inert subsurface” and is teeming with life that is “crucial for the flourishing of aboveground life.” The existence of soil and the critters in it are mutually dependent and constitutive of one another: “living organisms […] not only inhabit the soil but also eat, digest, make, and transform it.” Consequently, soil is “nearly” alive “in the sense that it encompasses a field of relations within which forms”—bacteria, worms, eventually crops or plants—“arise and are held in place.”
The elements that constitute the part of soil commonly considered to be living—bacteria, fungi, worms—are documented to be susceptible to the rapidly changing climate. Thus, posit Granjou, Salazar, and the soil scientists, we can and ought to think of soil as responsive, too. One could even describe the soil as “exhibit[ing] very different behaviors” in different or changing environments.
Click here for the article.
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