Will consumers switch to green practices to lessen climate change?
Data shows the popularity of alternative energy sources worldwide. Wind energy provides around 10 per cent of Denmark’s total energy needs. These sources of energy production emit no greenhouse gases
Published: 02:12 PM,Dec 22,2022 | EDITED : 06:12 PM,Dec 22,2022
Alternative energy and go-green activists continue to blare messages on safe practices globally, but are consumers complying?
Worldwide consumers contribute around 60 per cent of all direct and indirect emissions. Their combined impact on the environment varies according to income levels. Studies show at least a 10-fold difference in the carbon footprint between low-and-high-income households.
Let us assume most consumers from countries with large populations comply. Will their green practices like carpooling, shunning plastics, and reducing meat consumption, among many other such daily habits, help in reducing climate change?
Yes, consumers could do their bit to help lessen climate change. They could switch to using alternative energy such as solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro energy. Using carpools or public transport could make a big difference.
Some suggest consumers could do home energy audits. Utilities in many countries offer this service free. Importantly, consumers should practice the tips their utility recommends.
Installing a programmable thermostat or sealing and insulating heating and cooling ducts, can each reduce a typical family's carbon dioxide emissions around five per cent. Replacing single-pane windows with dual-pane windows and installing insulated doors significantly reduces heat loss from homes.
While consumers could help lessen greenhouse gas emissions, industries and power plants that generate electricity and heat by burning fossil fuels remain major contributors.
Energy (electricity, heat, and transport) leads with 73.2pc share, followed by direct industrial work 5.2pc, agriculture, forestry, and land use 18.4pc and waste 3.2pc.
Coal-fired plants produce around 22 per cent or 898 billion kWh in the United States. Power plants remain the single largest source of heat-trapping gas.
Alternative energy use gives hope. Data shows the popularity of these energy sources worldwide. Wind energy provides around 10 per cent of Denmark’s total energy needs. These sources of energy production emit no greenhouse gases.
Besides well-known contributors of greenhouse gases, previously not studied products like biodegradable medical gowns have now entered the pollutant’s list.
The use of disposable medical gowns, conventional and biodegradable, has surged since the Covid-19 pandemic. Landfills now brim with them.
Biodegradable gowns decay faster than usual gowns. Experts believed biogowns offer a greener choice by less space use and chronic emissions in landfills. They were wrong.
New research published in December 20 by Elsevier in the Journal of Cleaner Production shows these medical gowns, designed to be greener than the usual gowns, produce harmful greenhouse gases.
The journal published a paper titled ‘How sustainable are biodegradable medical gowns via environmental and social life cycle assessment?’ Authors Xiang Zhao, Jiri Jaromir Klemes, Michael Saxon and Fengqi You show biodegradable gown production poses 10.76pc higher ecotoxicity than conventional alternatives contributed by pro-oxidant manufacturing.
Lead researcher and Cornell doctoral student Zhao says, “Breaking down plastic into smaller parts is nice, but those small things eventually decay into gas. If we do not capture them, they become greenhouse gases that go into the air.”
Co-author and Cornell University Energy Systems Engineering Professor Fengqi You says, “Plasticised conventional medical gowns take many years to break down. Biodegradable gowns degrade much faster, but they produce gas emissions faster like added methane and carbon dioxide than regular ones in a landfill. Maybe the conventional gowns are not so bad.”
Regular gowns are ideal. They are 14pc less toxicity to humans. They cause 10pc fewer greenhouse gas emissions. They are 10pc less toxic to freshwater compared to biodegradable gowns in landfills with extra gas emissions.
The answer lies in improving gas capture efficiency above 85pc can make biodegradable gowns more environment friendly than regular gowns.
(Sudeep Sonawane, an India-based journalist, has worked in five countries in the Middle East and Asia. Email: sudeep.sonawane@gmail.com)
Worldwide consumers contribute around 60 per cent of all direct and indirect emissions. Their combined impact on the environment varies according to income levels. Studies show at least a 10-fold difference in the carbon footprint between low-and-high-income households.
Let us assume most consumers from countries with large populations comply. Will their green practices like carpooling, shunning plastics, and reducing meat consumption, among many other such daily habits, help in reducing climate change?
Yes, consumers could do their bit to help lessen climate change. They could switch to using alternative energy such as solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro energy. Using carpools or public transport could make a big difference.
Some suggest consumers could do home energy audits. Utilities in many countries offer this service free. Importantly, consumers should practice the tips their utility recommends.
Installing a programmable thermostat or sealing and insulating heating and cooling ducts, can each reduce a typical family's carbon dioxide emissions around five per cent. Replacing single-pane windows with dual-pane windows and installing insulated doors significantly reduces heat loss from homes.
While consumers could help lessen greenhouse gas emissions, industries and power plants that generate electricity and heat by burning fossil fuels remain major contributors.
Energy (electricity, heat, and transport) leads with 73.2pc share, followed by direct industrial work 5.2pc, agriculture, forestry, and land use 18.4pc and waste 3.2pc.
Coal-fired plants produce around 22 per cent or 898 billion kWh in the United States. Power plants remain the single largest source of heat-trapping gas.
Alternative energy use gives hope. Data shows the popularity of these energy sources worldwide. Wind energy provides around 10 per cent of Denmark’s total energy needs. These sources of energy production emit no greenhouse gases.
Besides well-known contributors of greenhouse gases, previously not studied products like biodegradable medical gowns have now entered the pollutant’s list.
The use of disposable medical gowns, conventional and biodegradable, has surged since the Covid-19 pandemic. Landfills now brim with them.
Biodegradable gowns decay faster than usual gowns. Experts believed biogowns offer a greener choice by less space use and chronic emissions in landfills. They were wrong.
New research published in December 20 by Elsevier in the Journal of Cleaner Production shows these medical gowns, designed to be greener than the usual gowns, produce harmful greenhouse gases.
The journal published a paper titled ‘How sustainable are biodegradable medical gowns via environmental and social life cycle assessment?’ Authors Xiang Zhao, Jiri Jaromir Klemes, Michael Saxon and Fengqi You show biodegradable gown production poses 10.76pc higher ecotoxicity than conventional alternatives contributed by pro-oxidant manufacturing.
Lead researcher and Cornell doctoral student Zhao says, “Breaking down plastic into smaller parts is nice, but those small things eventually decay into gas. If we do not capture them, they become greenhouse gases that go into the air.”
Co-author and Cornell University Energy Systems Engineering Professor Fengqi You says, “Plasticised conventional medical gowns take many years to break down. Biodegradable gowns degrade much faster, but they produce gas emissions faster like added methane and carbon dioxide than regular ones in a landfill. Maybe the conventional gowns are not so bad.”
Regular gowns are ideal. They are 14pc less toxicity to humans. They cause 10pc fewer greenhouse gas emissions. They are 10pc less toxic to freshwater compared to biodegradable gowns in landfills with extra gas emissions.
The answer lies in improving gas capture efficiency above 85pc can make biodegradable gowns more environment friendly than regular gowns.
(Sudeep Sonawane, an India-based journalist, has worked in five countries in the Middle East and Asia. Email: sudeep.sonawane@gmail.com)