Light It Up!

Eureka!

The iconic symbol representing a good idea is getting a permanent upgrade.

Thomas Edison was the first to successfully patent a functional and marketable incandescent lightbulb in the 1800s and we’ve been relying on this technology for the last 150 years. The basic principle of incandescent light is that light is produced from heat. In this case, heat is passed through a very tiny filament in the vacuum created by the bulb until that tiny filament begins to glow, producing light. This is why a light bulb is warm to the touch, even after it’s been turned off. Without the glass surrounding the bulb, the filament, often made from tungsten, would oxidize in the open air and burn right up. Additionally, 90% of the energy used to light an incandescent bulb is emitted as heat, which, unless it is being used as a candle warmer or other heat-centric device, is quite a big waste. Even so, while alternatives like the fluorescent light bulb may have taken over the commercial scene, incandescent bulbs are still the least expensive option upfront for most residential settings.

That being said, LEDs are steadily rising in popularity as more people understand the advantages of their long-term value. LED light bulbs might be a little more expensive but they outlast incandescent bulbs lasting 50,000 to 100,000 hours. For comparison, an incandescent bulb typically lasts about 1,200 hours, if that. LED bulbs are wildly more efficient at producing light from electricity, taking much less energy to produce the same amount of light. They don’t use heat to produce light which saves a ton of energy but instead use electroluminescence.

Fig. 2 - Summary of Benefits

Electroluminescence is basically the production of light by a controlled flow of electrons, in this case, through the diode. Without getting too technical, the diode is a semi-conductive material designed to facilitate the production of photons and produce light from excited, moving electrons. This whole process means that a standard LED bulb can create the same amount of light without the loss of energy through heat emission and with a much smaller level of overall energy expenditure. This is good news for the United States’ plan to decrease total carbon emissions. In fact, the Biden administration estimates that changing over to LED lights would save consumers around $3 billion dollars collectively in just one year. It then comes as no surprise that incandescent light bulbs are officially being phased out of use. In theory, this will cut our carbon emissions by 222 million metric tons over the course of the next 30 years. That’s enough energy to power 43 million homes or 90 million cars for an entire year. 

One crazy thing about this change is that we had all the necessary information to make it half a decade ago, but we abandoned the plan before it could save us millions in dollars AND harmful emissions. Isn’t it great that we are now back on track for this simple move toward energy efficiency?

Resources:

https://www.lampsplus.com/ideas-and-advice/how-an-led-light-bulb-works/

A Note on Climate Justice

If you haven’t heard of climate justice, you may be wondering what justice has to do with climate change? We are all hurt by climate change and the slow death of our planet caused by our own mismanagement so what exactly is climate justice? The use of the word justice suggests that there is someone responsible for the wrong being done. There are actors that are doing wrong to another and there is a need for a balancing of the scales. This idea makes some uncomfortable because there is a suggestion of culpability and an opportunity for accountability. Let’s take a look. 

When we look at the impact of climate change and what areas of the world are suffering the most from the extreme conditions of global warming, we often see that some of the areas most impacted are contributing the least to emission. On a smaller, but no less important, scale, within the same countries there is a large disparity between the impact of climate disasters on those who are middle and upper class, and those with lower incomes or no incomes at all. For example, when hurricanes or tornadoes hit, those who can afford insured homes will bounce back faster than those who lack coverage or are moving from shelter to shelter. For this reason, climate justice speaks to a situation that goes beyond saving our world from burning up in the next decade or so. It speaks to the disparities in disaster resources, medical care, and more. It includes the question of, how do we protect those who are already the most vulnerable in our communities from environmental issues we’ve all contributed to. 

Some try to view climate change as an issue in isolation as they believe considering the larger picture may cloud the urgency of the current climate crisis. However, this does tend to suggest that the equally urgent situation of those who are currently without clean water, medical care, shelter and adequate food, does not deserve the same urgency. It ignores the fact that millions are currently dying right now often because those who are responsible for the highest levels of global warming emissions are also responsible for stripping their homelands of all their valuable resources, leaving the surrounding communities with nothing. 

Many would say that the interwoven nature of these issues requires an equally integrated solution as attempting to solve global warming in isolation will ultimately be less of a true solution, and more of a stop-gap measure. It’s been suggested that when a culture is built on squeezing the most out of the many while the few prosper while simultaneously never investing back into the foundation that made them great, you have an unsustainable cycle that will ultimately break down. Climate change then discusses exactly how we should tackle the problem of climate change from its core to the current crisis, including protecting the most vulnerable communities around the world. What do you think is the most necessary change to balance the scales between high emission countries or the wealthy and the most vulnerable countries and communities? Comment below!

Resources:

This is just how unfair climate change is

https://www.carbonbrief.org/experts-why-does-climate-justice-matter

Set to have 15 disaster a day by 2030 article

Pathways for the Future

Today we are featuring another very cool innovation that has actually been around for several years but it is getting a little more press right now! You are probably pretty familiar with the concept of renewable energy but let’s do a quick review. Renewable energy is any source of energy that is sustainable and doesn’t run out. For example, we don’t run out of sunlight and (for now) it is a bottomless resource that we can utilize. Other examples of renewable energy are wind energy, hydro energy, tidal energy, and geothermal energy. If you’ve ever driven across the US, you’ve probably come across wind farms. These farms harness air movement to generate clean energy. This energy is then used to supplement the grid, reducing the power obtained from fossil fuels.

      It’s a similar pattern with the other sources of clean energy, with an environmental constant providing energy simply through its existence and technological utilization. Alternatively, the type of energy currently being talked about is not from an environmental constant but something we, as human beings, create by living. A human-generated kinetic energy. Kinetic energy is  often thought of as the energy of movement. If you’ve ever seen one of those lines of wired balls where you lift and drop one on one side and when it swings down and hits the group, the ball on the other side swings up, you’ve seen the impact, no pun intended, of kinetic energy. Well, one company called Pavegen, has decided to utilize this type of energy to power the common amenities of common areas. Specifically, Pavegen has harnessed the kinetic energy produced by footsteps to power things like stadium phone chargers, street lights, and supplemental energy for shopping spaces. These triangular panels take the energy produced from being stepped on and transfer it into usable electricity.

Not only is this a very cool idea, but the utilization of these pads have been used to push for more general behavioral changes. For example, one shopping center wanted to push both the use of the Pavegen walkway and the use of their in store app. They incentivized the use of the walkway by connecting it to their store app and rewarding users with bonuses at retailers within the mall. Now, not only are shoppers incentivized to download the mall’s app but they were also rewarded for use of the Pavegen’s walkway. Little integrations like this one allow people to benefit from sustainable activities and ultimately assist in training overall better behaviors for our environment! A true win-win!

Water: Let's Stop and Think Before We Run Out!

As we recognize another annual World Water Day, let’s take a moment to highlight some of the truths of our current Water Crisis. We’ve talked about the disparity in the water supply, contrasting the availability of water in most places within the US with places where clean water is scarce. We know that without water, our life expectancy and quality of life drops dramatically. In addition to this current reality for billions of people globally, it is important to note that climate change is setting us all up to experience this lack first hand. Not only should we be working to see that those currently without get their needs met in the near future, but we need to realize that without immediate action we are all facing a dire water supply problem. Namely, the danger of running out. 

The earth is covered with a bit of water but most of it, over 96% of it in fact, is salt water.  Of the remaining 3-4%, 90% of THAT is frozen, stored up in the world’s glaciers and ice caps. The remainder, some small 0.3% of the earth’s total water, is our unevenly distributed usable resource. 

If the glaciers are melting, doesn’t that mean that we are freeing up more of that fresh water to be used? Well, temporarily, perhaps, but there are several major problems with that.  First, it doesn’t take much to understand that the melted water from the glaciers will raise the world's water level, endangering communities that live along the coasts as they flood and are eventually eroded away. Millions of people live along the coast and this will not only destroy their homes, but displace them to other places, causing a sort of migration and a period of strain as resources will need to be redistributed accordingly around the world. Additionally, a lot of our agricultural heavy hitters like California will lose considerable acreage for food production. The rising water levels will reshape the world’s coastlines and the acreage lost will be significant. 

The domino effect of this loss of land is far reaching but there is another more direct result that affects many more than those living along the coast. Glaciers, besides being made of water, serve as a sort of fridge for the water that precipitates as snow during the colder months. During the summer, that snow melts and flows through most of the world’s major rivers and supplies a large portion of seasonal fresh water. If not for this phenomenon, the only water supplied to us would be that from precipitation. Also, due to climate change, we’ve seen a significant uptick in droughts so this issue is eating away at the usable water supply from both ends. If the glaciers melt away completely, something scientists say will happen by 2100 if we continue in our current trend, we will be wholly reliant on precipitation which is also experiencing detrimental changes. Dry weeks, months or even years could be in our future without the benefit of glacial runoff. Sometimes, in the US, it’s easier to forget that clean water is not unlimited. We go to the sink and clear water we could drink (though with PFAS contamination it wouldn't be advisable) comes out. A lot of us can shower everyday if we want and using clean water for yards and plants doesn’t even phase us. This issue though is one that will have serious consequences within our lifetime and may see our children without water for their more basic needs. We need to start realizing that water is a finite resource and without changing our usage practices, we will, essentially, run out!