Tuesday, April 23

Tag: carbon

What Gives Billionaires Like Musk And Abramovich Such A Massive Carbon Footprint
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MONEY

What Gives Billionaires Like Musk And Abramovich Such A Massive Carbon Footprint

Tesla’s Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have been vying for the world’s richest person ranking all year after the former’s wealth soared a staggering US$160 billion in 2020, putting him briefly in the top spot. Musk isn’t alone in seeing a significant increase in wealth during a year of pandemic, recession and death. Altogether, the world’s billionaires saw their wealth surge over $1.9 trillion in 2020, according to Forbes. Those are astronomical numbers, and it’s hard to get one’s head around them without some context. As anthropologists who study energy and consumer culture, we wanted to examine how all that wealth translated into consumption and the resulting carbon footprint. Walking in a billionaire’s shoes We found that billionaires have carbon footprints that can be thousands of...
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Here’s Why The Oil Industry’s Support Of A Carbon Tax Could Be Good For Producers And The Public Alike
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BUSINESS

Here’s Why The Oil Industry’s Support Of A Carbon Tax Could Be Good For Producers And The Public Alike

The oil industry’s lobbying arm, the American Petroleum Institute, suggested in a new draft statement that it might support Congress putting a price on carbon emissions to combat climate change, even though oil and gas are major sources of those greenhouse gas emissions. An industry calling for a tax on the use of its products sounds as bizarre as “man bites dog.” Yet, there’s a reason for the oil industry to consider that shift. With the election of President Joe Biden and rising public concern about climate change, Washington seems increasingly likely to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The industry and many economists and regulatory experts, ourselves included, believe it would be better for the oil industry – and for consumers – if that action were taxation rather than regulat...
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Cut Your Kitchen’s Carbon Footprint – Magnetic Induction Cooking
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TECHNOLOGY, VIDEO REELS

Cut Your Kitchen’s Carbon Footprint – Magnetic Induction Cooking

To curb climate change, many experts have called for a massive shift from fossil fuels to electricity. The goal is to electrify processes like heating homes and powering cars, and then generate the increased electrical power needs using low- or zero-carbon sources like wind, solar and hydropower. More than 30 cities in California, including Berkeley and San Francisco, have moved in this direction by banning natural gas service in most new buildings. Currently energy use in buildings generates over 40% of San Francisco’s greenhouse gas emissions. There are straightforward electric options for heating buildings and hot water and drying clothes, but going electric could be more controversial in the kitchen. Traditional electric stoves are notoriously slow to heat up and cool down. They also...
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Layers Of Peatlands Trap Huge Amounts Of Carbon Helping To Cool The Climate, But That Could End With Warming And Development
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ENVIRONMENT, VIDEO REELS

Layers Of Peatlands Trap Huge Amounts Of Carbon Helping To Cool The Climate, But That Could End With Warming And Development

Peatlands are a type of wetland where dead plant material doesn’t fully decompose because it’s too soggy. In these ecosystems, peat builds up as spongy dark soil that’s sometimes referred to as sod or turf. Over thousands of years, yards-thick layers of peat accumulate and trap huge amounts of carbon, helping to cool the climate on a global scale. More valuable than it looks. David Stanley/Flickr, CC BY But that might not be true for much longer. Warming temperatures and human actions, such as draining bogs and converting them for agriculture, threaten to turn the world’s peatlands from carbon reservoirs to carbon sources. In a newly published study, our multidisciplinary team of 70 scientists from around the world analyzed existing research and surveyed 44 leading experts to identify fa...
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What We Could Do With a $5 Carbon Charge on Your Flight
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BUSINESS

What We Could Do With a $5 Carbon Charge on Your Flight

Like it or not, the world will be flying more in the decades ahead—and flights are for many in the developed world the largest part of an individual’s (and often a business’s) carbon footprint. The aviation sector can do a lot to cut carbon emissions and is keen to do so, not least on grounds of cost reduction, using more efficient aircraft, and looking at alternative fuels. All this is helpful, but unfortunately not enough. If aviation is going to contribute to meeting global carbon reduction goals, there is also going to be a need for offsets. An offset is basically a way for a polluting sector (like aviation) to pay for action in another sector, so that a benefit equivalent to the damage being caused is created. It is a fraught and controversial area, but one that will be necessary...
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