Natural gas vs. methane: How the name influences our view of this fossil fuel

• Pure gasoline vs. methane: How the title influences our view of this fossil gas
• What’s the ‘Greta Thunberg impact’?
• Doomsday Clock hovers near midnight, as specialists warn of ‘crossroads’ on local weather change

Pure gasoline vs. methane: How the title influences our view of this fossil gas

Pure gasoline has been touted as an power supply with decrease emissions in comparison with coal and different fossil fuels, however its environmentally pleasant picture might need extra to do with its title than the rest.

Whereas the time period “pure gasoline” goes again to the Industrial Revolution, a latest survey exhibits it has a measurable impact on how customers understand this fossil gas immediately.

Pure gasoline is “a flammable gasoline occurring naturally underground, consisting mainly of methane,” in accordance with the Oxford English Dictionary.

It is a main power supply in Canada, offering near half of the power utilized in Canadian houses and about one-third of all power used within the nation, in accordance with Statistics Canada.

It is also more and more a topic of debate as a strategy to scale back family emissions, with the UK proposing a ban on gasoline boilers in new houses, given the lower-carbon choices now accessible.

Whereas people have identified a few flammable gasoline within the floor for hundreds of years, the primary identified use of the time period “pure gasoline” did not come till 1825, stated Trish Stewart, a science editor on the OED.

It was linked to the arrival on the time of one other power innovation: manufactured gasoline, which was made by combusting coal, oil and different merchandise. By the 1820s, manufactured gasoline was being made in gasworks close to some city centres, together with London and Baltimore, Md., lighting metropolis streets with gasoline lamps.

That is additionally when a village on the shores of Lake Erie, Fredonia, N.Y., was first lit with what an 1828 article referred to as “pure gasoline lights” from “burning springs” close by.

Two rising applied sciences meant two completely different phrases, stated Stewart. “So there’s this distinction between gasoline that you need to … make out of coal and this gasoline that comes straight from the bottom.”

However “pure” has greater than a dozen shades of that means past “not manufactured,” stretching again to center English, stated Stewart. Centuries earlier than any eco-branding, many of those definitions already carried a optimistic sense of one thing innate, proper or “free from affectation.”  

“There’s that concept that what’s pure is by some means superior to maybe what’s made by people,” she stated.

A latest research by the Yale Program on Local weather Communications exhibits how that notion performs out immediately. They surveyed practically 2,000 American adults on what they felt and related to 4 phrases: “pure gasoline,” “pure methane gasoline,” “methane” and “methane gasoline.”

Although pure gasoline is 70 to 90 per cent methane, stated Karine Lacroix, a Canadian researcher and postdoctoral affiliate with this system, the responses had been starkly completely different.

Total, the survey discovered associations with pure gasoline had been optimistic, and linked to cooking, heating and notions of fresh, eco-friendly power. Not so for methane.

“The primary reply was cows, and cow farts,” stated Lacroix. “That affiliation with cows, it went even additional, as a result of fairly just a few individuals talked about international warming after they heard about methane gasoline.”

Cow farts and burps do launch methane, a potent greenhouse gasoline. However fossil fuels, together with pure gasoline, are answerable for practically as a lot if no more of the methane within the ambiance in comparison with agriculture, in accordance with estimates from the Worldwide Vitality Company and NASA.

Whereas survey respondents noticed the hyperlink between the time period methane and greenhouse gasoline emissions, it was largely lacking for pure gasoline, stated Lacroix.

“If we might right that misperception, maybe individuals would suppose twice about their power selections,” she stated.

Burning pure gasoline produces decrease emissions than different fossil fuels, which is why the Canadian Affiliation of Petroleum Producers makes a case that it has a local weather benefit, particularly in comparison with coal-fired energy — as does a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Local weather Change.

However there’s uncertainty to that benefit while you think about methane leaks throughout manufacturing. Quite a few research have modelled how burning extra pure gasoline will make it more durable to fulfill local weather targets.

“This can be a very divisive subject,” stated Michael Ross, a political scientist at UCLA who works on local weather change and pure assets.

“I feel power analysts had been rightly involved that our dependence on coal would get replaced by a dependence on pure gasoline, which is just a little bit higher, however not practically sufficient of an enchancment to actually defend us from catastrophic local weather change.”

— Lisa Johnson

Reader suggestions

Olivia Coombe, a brand new subscriber to the publication, had this to say:

“I seen you are utilizing the ‘local weather change’ time period for our present International Warming Extinction Occasion. I perceive the local weather change time period was coined by the fossil gas business in an try to make what’s taking place appear extra like a part of the pure cycle of climatic shifts, implying adjustments that may very well be each good and dangerous, relying on area. I consider this leads some individuals/policymakers to incorrectly assume that international warming might result in optimistic impacts for Canada (i.e. extra accommodating temperate climate in mid and northern latitudes). When, in actuality, our planet is at an important tipping level and if we do not cease/reverse this course of instantly, we’re more likely to desertify our planet, inflicting it to lose the flexibility to maintain complicated considerable life….

“So quite than ‘local weather change,’ I really feel like we needs to be utilizing phrases like ‘the Local weather Emergency’ and ‘The Nice Extinction’ to convey to people the seriousness of the risk forward of us. Only a thought!”

Previous problems with What on Earth? are proper right here.

There’s additionally a radio present! We’re within the thick of winter, and protecting cozy at dwelling usually comes with an enormous carbon footprint. This week, be part of What on Earth host Laura Lynch as she appears to be like on the function of dwelling heating on emissions and what options can be found to people and communities. Take heed to What on Earth on CBC Radio One on Sunday at 12:30 p.m., 1 p.m. in Newfoundland, or any time on podcast or CBC Pay attention.

The Large Image: The Greta Thunberg impact

Again in August 2018, a Swedish teenager involved about the way forward for our planet started a solitary protest by skipping lessons with a purpose to criticize authorities inaction on local weather change. She additionally stated she would hand over air journey to assist scale back carbon emissions. By means of her idiosyncratic activism, Greta Thunberg turned a world drive within the local weather motion. In 2019, she impressed tens of millions of youth internationally to take to the streets for local weather strikes, and was consequently named Time’s Particular person of the 12 months. However Thunberg’s advocacy has led to extra than simply accolades — it has really had a demonstrable impact on individuals’s willingness to take motion themselves. A brand new research explored the “Greta Thunberg impact” within the U.S. and located that folks with higher familiarity with the local weather striker “have increased intentions of taking collective actions to cut back international warming.” It is proof that on the environmental entrance, one particular person’s clear (and chronic) advocacy — quite than their private habits — has the facility to vary different individuals’s behaviour.

Sizzling and bothered: Provocative concepts from across the internet

• A Toronto startup referred to as ALT TEX needs to show your meals waste into sustainable clothes. The corporate lately gained a $10,000 prize in a pitch competitors for its thought to chemically regenerate meals waste right into a bioplastic used to create biodegradable, polyester-like fibres. ALT TEXT says that only one shirt manufactured from its carbon-neutral fibre might save 9 kilograms of carbon emissions.

• U.S. President Joe Biden has introduced that he’ll exchange the practically 650,000 autos within the federal authorities’s vehicle fleet with electrical ones. Biden did not present a timeline for this transition, however emphasised that the autos might be manufactured within the U.S.

• Researchers have recognized greater than 100 deep-sea coral reefs, a few of which dwell greater than two kilometres beneath the ocean’s floor and might solely be visited by particular submarines. These reefs, described by the researchers as “rainforests of the seas,” are among the many most susceptible on Earth. That is as a result of they lie in worldwide waters the place no single nation has jurisdiction over them, and the place they are often topic to backside fishing and trawling.

Doomsday Clock hovers near midnight, as specialists warn of ‘crossroads’ on local weather change

This week, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists introduced that the 2021 Doomsday Clock stays unchanged from its 2020 spot, at 100 seconds to midnight. However specialists warn the world is at a turning level.

“The Doomsday Clock continues to hover dangerously, reminding us about how a lot work is required to push the arms away from midnight,” stated Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at Wednesday’s announcement.

The clock, launched in 1947, is a symbolic illustration of how shut humanity is to destroying civilization. It’s maintained by a bunch of specialists with the bulletin, a non-profit group monitoring artifical threats. 

Sometimes, the group strikes the arms ahead or again annually, relying on how susceptible the world is. Midnight represents a disaster. Final 12 months, the clock was set to 100 seconds to midnight, the closest to midnight it has ever been.

Specialists stated at Wednesday’s announcement that the coronavirus pandemic is an instance of how governments and organizations are usually not prepared for international emergencies.

“We acknowledge that humanity continues to endure because the COVID-19 pandemic spreads world wide. The pandemic will recede ultimately,” stated Bronson.   “Nonetheless, the pandemic serves as a historic wake-up name.” 

She stated it is a vivid illustration that nationwide governments and worldwide organizations are usually not ready to handle complicated and harmful challenges, together with nuclear weapons and local weather change, which pose existential threats to humanity. 

The pandemic additionally sparked what the World Well being Group calls an “infodemic,” an overabundance of data that “consists of deliberate makes an attempt to disseminate mistaken info to undermine the general public well being response and advance different agendas of teams or people.” 

A press release printed by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on Wednesday stated, “The COVID-19 pandemic and its accompanying infodemic have turn out to be intertwined with essential uncertainties concerning science, know-how and disaster communications.”

The assertion additionally famous the results of local weather change world wide in 2020, together with huge wildfires in North America and Australia and rising sea ranges and melting sea ice and glaciers. 

The group of specialists who’re a part of the non-profit group emphasised of their assertion that 2020 additionally noticed accelerating nuclear packages in a number of international locations, which “moved the world into much less secure and manageable territory.”

In making their determination, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists additionally acknowledged that there have been some optimistic developments.

Considered one of them was the election of U.S. President Joe Biden, who acknowledges local weather change is a world risk and has already dedicated to having the U.S. rejoin the Paris settlement on local weather change.

These strikes, amongst others, led the bulletin to maintain the arms of the Doomsday Clock at 100 seconds to midnight, as they consider there hasn’t but been sufficient progress to justify transferring the clock additional away from midnight. 

“We’re at a really harmful crossroads,” stated Susan Solomon, science and safety board member with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Lee and Geraldine Martin professor of environmental research at the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise.

“It is the alternatives which can be nearly to come back that may decide our path.”

— Stephanie Dubois

Keep in contact!

Are there points you would like us to cowl? Questions you need answered? Do you simply need to share a sort phrase? We would love to listen to from you. Electronic mail us at whatonearth@cbc.ca.

Join right here to get What on Earth? in your inbox each Thursday.

Editor: Andre Mayer | Emblem design: Sködt McNalty