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<ul class="summary-list"><li>The Games' need for a massive infrastructure project has historically hurt host cities' environments.</li><li>Installing and using 5G technology could help minimize the Olympics' environmental impacts.</li></ul>When thousands of the world's best athletes descend on one city, it can wreak environmental havoc.No single Olympic Games held between 1992 and 2020 was sufficiently sustainable, found <a target="_blank" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=c0d989491c74099378a20091f3e16aba6129c646e40d4b337bf98c0f4ca076c3&amp;postID=66a274b6d290cb433ad39ab1&amp;postSlug=paris-olympics-how-5g-tech-could-curb-environmental-impact-2024-7&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41893-021-00696-5">a 2021 study</a> in the journal Nature that assessed the environmental impacts of the Games during that period.For example, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games damaged the city's local environment when an estimated <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/3/166#:~:text=During%20the%20seven%2Dyear%20preparation,Azevedo%202015%3B%20Zimbalist%202017).">77,000 people in favela communities were displaced</a> to make way for the event's infrastructure, according to a retrospective report published in 2023 in the journal Social Sciences.From an environmental standpoint, the Rio de Janeiro Games <a target="_blank" href="https://katoikos.world/analysis/olympics-a-celebration-for-humanity-a-disaster-for-the-environment.html">produced</a> more than 17,000 metric tons of waste, used 29,500 gigawatts of electricity — the majority of which was not from renewable sources — and resulted in 3.6 million metric tons of carbon emissions, the Rio de Janeiro Games reported.For the Paris Games, limiting environmental impact has been a greater concern than in past Olympics, with efforts across industries to reduce waste. Rather than build a series of new venues, existing ones have been repurposed. <a target="_blank" href="https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/our-commitments/the-environment/infrastructures">Only one new permanent venue was constructed</a>, and there's more <a target="_blank" href="https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/our-commitments/the-environment/organising-more-circular-games">renting than buying</a> when it comes to equipment like furniture to reduce waste. Sustainability initiatives also extend to the 5G technology powering the Olympic Games.Orange, the telecommunications provider for the Paris Games, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.orange.com/en/allconnected/paris2024/paris-2024-how-orange-will-limit-its-environmental-impact">has set itself the goal</a> of limiting its carbon emissions to 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. If met, Orange's carbon emissions would account for less than 1% of the total estimated emissions of the 2024 Olympics.It's the latest example of how 5G providers are supporting sustainability efforts at global-scale live events."As sustainability initiatives around large public venues gather steam, we know IT teams are being asked to find ways to contribute to their organization's decarbonization efforts," said Kevin Swank, the product-marketing director at CommScope, a service provider that has worked on sports stadiums in France, Germany, and the US.<h2 id="1d0215d6-49e6-4444-b194-294cf1e5f1bd">Environmentally friendly technology that can support more fans</h2>Though 5G systems require infrastructure installation, their technology is more sustainable than older connectivity systems like analog distributed antenna systems, Swank said.Digital 5G systems use less power and less cooling than older systems, which need large amounts of power and cabling to run, Swank told Business Insider. And because 5G systems run digitally, they don't require as much physical infrastructure as their predecessors, Swank added.He said he witnessed the positive impact — on the environment and the fan experience — when CommScope updated the internet infrastructure at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.commscope.com/globalassets/digizuite/965502-atandt-stadium-cs-115933-en.pdf">AT&amp;T Stadium in Arlington, Texas</a>, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, in 2020."The venue was reaching the performance limits of its equipment, and its current network just couldn't keep up with the growing demands of a mobile-device-centric fan base," Swank told BI. The stadium needed a 5G network that could support augmented-reality features and mobile-ordering capabilities for concessions for up to 100,000 visitors at a time.By switching to 5G, the stadium's network performance increased tenfold, while its power use went down by about 87% and its cooling requirements decreased by up to 75%, a project report from CommScope said. Those reductions equate to over 100 metric tons in CO2 emissions savings a year, Swank said.The stadium's 5G system resulted in just five equipment storage racks compared with the 30 to 40 racks previously required for its analog equipment.Because of these advantages, 5G is quickly gaining steam within the entertainment industry as events continue to grow in scale and attendees expect more seamless experiences.<h2 id="4de8c9b0-599e-4fa3-9e87-59f5acb6ad1c">Recycling 5G equipment for more sustainability</h2>To work toward its carbon-emissions goal for the Paris Games, Orange decreased its equipment manufacturing and infrastructure-deployment footprint. Orange, in partnership with the consultancy Carbone4, estimated that 86% of its global footprint came from those two areas.For the Paris Olympics, the company is using more local suppliers and shipping bulky items by sea rather than air to reduce emissions. Orange said it planned to rent one-quarter of its equipment and estimated that 75% of the equipment would be reused or redeployed after the Games.Generally, the 5G networks used at sports venues' large events can be reused after the events end and the increased capacity is no longer needed, said Kelvin Chaffer, the CEO of Lifecycle Software, which provides support systems for network operators."By designing infrastructure that can be repurposed for other community uses postevent, and implementing green technologies and sustainable practices," Chaffer said. He added that this approach gives large sporting event organizers the ability "to minimize the environmental impact of event-triggered infrastructure projects."

How 5G technology is helping curb carbon emissions and waste at the Paris Games

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Carsten Brinkschulte, who founded Dryad Networks, built an IoT network to detect wildfires.</li><li>He's motivated by the impact of his work and urges founders and engineers to move to green tech.</li></ul>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Carsten Brinkschulte, the CEO of Dryad Networks, an IoT company offering wildfire-detection tech. The following has been edited for length and clarity.You know the saying "Once you have a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail"?That's what happened when I started learning more about the planet's growing <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-change-migration-where-moved-escape-natural-disasters-extreme-weather">wildfire problem</a> and its impact on climate change. With 25 years of experience scaling three startups in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/5g-transforms-businesses-better-security-remote-capabilities-2024-5">telecommunications</a>, I wondered how I could apply that technical and business knowledge to solving this problem.What if we could create sensors that could detect wildfires and then have those sensors communicate back to authorities before the fire is a major issue? With these questions in mind, I cofounded <a target="_blank" href="https://www.dryad.net/">Dryad Networks</a>.<h2 id="89eba62a-12a8-4c0f-b628-46d2f454c838">A series of technical challenges</h2>While the vision for our solution was clear from the start, there were a lot of technical hurdles in making it real.The first was how to detect fires. Instead of relying on vision via satellites and cameras, which only work when fires are already large, we focused on smell to catch fires at the early smoldering stage. We built a "digital nose," a gas sensor sensitive to hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds, with built-in AI to detect fire patterns in a distributed, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-edge-computing-5g-cloud-artificial-intelligence-2024-3">edge-computing</a> manner.<div type="image" title="A green and black sensor device on top of tree bark." height="3194" width="2396" msid="113885493" hostid="261" sizebytes="850234"></div>Building these sensors happened relatively quickly — but training the AI to work reliably took years. Every forest and tree species smells different when they're burning, so we've gathered data from customers around the world and even burned tree samples in our lab.Another challenge was powering the devices. Unlike with at-home IoT devices, replacing batteries in millions of forest sensors every two years isn't feasible. We aimed for 10 to 15 years of battery life, added <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-panel-industry-electricity-generation-us-eia-tariff-prices-trade-2024-2">solar panels</a>, and used supercapacitors to store power instead of lithium-ion batteries to avoid fire risk.Finally there was the question of how the devices would communicate information. As you know if you've been hiking, there's often no mobile network in the forest. To solve for this, we developed our own solar-powered mesh gateway that could connect to sensors via an IoT network and relay information back to a cloud platform.<div type="image" title="A green device with a black grid screen in the middle, attached to a tree trunk in a forest." height="3456" width="2592" msid="113885494" hostid="261" sizebytes="1568642"></div>Given how much technology needed to be engineered from the ground up — the electronics, the embedded software, the cloud platform, the AI — we started with a team of seven cofounders and took three years to develop the technology and another year and a half to prepare it to scale.<h2 id="ce79374e-13ac-41bc-9adb-fb00e4258e7f">Proving value beyond money</h2>A persistent challenge with green tech is that many solutions require hardware — something VCs traditionally avoid. Getting the necessary funding for development can be tricky.Fortunately, there are now plenty of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/investing/esg-investing">impact investors</a> who prioritize making a difference on global issues. Yes, they also want to see that you can build a profitable business, but they're willing to accept more capital requirements or a delay in return if you can prove your solution will have a meaningful and measurable impact.Many <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/green-energy-transition-saves-millions-years-healthy-human-life-2023-11">green-tech</a> companies claim wonderful things about what their solution will do, but they need to quantify it. When working toward <a target="_blank" href="https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2024/03/20/2849406/0/en/Dryad-Networks-Announces-Initial-Closing-of-5-6-Million-in-Convertible-Financing.html">our fundraising goal</a>, we took months to calculate how many global CO2 emissions come from wildfires — a staggering <a target="_blank" href="https://ourworldindata.org/wildfires">5 billion to 8 billion tons a year</a> — and then project how much of that could be prevented with our sensors. Our financial plan includes those numbers to show the impact we can have alongside the money we can make.<h2 id="1863b547-6fd5-4c92-9756-e121e4390171">A wealth of possibilities</h2>Our ultimate goal is to develop applications that utilize the network infrastructure we put in place to protect and restore one of our most important assets: <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/a-groundbreaking-new-reason-to-plant-more-trees-2024-7">forests</a>. The first is fire detection, but in the future we may add sensors that measure the environmental risk of fire before one even starts, monitor tree and soil health, and detect gunshots or chainsaws to prevent poaching and illegal logging.I encourage other engineers and founders to get out of building the next smartphone and do something impactful with the knowledge they've gained. Getting into green tech is the best thing you can ever do — it's rewarding financially and motivating to see that you're building something useful.

I'm a telecommunications expert — here's how I think IoT can help prevent wildfires and save our forests

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Firebricks have been around for thousands of years.</li><li>Industries use them to store heat from burning <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/exxon-acquisition-permian-basin-pioneer-fossil-fuels-energy-transition-2023-10">fossil fuels</a>; newer versions conduct electricity.</li></ul>Industrial manufacturers make materials like aluminum and glass for everything from <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy02osti/32135.pdf">beverage containers</a> to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2238785423024006">aircraft parts</a>. They're also responsible for 17% of global carbon dioxide emissions, according to recent research published in <a target="_blank" href="https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae274">PNAS Nexus</a>.That's a problem. Countries are struggling to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/carbon-emissions-2022-record-renewables-growth-solar-wind-iea-2023-3">cut CO2 emissions</a> as the climate crisis worsens. And switching these major manufacturers to cleaner sources of energy, like wind and solar, would help significantly.But when the sun isn't shining or wind isn't blowing, these manufacturers need to rely on stored energy. Batteries are one option, but some scientists think an ancient technology, firebricks, is a cheaper and easier solution.<h2 id="4d66210e-a897-4885-9d6c-45b833a3fd2c">Firebricks are cheap and effective</h2><div type="image" title="A hand holds a thin grayish brick with white speckles" height="683" width="1024" msid="112508425" hostid="261" sizebytes="28908"></div>If you have a brick fireplace, you might notice the bricks stay warm for a while after the fire goes out.People have used bricks to<a target="_blank" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352409X23000287"> help keep</a> kilns and ovens hot since the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bronze-age-lost-tomb-ireland-rediscovered-photogrammetry-2024-1">Bronze Age</a>. Even modern industrial manufacturers use firebricks in daily operations.They stack the bricks in tall rows, heat them up to extremely high temperatures, and then blow air through channels to harness the heat for melting glass or metal, for example.Heating up the bricks causes carbon emissions since manufacturers typically burn fossil fuels to do it.However, a few new companies think they've figured out how to use electricity from the grid to heat up the bricks instead.Electrified Thermal Solutions and other companies make firebricks that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/power-grid-transmission-renewable-energy-nimby-states-ferc-2024-5">conduct electricity</a>."A normal firebrick is an insulator like rubber. Electricity just doesn't go through it," MIT professor Charles Forsberg, an advisor to the company, said.However, when you add compounds like chromia and nickel oxide the firebrick becomes an electrical conductor.Forsberg said these conductive bricks function similarly to an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gas-stove-debate-cooking-induction-electric-kitchen-2023-1">electric oven</a>, except the firebrick can handle heat that would melt your oven's wires."It's a way to heat firebricks to a blazingly hot temperature," he said. It can <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/05/25/science/race-clean-up-heavy-industry-heats-up/">reach</a> 3,270 degrees Fahrenheit, more than hot enough to melt steel, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/05/25/science/race-clean-up-heavy-industry-heats-up/">The Boston Globe reported</a>.Instead of storing the electricity like a battery, the bricks would store heat. So, a steel mill, for example, could take <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/modernize-us-electric-grid-what-it-will-take-2024-5">electricity from the grid</a>. The high electrical current would heat up the oxides inside the firebricks, and the bricks would retain the heat, which the manufacturer could then use to melt metal.Of course, there's still the issue that electricity from the grid often comes from fossil fuels. But eventually, as more renewable energy feeds the grid, this could help major manufacturers drastically reduce carbon emissions, and also save a lot of money.Mark Jacobson, a professor at Stanford University, estimated in the PNAS Nexus study that transitioning 149 countries entirely to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-renewable-energy-transition-solar-electric-vehicles-hit-records-2024-2">renewable energy</a> by 2050 would cost about $59 trillion. He and his colleagues used computer models to examine two options: one where industries used firebricks and one where they relied on technologies like electric furnaces and boilers and stored energy in batteries.Implementing firebricks saved over $1.2 trillion dollars worldwide, he told Business Insider.The savings partially come from the bricks' cheap cost, which are about a tenth of the price of traditional storage batteries, Jacobson said. "When we use firebricks, we reduce the cost of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-was-battery-powered-twice-last-week-2024-4">batteries</a> because we need fewer batteries," he said.<h2 id="518d0dd9-00e6-4e75-b1be-eeb5884abf76">Making small changes for big emissions savings</h2><div type="image" title="Two people stand in front of a device that looks like a large refrigerator" height="683" width="1024" msid="112508428" hostid="261" sizebytes="72432"></div>Forsberg said early adopters of conductive firebricks might still use <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/natural-gas-biden-exports-pause-energy-costs-less-predictable-2024-2">natural gas</a> or oil if they run out of stored heat."Someday in the future, it may all be electric," he said, "but my guess is in the near term, most of the people who need high-temperature heat are going to buy a cheap <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-ban-gas-stoves-in-new-buildings-emissions-reduction-2023-4">gas burner</a>."It's also going to take a while to get these new firebricks installed. Jacobson said the first adopters might be companies that need to replace their equipment or newcomers starting from scratch. Once they do, though, "I think they'll find that it's actually much more beneficial," he said.Electrified Thermal Solutions is working on one of its first industrial applications, <a target="_blank" href="https://electrifiedthermal.com/kentucky-governor-announces-ets-available-for-doe-funding-to-help-electrify-chemical-plant/">replacing</a> gas boilers in a Kentucky chemical plant.Another company, <a target="_blank" href="https://rondo.com/calgren-case-study">Rondo</a>, has installed its technology in a biofuel company in California. Rondo said its system reduces CO2 emissions and lowers the cost of energy because it requires less electricity than hydrogen fuel.Having a few successful example projects might help change some minds in other industries, Jacobson said.Forsberg said one of the biggest benefits of the newer firebrick technology is that it updates processes many industries have in place. "The goal is minimum change," he said. "If you want to cause a revolution in technology, don't change anything you don't have to change."

Researchers want to combine an ancient technology with clean energy to save over $1 trillion worldwide

Tucked beneath a 48-story San Francisco skyscraper, at the far end of the parking lot on the first subbasement level, is a door with a keypad lock. An unimposing sign reads "Utility Meter Room." Behind the door is a tangled clot of pipes: yellow, blue, and orange, each one as wide as a 100-pound barbell plate. The pipes — along with thousands more just like them, winding their way under more than 600 American cities, campuses, hospitals, and airports — are more than a blast from our industrial past. They're a steampunk vision of the future.I've come to 345 California Center, a postmodern hexagon that towers over San Francisco's financial district, to get a look at the hottest new idea for how to break the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-doom-loop-fix-american-city-housing-transit-2023-7">urban doom loop</a> — the post-pandemic, remote-work apocalypse that is hollowing out America's cities. And when I say "hottest," I don't mean it metaphorically. It's like a sauna down here. Because the Utility Meter Room doesn't run on a self-contained, industrial-sized boiler, like most big buildings. Instead, it's drawing a feed of blistering, high-pressure, vaporized water from a century-old loop of steam pipes that runs beneath the city's streets. The steam loops are a relic of the 19th century, as forgotten as the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/41/steenson.php">pneumatic tubes</a> that used to shoot mail all over American cities. But unlike the pneumatic tubes, the steam loops are still there — and they can provide enough heat to keep a building like 345 California Center nice and toasty, even on the coldest of days.The steam loops are part of an antiquated system known as "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/recycling-waste-heat-abundant-sustainable-energy-source-2023-7">district energy</a>." It was basically a shared-services model: a utility would make steam at a central location and then pipe it out to every building in the city. Nobody had to provide their own heat — it was way more convenient, and cheaper, to get it from a common source. But then cities began to abandon district energy. Buildings, businesses, and homes started making their own hot water in boilers fueled by coal, then oil, then natural gas. Sometimes it was cheaper, and maybe it was more convenient. But it also set the planet on fire. More heating meant more greenhouse gases, and more <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-change-global-warming-extreme-heat-inflation-global-economy-impact-2024-3">global warming</a>. Which brings me back to our steampunk future. Today, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/companies-brag-green-but-offices-have-long-way-to-go-2022-4">cities are starting to price the looming climate catastrophe</a> into their energy costs. Starting this year, commercial buildings in New York City will be slapped with steep fines if they're emitting too much carbon. Boston and Washington have similar "decarbonization" laws in place, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kqed.org/science/1992085/san-francisco-will-continue-enforcing-gas-ban-in-new-buildings-despite-berkeleys-repeal-of-similar-rules">San Francisco isn't allowing natural gas</a> in any new construction. That means businesses need to find a cleaner, cheaper source of heat. And those ancient steam loops beneath the streets are starting to seem like a ready-made solution."The real benefit of a district-energy system, especially in cities, is the distribution system," says Kevin Hagerty, the CEO of Vicinity Energy. "If a city wants to decarbonize, and they have a district-energy system, it's much easier. They don't have to change things on a building-by-building basis."<div type="image" title="An orange upright pipe vents steam into the night sky in front of a building with stone arches and gaslamp-type lights, and parked cars on an urban street" height="2946" width="3927" msid="110505068" hostid="261"></div>In July, Vicinity is installing what will be the nation's first zero-carbon urban steam loop. Drawing electricity from the increasingly decarbonized New England grid, powered by solar and offshore wind, the utility will use the energy to boil water and then deliver steam directly to Boston office buildings and restaurants and storefronts through the city's antiquated maze of pipes. It's a remnant of the Industrial Revolution being used to forestall a lethal climate evolution.District energy could also be a godsend to businesses struggling to survive the current landscape of empty offices and boarded-up shops. By taking steam right out of the street beneath them, commercial landlords can pay less for their utilities and avoid carbon fines — which means they can lower their rents and hold on to tenants who might otherwise bail. District-energy loops also eliminate the need for boilers and other cumbersome building infrastructure, freeing up space for tenant-grabbing amenities like gyms, roof-decks, and golf simulators. (Yep. That's a real thing.)The other choice? Spend thousands to upgrade a building's energy systems — cash that landlords don't have on hand, and an expense they can't pass along to tenants. "If you're a building owner, district energy allows you to pay a small premium on your service to get that type of steam," says Blake Ellis, a principal at the engineering firm Burns &amp; McDonnell. "Then you don't have that big capital outlay you probably don't want right now." Especially if, as in many downtowns, your building is only 70% occupied.About a third of the cost of running a commercial building is energy. And according to one major study, a building as energy-efficient as 345 California Center can charge 20% more for rent than a comparable, inefficient building. Every dollar saved in energy costs, the study found, equates to 3.5% higher rent. And it's a lot easier to be energy efficient if all you have to do is plug into a carbon-free steam loop. "This building is 40 years old," Tim Danz, the chief engineer for 345 Cal, tells me. "But we're using the latest technology to manage our energy." He points to the gnarl of pipes that shoots the steam up to the 36th floor, where it's used to cook a water supply large enough to heat the entire building. Having a boiler, Danz explains, "would be another system we would have to provide care and feeding for." District energy, by contrast, is just there for the taking, right beneath our feet.The most convincing evidence that steam loops make economic sense comes from who's getting into the district-energy game. Vicinity, the nation's biggest clean-steam provider, is owned by Antin Infrastructure Partners, a leading private-equity firm. Cordia, an energy provider operating in 10 cities, is partially owned by the private-equity giant KKR. Everyone needs heat — which makes it a highly bankable investment. "These private-equity funds come in and find areas where they can put capital into a business and get a nice steady rate of return," Hagerty says. "Decarbonizing takes capital, and private equity is a great source of capital." In the long run, of course, private equity may decide to do what it always does and load up these new energy businesses with massive amounts of debt before dismantling them for parts. But for now, the big money sees big profits to be made from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/america-build-infrastructure-transportation-housing-regulation-environment-2023-11">America's forgotten infrastructure</a>. Outside of places like airports and college campuses, the idea of district energy fell out of favor long ago. We let the systems go fallow — but fortunately, all the accumulated infrastructure we buried on top of the old steam loops made it impossible to dig their little-used pipes out of the ground. So the whole thing was still down there, waiting, when COVID drove millions of city dwellers to head for the countryside. Now, by drawing heat from their old steam loops, America's cities have an opportunity to jump-start all the downtown commerce that was crippled by the pandemic. And it could happen all over the place! Dozens and dozens of cities have steam loops they can use, from New York and Chicago to Miami to San Diego and Portland and Milwaukee. What's more, lots of companies these days are looking for greener buildings, both to save money and to burnish their environmental bona fides. From AI startups to biotech companies, steampunk-heated buildings could become the cool new place to be. "Forward-minded companies want to be in a building that doesn't have any on-site fossil-fuel combustion," says Costa Samaras, the director of the Scott Institute for Energy and Innovation at Carnegie Mellon. "The best, greenest buildings will be net-zero buildings. They'll be considered a premium asset. The challenge is, are we going to get enough premium assets in time?" Meaning: Can we use steam loops to fix the urban doom loop before the climate doom loop dooms us all?<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/adam-rogers">Adam Rogers</a> is a senior correspondent at Business Insider.

The steampunk technology that could save America's cities

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Bridgestone is growing desert shrubs called guayule in Arizona as an alternative source of rubber.</li><li>Guayule could be a sustainable domestic source of rubber, helping reduce deforestation.</li></ul>If you've watched <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zak-brown-indycar-races-schedule-host-countries-f1-2022-6">IndyCar racing </a>over the past couple of years, you may have seen some of the cars using green tires with a difficult-to-pronounce name.The name is guayule, pronounced why-OO-lee. It's a small desert shrub native to the southwestern US and Mexico that Bridgestone uses to make the rubber in the sidewalls of its green Firestone-branded racing tires.Nick Eulau, the executive director for guayule and end-of-life tire recycling at Bridgestone, said the company's ambitions for guayule go beyond the race track.Bridgestone is trying to develop a sustainable domestic source of natural rubber that could help stem reliance on supplies from tropical forests while bolstering biodiversity and agriculture in arid climates.Guayule has been a source of natural rubber for a century. Firestone, which was acquired by the Japanese tire giant in 1988, has been working with the shrub since World War II.<div type="image" title="IndyCar driver Scott Dixon takes the checkered flag to win the 49th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday, April 21, 2024." height="508" width="787" msid="111320690" hostid="261" sizebytes="75786"></div>But Bridgestone's interest in the desert shrub ramped up in the early 2010s, when it launched its guayule research initiative and broke ground on a Biorubber Process Research Center in Mesa, Arizona. That facility was followed by a 281-acre guayule farm in nearby Eloy.<h2 id="afa08296-38dd-4ac1-9578-3c0374bbd8c4">Where does rubber come from?</h2>More than 330 million <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/companies-trying-reinvent-tires-for-electric-vehicles-2023-11">car and commercial truck tires</a> were sold in the US in 2023, according to the US Tire Manufacturers Association.The trade group estimates natural rubber accounts for about one-fifth of the materials in a passenger tire and one-third of the materials in a commercial truck tire. The rest of the tire is composed of synthetic rubber, steel, and fillers such as silica and carbon black.<a target="_blank" href="https://natural-rubber.michelin.com/natural-rubber-by-michelin/natural-rubber-at-a-glance">Nearly all that natural rubber</a> comes from the Hevea brasiliensis, or rubber tree, found in forests and plantations primarily in Southeast Asia, with some in West Africa as well.<div type="image" title="Tappers harvest rubber sap at a plantation in Indonesia." height="683" width="1024" msid="111320692" hostid="261" sizebytes="174370"></div>At these plantations, about 220 rubber trees are planted per acre. They're ready for harvest in six or seven years."The actual harvest method is a tree-by-tree manual process where workers use a special tool to cut grooves into the tree's bark, and the liquid latex flows out, like when you tap a maple tree for syrup," Eulau told Business Insider.Each tree can produce as much as 330 pounds of rubber during its 20- to 30-year lifetime, after which the trees are cut down for wood and a fresh crop is replanted.<h2 id="64465348-2b64-4cf7-8b3d-1a3b3533a330">Why guayule?</h2>A reliance on the rubber tree as the primary source of natural rubber could threaten both tropical forest ecosystems and the long-term stability of the global rubber supply chain.The trees that are the backbone of the natural-rubber supply chain are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2759241/">susceptible to disease</a>. While the trees are native to the Amazon, leaf blight helped kill off large-scale rubber production in the region nearly a century ago.<div type="image" title="A worker harvesting rubber from a hevea rubber tree at a plantation in Indonesia in 2020." height="683" width="1024" msid="111320699" hostid="261" sizebytes="134398"></div>In addition, <a target="_blank" href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/rubber-plantations-deforestation-tires-electric-vehicles">environmentalists have accused the rubber industry</a> of contributing to large-scale deforestation in Southeast Asia. A <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=1102cd670828c48f0b0ba6201402b799b90731d7ed2ecf714fe85aeffaf51506&amp;postID=66707acdb38735ca9df1faa6&amp;postSlug=bridgestone-guayule-shrub-indycar-tires-protects-forests-and-deserts-2024-6&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41586-023-06642-z">2023 study published in the journal Nature by researchers from Europe, the UK, and China</a> found that more than 4 million hectares, or nearly 10 million acres, of rainforest had been lost to rubber production in Southeast Asia since 1993.The mass cultivation of guayule may help support biodiversity and protect topsoil from the ravages of a harsh desert climate.While many plants can't survive the dry heat of the Sonoran Desert, where Bridgestone's Eloy farm is located, it's guayule's natural environment.Eulau said the plants on Bridgestone's farm require irrigation but use far less water than other crops prevalent in the region.<div type="image" title="A field of guayule in Eloy, Arizona." height="800" width="1000" msid="111320701" hostid="261" sizebytes="112100"></div>A farmer in Arizona <a target="_blank" href="https://www.popsci.com/environment/guayule-sustainable-farmers-water/">told Popular Science in 2022</a> that corn required nearly twice as much water during a four-month growing season as guayule did in a year.Eulau told BI that guayule cultivation "enables continued agriculture in regions where the amount of crop you produce is not really governed by the acreage of land available but instead by the water available."The shrubs also help protect the topsoil. "If you can use a little water to keep guayule growing on your land," Eulau said, "it reduces dust pollution and helps keep the biological material in the soil, which promotes soil health and its long-term prospects for agriculture."At harvest, the farm relies on industrial machinery to bear the brunt of the load."When you harvest, you cut off the top, a few inches from the ground. We take everything except the rootstock, which the plant will regenerate from," Eulau said. "Everything is done with large tractors and industrial machinery, so it's far less labor intensive."<div type="image" title="A combine harvesting Guayule on Bridgestone's farm in Arizona." height="1602" width="2400" msid="111320697" hostid="261" sizebytes="465166"></div>The harvested plants are sent to Bridgestone's processing center in Mesa, where rubber, resin, and other biomasses are extracted.In addition to Arizona, Bridgestone has growing trials in Texas, New Mexico, and Argentina to evaluate the potential for commercial guayule cultivation in those areas.<h2 id="8b3dc34a-6f7c-4a9d-8d1c-bace9848e8c6">What's the holdup?</h2>Though Bridgestone is working to make its guayule more drought-resistant and able to generate better yields, its rubber is ready for commercial use."We have shown that we can do it," Eulau said. "We can produce a guayule rubber that's perfectly useful for the tires on your minivan."But commercial guayule farming is still in its nascency.Scaling guayule farming for a supply chain would require more refineries and production facilities. Bridgestone would also want to refine crop genetics and set best cultivation practices for farmers.Even when the guayule is ready for the big time, don't expect it to replace rubber trees. Bridgestone sees guayule as a supplemental source of rubber rather than the successor to the rubber tree."Both supply chains will continue to exist in parallel, at least for a relatively long period of time," Eulau said.

A small shrub used to make IndyCar racing tires could help save rainforests and make deserts greener

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A University of Michigan study found that urban-farmed produce has six times the carbon footprint of conventional farms.</li><li>The study faced backlash from advocates and students, saying it overlooked broader environmental harms of industrial farming.</li></ul>Research <a target="_blank" href="https://l.businessinsider.com/u/click?_t=c8e10479a20f45bba5aad6c5f6fbb009&amp;_m=gKkE9A8NehnuDzRzdSau7uq09zqBFd0Sr&amp;_e=NR1opUQhz8M8yUJSUPdig3DFkL5V9rgD-5rPgW0GroA3pbpNmWwHXHGoo74aMXoja_anmr5pb3xh2lAililuTXgADjvTB3UukpAGOLG2SrF_kHfHX8zWICcHcKop4L0aKMXPonVY2xRp0XQZ64IarUuA1R8qw3q4PhAWCWLXY9G0Ydc33x8xgJlvwIMOIziP3Z-9UFI-oql6pfu6qQZ029n5vwVI8SKZfYQDpHggYmAQ4UKQidwQlNlDsWkZAuRowdkRGettNr8zhYW8J95CuNYB-Cw-9oK6upgD5EWEWS6iDszTxyLPdRKl875Oy0xrfCdQvujTUBTHwLNEkZzQUPamO9sHlTOsQ-4qdI45hc-8w4OddF1Nl87AQ7xMgakArmdYr9fCcdKuJiA_rugYKFOk-U9RjTT7RnXWsEZhTWR7O5EnVSqmCgZepdYmPbcW">out of the University of Michigan</a> sent shockwaves through the urban-farming and home-gardening community earlier this year.Fruits and vegetables grown on urban farms have on average six times the carbon footprint of produce from conventional farms, the study, which was <a target="_blank" href="https://l.businessinsider.com/u/click?_t=c8e10479a20f45bba5aad6c5f6fbb009&amp;_m=gKkE9A8NehnuDzRzdSau7uq09zqBFd0Sr&amp;_e=NR1opUQhz8M8yUJSUPdigyVBLt12lmLv8Kq9KF0cdQjoc2NlXgdVGSzgZOXMbm41vySv-6bNirXuVkKEe4zYtRkHu-IV1v-0W-C-yK4FbMXEzIDCy-JCwmYVkyCXPCIt2GwU70ZNcgMDFzgtobt0rzfExa7hjIiSLi_pcqLW2kO3pVFQcy7kUXs39I6Rq9wju-WZ0vlmecmINrxBN9ZlJ5IWP5OA4NsjW1Lcdyo2mGApareaYJhL08j0yXO26bFKkuoZpKWHf3GXRwKkOy8zXWmj-Kcrz1J0L6WBc62tiL4P3v0ro9hAQbfEHHc7kE_oV4DP2reIpebcW5qmhTJTl5SGFjtT9G7XfyABNejPDL36yWuOPnzr4CRUZtQ7yRsLaw9tRD6Q5rBum95o9X5wyvVfLtgRn8X0hgcDynU7SsN5GiVtwX7Hhsk4mjeU0PZLIyNOKWiVR8ho8NL8nP_KtJupdV9Nm8W6gMK_72cr67R_x7w6OxLbRRXv_bHKQhY-">published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Cities</a>, found.The backlash was swift. University of Michigan students organized a rebuttal letter, arguing that narrowly focusing on carbon emissions overlooked the broader environmental harms of industrial-scale farming such as biodiversity loss and water pollution. Some angry homesteaders on TikTok and YouTube circulated conspiracy theories about the government not wanting people to be self-sufficient. The research landed as cities including Detroit, <a target="_blank" href="https://l.businessinsider.com/u/click?_t=c8e10479a20f45bba5aad6c5f6fbb009&amp;_m=gKkE9A8NehnuDzRzdSau7uq09zqBFd0Sr&amp;_e=NR1opUQhz8M8yUJSUPdigxWxojJ8J5pQHuZpUrbvrUbrww7LkgQb0AoKMWISaksztKtNGWhZGbvGryiqPWhFFsNaqynonrY4jZWjZhw-pUXygoC1Auv-xnNPN7GXFHLkI2CdpXSvhXB65J1tq-Z7KNwMBrzEZeDJVuhbNpl1wQcXgx7t3XJKBmcOF4M2o9uCa8eQpctf2Vm6eOrxomO0Gzp72AUSDIcC7_kGXufuZOkPZ4a53ELdiw77soVlQrQLgIcfaMcckVhcpzwIN2IK3sXHOp2y_WBwNwwATroicweQP01heQnBSkyioVIyYhaKYUY_Cg2lsJcZ7tnqtHpYi8ABvbrVPPGavVaK6iAY6g-yusAyUHL2rTnUDi8Q5ln751TcAK2Xy9DpvP6b1qos-sp1bo2WuFLCi0n1JPwIWno%3D">Philadelphia</a>, and Washington, DC, increasingly invest in urban agriculture to promote sustainability and become more resilient to the climate crisis. The researchers told Business Insider that while the many social benefits of urban farming were well understood — such as improving access to fresh food in disadvantaged communities — some climate claims warranted more scrutiny."Urban agriculture is not a magical climate solution," Jason Hawes, a coauthor of the study and a doctoral student at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, said. "But there is evidence that with the right kind of planning and investments, it can be more climate-friendly. So we wanted to figure out what those interventions looked like."Hawes said that produce grown on 17 out of the 73 urban farms his team studied across five countries had lower carbon footprints than produce from conventional farms. The urban sites tended to have longer life spans, reuse waste for compost and building materials, reuse water, and maximize social benefits for their communities.The infrastructure used to build urban gardens matters a lot, Hawes said, because new materials come with their own carbon footprint. Choosing crops such as tomatoes or asparagus, which are typically grown in energy-intensive greenhouses and transported on a plane, respectively, also matters.<h2>Fury among urban farmers</h2>The headlines offended advocates of urban agriculture, according to interviews with a Detroit city official and other academics, as well as the letter circulated by University of Michigan students and shared with BI.These advocates questioned whether comparing the per-serving carbon footprint of produce from urban and conventional agriculture was appropriate, given the vastly different scale of these systems and the roles they serve in society.Mainly, they worried the study would let conventional agriculture — which <a target="_blank" href="https://l.businessinsider.com/u/click?_t=c8e10479a20f45bba5aad6c5f6fbb009&amp;_m=gKkE9A8NehnuDzRzdSau7uq09zqBFd0Sr&amp;_e=NR1opUQhz8M8yUJSUPdig22tyCNchXZAgdxwipimYVznOXFPGv5B5brtbrGUrJWehR9wef9PKiYCdUXXAUTzNCYnCgz5hBndgRonmOFmB8BZI1-3lB5d6Sx9aONB53xyVAKlJvXWlCjlPnSu7v9X7gCcNh3xGtMpUXVN47WmLbh2wFs0l_GI4jAPWh_pHeT7Ztm2dQTrnHg1HAWtXxEd-7j9o9KL7BxVH7ScfYjIGIec_OVLTdtt76ESASEzhfe_gQ9jq0qesHUUboO1ZbAeEC2XbWTtqDM8h-n7kl3tyPJrlQJtL8Y3N1OU6SdGlJeLKC46maN-qpJk3kfzcaBsz10HYy2wx0RZ6iDgFCzWUvQ%3D">globally accounts for about one-third of greenhouse-gas emissions</a> — off the hook and undermine a burgeoning movement to expand urban green spaces and promote food sovereignty, especially in communities of color burdened by pollution. "I thought the study took a lot of the onus off of conventional agriculture, which we are in the process of recreating," Tepfirah Rushdan, who last year became Detroit's first director of urban agriculture, told BI. "The reason for the shift is because industrial agriculture is a strain on our planet."Rushdan also argued that urban farms are a much more sustainable use of land than commercial or industrial development.The letter organized by students at the University of Michigan said the research addressed "critical research gaps" but should have been more nuanced by incorporating more of the environmental harms of conventional agriculture. The letter also alluded to the structural problems that can prevent urban farms from being more permanent, including commercial development and barriers to landownership.Hawes and his coauthor <a target="_blank" href="https://seas.umich.edu/research/faculty/benjamin-goldstein">Benjamin Goldstein</a>, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, said they're sensitive to the concerns, and were responding to them, but stood by the methodology."Our work does not lessen the many benefits that urban agriculture provides," Hawes said in an email. "We put one specific claim to the test with the best available data. This is not an indictment of the process as a whole. Instead, it is an indictment of the environment in which urban agriculture is forced to exist — with constant pressures on land tenure, with resource constraints, and with a constant back and forth about the 'true purpose' of the practice."Hawes and Goldstein said they had crafted policy briefs for city officials and the US Department of Agriculture that underscore how important urban agriculture is for sustainability and local food production. They also are working on a letter to Detroit farmers, many of whom reached out to Hawes to say they'd already adopted the best practices outlined in the study.Despite the controversy, the research led some urban gardeners to reevaluate their practices. Monica Fitzgerald, a backyard gardener in Boulder, Colorado, told BI that she didn't think the headlines were true at first. Part of the reason she grows her own food is to be more sustainable and improve local biodiversity.But after reading the main findings, she learned a few lessons and shared them on TikTok <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@colorado.monica/video/7328188157705424170?_r=1&amp;_t=8jiNGzWHC2d">to dispel other users' conspiracy theories</a>."Try to make things with materials you already have," she said. "Order fewer seeds online. Compost at home. Extend the lifetime of a raised bed, shed, or shovel. Not only does it save you money, it saves you carbon emissions."Are you a gardener or urban farmer who is finding ways to save money and reduce your carbon footprint? Reach out to this reporter at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:cboudreau@businessinsider.com">cboudreau@businessinsider.com</a>.

Gardeners are fuming about a study that found produce from urban farms has a high carbon footprint      

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Sage Vegan Bistro in Los Angeles is transitioning to serve meat, dairy, and eggs.</li><li>The chef said she thought a vegan diet was best for the environment, but has since changed her mind.</li></ul>The chef of a Los Angeles <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fast-food-chains-are-finally-taking-vegan-food-seriously-2022-1">vegan restaurant</a> announced that her restaurant is rebranding and transitioning to serving meat, dairy, and eggs.Chef Mollie Engelhart said that she thought <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/omnivore-vs-vegan-diet-vegan-lost-more-weight-lower-cholesterol-2024-1">a vegan diet</a> was best when she started Sage Vegan Bistro, but has now changed her mind.Renamed the Sage Regenerative Kitchen &amp; Brewery, the restaurant will instead focus on supporting <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/black-farmers-jubilee-justice-louisiana-regenerative-farming-2023-10">regenerative farming practices</a>, Engelhart said in an Instagram video."That means we will be shifting from an all-plant-based menu to a high-quality protein from only the highest quality, most integrity, regenerative farms," she said. The restaurant, which opened in Echo Park in 2011, before launching branches in Culver City and Pasadena, has cultivated a legion of plant-loving customers.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.latimes.com/food/story/2024-04-24/sage-vegan-bistro-no-longer-vegan-backlash?utm_source=flipboard&amp;utm_content=LATimes%2Fmagazine%2FEntertainment">But the Los Angeles Times reported</a> that the revamped menu will soon feature ingredients like beef, bison, fried eggs, and other non-vegan products, starting next month."To some, this may seem shocking or upsetting, but if you look at the last seven years of my life, and as I moved into regenerative farming to serve the highest quality food to my customers, I started to learn so much about soil and nature," Engelhart said in the Instagram post.In the LA Times interview, she said: "I think that the next step forward is regenerative agriculture, and for that to move forward it needs to be in the zeitgeist, it needs to be in our everyday conversations.""This is my way to contribute to that, to give people options," she added.Regenerative farming aims to address the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-climate-crisis-can-change-make-economy-better-resilient-2023-9">climate crisis</a> by restoring degraded soils and sequestering carbon, though opinions on its environmental impact vary.A <a target="_blank" href="https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s10533-022-00942-8?sharing_token=_lzUMwAH-C1HsmLaAR_qlPe4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY7t2aMs6fJ0P2ol5kjgrOkK735Q4oSuydDtCsl9Dkv8NaVD4JlJLB37L8_ZjFJKR2rhGw0sHG8vYo4oNY5uUtiH5N56pIBatw6jB3hMKDk7_M5NGvFNdNaFs5ltoRQJqzw%3D">2022 academic review</a> by William H. Schlesinger, former president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, found that practices associated with regenerative farming are not likely to lead to a "large net sequestration of organic carbon in soils."Schlesinger also noted that some practices even result in their own carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere.Engelhart told the LA Times that she was being "vulnerable" in announcing the move, and that she had braced herself for the "vitriol" to come.That pushback came quickly.PETA, the animal-rights charity, accused the restaurant <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C6FNdoYJknY/?hl=en">in an Instagram post</a> of "serving greenwashed and humane-washed meat, dairy, and eggs," and described the shift as a betrayal to animals."On Earth Day, no less!" the post added.Vegan restaurateur Jayde Nicole, in a comment on Instagram, described the shift as "horrifying," while Hannah Weseloh, a vegan influencer, likened the announcement to "mourning a death."Englehart defended her choice, and said she timed the announcement for Earth Day because "we're doing this shift for humanity and the earth."She also told the LA Times that financial considerations influenced her decision, with the newspaper reporting that the restaurants had not been profitable since 2020."My restaurants have been really struggling, like so many restaurants post-pandemic," Engelhart said.According to the LA Times, several formerly all-vegan restaurants in LA have shifted to incorporating meat in recent years, citing financial factors, with <a target="_blank" href="https://vegoutmag.com/food-and-drink/la-vegan-restaurant-closures-march-2024/">many others closing</a> their doors entirely.Sage Regenerative Kitchen &amp; Brewery did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

A vegan restaurant is switching to serving meat, saying plant-based eating isn't enough to save the planet

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The power grid is too old and simple for the growth of extreme weather, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/electric-car-ev-sales-prices-problem-transportation-2024-1">EVs</a>, and renewable energy.</li><li>Chattanooga's utility built a $280 million smart grid, creating $2.7 billion in economic value.</li></ul>It pays to be smart and Chattanooga, Tennessee, has put a whole new meaning to the phrase. The city is home to one of the nation's most advanced <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-power-grid-failure-economist-galbraith-left-leaning-utility-deregulation-2021-2">power grids</a>.The local utility, called EPB of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moving-to-tennessee-pros-cons-nashville-memphis-chattanooga-2023-2">Chattanooga</a>, spent $280 million to refurbish its power system with smart technologies to make a "smart grid."In its first 10 years, the project generated $2.7 billion worth of economic value, according to an EPB-funded <a target="_blank" href="https://assets.epb.com/media/Lobo%20-%20Ten%20Years%20of%20Fiber%20Infrastructure%20in%20Hamilton%20County%20TN_Published.pdf">study</a>. That's not a bad return on investment.<h2>The US grid needs its own internet</h2><div type="image" title="worker in hardhat wearing harness stands on large metal frame above a wide river with homes on the other side" height="1500" width="2250" msid="109795973" hostid="261" sizebytes="151842"></div>Smart grids like this offer a cleaner, safer, and more efficient future with lower <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-texas-residents-hit-with-soaring-electric-bills-winter-storms-2021-2">electric bills</a> and fewer blackouts — which is great because the way our energy system has operated for the past century isn't going to cut it for the next one.In most places, energy starts with a giant coal-fired power plant. From there, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chpe-transmission-line-hydropower-renewable-energy-electrical-grid-2024-4">transmission lines zip the electricity</a> to a substation, which lowers the voltage and pumps it into distribution lines to homes and businesses.<div type="image" title="Traditional Grid flowchart" height="2400" width="3560" msid="109795974" hostid="261" sizebytes="194952"></div>Electricity flows one way, from the power plant to your home, and it doesn't do much else. It's simple — and that was fine for a long time. But it's becoming a problem as the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/florida-residents-moving-leaving-climate-change-refugees-hurricanes-flood-2023-2">climate crisis</a> complicates our energy supply.Increasingly extreme weather events are battering our electrical infrastructure and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackouts-power-outages-more-common-climate-change-electric-grid-infrastructure-2023-3">causing outages</a> that cost American businesses an estimated $150 billion a year, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/department-energy-report-explores-us-advanced-small-modular-reactors-boost-grid">according</a> to the US Department of Energy.Meanwhile, climate solutions put their own pressure on the grid. Wind farms and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-passive-income-side-hustle-selling-electricity-neighbors-solar-panels-2023-12">solar panels</a> feed energy into the system inconsistently, making it harder to pace supply with the day-to-day fluxes of electricity use.Renewables also complicate things by sheer numbers — rather than from 12,000 power plants, in just a few decades, the US could be drawing its power from 1 million dispersed sources, from hydropower dams to rooftop solar panels.At the same time, electrification, including the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ev-electric-car-ford-mustang-mach-e-road-trip-charging-2021-8">rise of electric vehicles</a>, is increasing demand.<div type="image" title="A hand plugging in an EV charger" height="3477" width="4786" msid="109795975" hostid="261" sizebytes="418508"></div>To cope, experts say, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/live-off-the-grid-tiny-house-no-electricity-2023-12">the grid</a> needs its own internet, stat. They're calling for a digitized "smart grid.""It's imperative," Kevin Schneider, the chief engineer studying power systems at the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-discovers-new-material-to-reduce-lithium-use-in-batteries-2024-1">Pacific Northwest National Laboratory</a>, told Business Insider.Without <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-energy-companies-remotely-raised-smart-thermostats-temperatures-2021-6">smart technologies</a>, the grid will be inefficient, leading to economic losses and slowing the transition to clean energy. An outdated grid could also fall victim to more and more blackouts."If people are really asleep at the wheel, and we keep pushing further, eventually you can get to the hyperbole of a third-world power system," Schneider said.The American Society of Civil Engineers gave <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/construction-jobs-housing-skilled-trades-infrastructure-electricians-future-work-opportunities-2023-11">US energy infrastructure</a> a C-minus grade in 2021, citing poor reliability and increasing threats from severe weather.But a Chattanooga-like transformation nationwide could save us all money, reduce <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fast-fashion-environmental-impact-pollution-emissions-waste-water-2019-10">carbon emissions</a>, and prevent blackouts.<h2>What is a smart grid?</h2>A key job of any power grid is to balance electricity supply and demand. Too much power could damage the system. Not enough could leave some people in the dark.A smart grid automates this balancing act using a system of meters, sensors, controllers, and computers.<div type="image" title="Smart Grid Flowchart" height="2400" width="3560" msid="109795976" hostid="261" sizebytes="288888"></div>Smart grids can also help businesses, factory operators, or homeowners make better-informed decisions about when and how to use energy, whether they want to save money, reduce emissions, or both."It can send information along with electricity," Joshua Rhodes, a research scientist studying smart grids at the University of Texas at Austin, told BI.For example, "it can control a fleet of air conditioners and maybe can turn them off for 15 minutes at a time" to optimize energy costs, he said.<h2>How Chattanooga made its grid smart</h2><div type="image" title="utility worker wearing safety goggles and yellow hard hat standing in a cherry picker holds onto power line cable next to utility pole above a green lawn in front of house among green trees" height="1500" width="2250" msid="109795977" hostid="261" sizebytes="345380"></div>EPB of Chattanooga first needed a system to communicate with all the smart devices it would install. It couldn't make significant upgrades to its system without it."Everything that you looked to do, the limitation was communications," David Wade, the CEO of EPB of Chattanooga, told BI.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/fiber-optic">Fiber optics</a> would do the trick — and allow EPB to start offering TV, internet, and phone services.With the prospect of revenue and a mission as a public utility to improve quality of life, the EPB board of directors approved a plan in 2008.With $169 million from a municipal bond issue for the project, workers started digging trenches and climbing poles to lay new fiber optic cables across Hamilton County.<div type="image" title="utility workers in hard hats handle thick bundles of fiber optic cable which a vehicle arm is lifting upward toward power lines" height="1500" width="2000" msid="109795978" hostid="261" sizebytes="398786"></div>The project was supposed to take 10 years, but a $111.5 million grant from the Department of Energy accelerated the process, basically cutting time to completion in half. The utility finished building its smart grid in 2012.In just four years, EPB had laid its fiber-optic network and linked it to more than 180,000 smart meters in customers' homes and businesses. It also installed about 1,200 automated smart switches, which open or close the flow of power in response to automated software or remote commands from human operators.The smart switches can rapidly reroute energy around fallen power lines that would otherwise cause a blackout. That means the system self-heals, restoring power in seconds.<div type="image" title="long bar-shaped black device with cylinder on top connected to power lines" height="1500" width="2250" msid="109795980" hostid="261" sizebytes="108992"></div>As a result, EPB has reported a 55% annual decrease in outage minutes, or about 19 million outage minutes a year.Previously, dispatchers had to drive to each switch to manually open or close it."It's making the same decisions that we were making as dispatchers and humans, only probably making them a multitude of times faster," Wade said.In the following decade, EPB spent another $115.5 million expanding its smart grid to new housing and commercial developments.<h2>Smart grids are more efficient</h2><div type="image" title="electricity substation illustration with machines smiling computer screens and power lines" height="1000" width="1000" msid="109795981" hostid="261" sizebytes="74260"></div>Because the smart grid automates the balance of supply and demand — helping ensure there's no more energy in the system than people are using at different times of the day — it's more efficient.That reduces energy waste and emissions.In the EPB-funded study period, 2014 to 2020, the EPB grid emitted 8,300 fewer tons of CO2 than it would have if it weren't smart. That's almost as much as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-celebrities-ranked-on-private-jet-co2-emissions-2022-7">Taylor Swift's private jet emitted</a> in the first half of 2022.Those carbon savings came partly from reduced energy use and partly because of reduced truck miles since dispatchers no longer had to drive to every switch for every outage.It's not just blackouts. On a larger scale, a smarter grid could adapt better to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/great-american-land-rush-land-housing-wind-power-solar-panels-2022-11">surge of renewables</a>.<div type="image" title="wind turbine in a field of turbines against blue sky mountains in the background" height="1533" width="2300" msid="109795983" hostid="261" sizebytes="246814"></div>For example, take the Pacific Intertie — a highway of transmission lines that carry hydropower from the Columbia River all the way down to Southern California. The system may need to send power in the other direction more often as solar energy proliferates in the state's south."We had a cold snap up north. It was relatively sunny down south, and suddenly power was flowing the other direction," Schneider said.Having software and automated equipment to handle that process could make it much more efficient and help the system quickly adapt to unforeseen changes.In other words, a smart grid is designed to do more than one thing."We're going to start to see more things like that, where the system was designed to do X, and we're seeing ABCDEFG," Schneider said.<h2>Smart grids can bring huge economic benefits</h2><div type="image" title="illustration of smiling houses with solar panels and wind turbines and cars plugged into electric charging stations" height="1000" width="1000" msid="109795984" hostid="261" sizebytes="78854"></div>Even Congress knows the nation needs a smart grid. In 2007, it directed the Department of Energy to start doling out grants to make it happen.That's the program that gave EPB a boost, and it has spent billions on smart-grid <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/america-build-infrastructure-transportation-housing-regulation-environment-2023-11">infrastructure nationwide</a>.It seems like the kick start worked. In 2020, the department estimated that smart-grid investments would rise to $16.4 billion annually by 2026 — compared with about $6.4 billion in 2018.Though a smart grid requires a big up-front investment, it can save a lot of money down the line.<div type="image" title="utility worker in jeans sweatshirt and hardhat sits and controls a long arm that's raising a large rectangular metal device toward power lines above" height="1500" width="2250" msid="109795985" hostid="261" sizebytes="155530"></div>The study of EPB's smart grid, for instance, valued the benefits to each Hamilton County resident at about $646 a year in the project's first 10 years.That's because the project created more than 9,500 jobs, helped attract new businesses with cost-efficient energy and high-speed internet, and kept customers' electric bills lower than they would have been without the smart grid, the study found. Each household saved about $93 a year on electricity bills.Add it all up, and the smart grid with its fiber-optic internet provided $2.7 billion worth of economic value in its first 10 years, the study found.<h2>The future of our power system</h2>In an ideal future, each new wave of grid technology could integrate seamlessly into the smart system. Large-scale <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tesla-will-only-sell-solar-panels-with-powerwall-2021-4">energy storage</a> could provide backup to power communities when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing enough.Someday, smart appliances in your home could weigh your personal schedule against peak electricity demand and pricing, as well as timing for minimal carbon emissions, to calculate the perfect time to wash your dishes or heat your house. That could translate into major savings on your electricity bill and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fossil-fuel-companies-spend-millions-to-promote-individual-responsibility-2021-3">your carbon footprint</a>."I think tomorrow's grid really becomes: How do you take that massive proliferation of devices and optimize those for the good of the whole?" Wade said.We're still far from that world, but some utilities are rising to the occasion. Nationwide, there are hundreds of microgrids — small, local areas that can operate independently of the larger grid if needed.In the case of a major blackout, they can lock themselves out of the larger grid and rely on their own solar panels or backup batteries. Microgrids are key to a larger smart grid and unprecedented energy resilience.Chattanooga is testing a microgrid around its police- and fire-department headquarters."Today, we are much better positioned than any utility I know of in adding distributed assets to the grid and creating microgrids," Wade said.He added: "It'll get smarter."

Making the power grid 'smart' could save us all money and prevent blackouts. Chattanooga made the $280 million investment.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Geoengineers are planning to test massive underwater curtains that could slow catastrophic glacial melting.</li><li>The Thwaites, a.k.a. "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/thwaites-doomsday-glacier-could-melt-faster-than-expected-study-2022-9">doomsday glacier</a>," has lost over 1,000 billion tons of ice since 2000.</li></ul>A couple feet of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-landmarks-flooding-sea-level-rise-2021-10">sea level rise</a> may not sound like a lot. But if sea levels rose by 2 feet worldwide, the effects on coastal communities would be catastrophic.Cities like New York, Miami, and New Orleans would experience <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-flood-prediction-save-lives-climate-change-2023-12">devastating flooding</a>. Across the globe, 97 million people would be in the path of rapidly encroaching waters, putting their homes, communities, and livelihoods at risk.That's what would happen if the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/submersible-missing-antarctica-doomsday-glacier-2024-2#">Thwaites glacier</a>, nicknamed the 'doomsday glacier,' collapsed. But it wouldn't stop there.<div type="image" title="Water is seen streaming off of icebergs in in Disko Bay, Greenland, that were recently calved from the Ilulissat (Jakobshavn) Glacier" height="1333" width="2000" msid="108249666" hostid="261" sizebytes="259006"></div>Right now, this massive Antarctic ice shelf blocks warming sea waters from reaching other glaciers. If the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/antarctica-thwaites-glacier-ice-shelf-will-shatter-scientists-say-2021-12">Thwaites collapsed</a>, it would trigger a cascade of melting that could <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/thwaites-glacier-melting-doomsday-sea-level-rise-2020-9">raise sea levels another 10 feet</a>.Already, the melting Thwaites contributes to 4% of global sea level rise. Since 2000, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/antarctica-lost-enough-ice-cover-us-three-feet-water-2023-10">Thwaites has lost</a> over 1,000 billion tons of ice. But it's far from the only glacier in trouble, and we're running out of time to save them.That's why geoengineers are innovating technologies that could slow glacial melting.The latest strategy is curtains. That's right — underwater curtains. John Moore, a glaciologist and geoengineering researcher at the University of Lapland, wants to install gigantic 62-mile-long underwater curtains to prevent warm seawater from reaching and melting glaciers.But he needs $50 billion to make it happen.<h2>Drawing the curtains on glacial melting</h2>One of the main drivers of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/earth-axis-shifted-melting-ice-climate-change-2021-4">glacial melting</a> is the flow of warm, salty sea water deep within the ocean. These warm currents lap against the sides of the Thwaites, for example, melting away the thick ice that keeps the shelf's edge from collapsing.As oceans warm due to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/still-time-to-address-climate-change-ipcc-scientists-report-2021-8">climate change</a>, these intruding currents will increasingly erode the Thwaites, driving it closer to total collapse.Moore and his colleagues are trying to figure out if they could anchor curtains on the Amundsen seafloor to slow the melting.In theory, these curtains would block the flow of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/atlantic-ocean-currents-collapse-shut-down-new-study-2024-2">warm currents</a> to the Thwaites to halt melting and give its ice shelf time to re-thicken.<div type="image" title="diagram of sea curtains" height="669" width="1004" msid="108249745" hostid="261" sizebytes="31092"></div>This isn't the first time Moore has suggested this blocking solution. His curtain idea is based on a similar solution he proposed back in 2018, which would block warm water using a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/geoengineering-ice-sheets-prevent-ice-sheet-collapse-2018-9">massive wall</a>.But curtains are a much safer option, according to Moore.They're just as effective at blocking warm currents, but much easier to remove if necessary, he explained.For instance, if the curtains took an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/geoengineering-methods-climate-change-2018-10">unexpected toll</a> on the local environment, they could be taken out and redesigned."Any intervention should be something that you can revert if you have second thoughts," Moore said.While Moore and his colleagues are still decades away from implementing this technology to save the Thwaites, they are in the middle of testing prototypes on a smaller scale.<h2>A $50 billion idea</h2>Moore's colleagues at the University of Cambridge are already in the very early stages of developing and testing a prototype, and they could progress to the next stage as early as summer 2025, according to Moore.Right now, researchers at the University of Cambridge are testing a 3-foot-long version of this technology inside tanks. Once they've proven its functionality, they'll move on to testing it in the River Cam, either by installing it at the bottom of the river or by pulling it behind a boat, Moore said.<div type="image" title="River Cam" height="800" width="1200" msid="108249747" hostid="261" sizebytes="169882"></div>The idea is to gradually scale up the prototypes until evidence suggests the technology is stable enough to install in the Antarctic, Moore explained.If all goes well, they could be testing a set of 33-foot-long curtain prototypes in a Norwegian fjord in about two years."We want to know, what could possibly go wrong? And if there's no solution for it, then in the end you just have to give up," Moore said. "But there's also a lot of incentive to try and make it work."With scaling comes an increased need for funding. This year's experiments will cost around $10,000. But to get to the point where Moore and his colleagues could confidently implement this technology, they'll need about $10 million.And they would need another $50 billion to actually install curtains in the Amundsen Sea."It sounds like a hell of a lot," Moore said. "But compare the risk-risk: the cost of sea level protection around the world, just coastal defenses, is expected to be about $50 billion per year per meter of sea level rise."<div type="image" title="map of sea level rise in NYC" height="1299" width="1926" msid="108249749" hostid="261" sizebytes="307738"></div>While some coastal cities, like New York, have the budget to adapt to rising seas, others won't even come close."One of the great driving forces for us is this social justice point — that it's a much more equitable way of dealing with sea level rise than just saying, 'We should be spending this money on adaptation,'" Moore said.<h2>A race against time</h2><a target="_blank" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3018516/">Data shows</a> that the Thwaites glacier, and others like it, are melting at unprecedented rates due to climate change. But the question of when they could collapse remains up for debate among glaciologists."We really don't know if [the Thwaites] could collapse tomorrow, or 10 years from now, or 50 years from now," said Moore. Adding, "We need to collect better data."<div type="image" title="thwaites glacier and pine island glacier" height="377" width="320" msid="108249750" hostid="261" sizebytes="16388"></div>But collecting better data will take time that these glaciers might not have.Proponents of glacial <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/geoengineering-technology-could-cool-the-planet-2017-7">geoengineering</a>, like Moore, believe that the time for intervention is now. Other experts disagree, arguing that cutting carbon emissions is the only viable way to slow glacial melting.While reducing emissions is essential for mitigating the effects of climate change, Moore isn't confident that we'll cut back drastically or quickly enough to save the Thwaites. Once it reaches a tipping point, "Then the glacier doesn't really care anymore about what humans want to do about their emissions," he said."At that point, that's when you need these other tools in the box."

Scientists want to build 62-mile-long curtains around the 'doomsday glacier' for a $50 billion Hail Mary to save it

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="45830" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Bill-Gates">Bill Gates</keyword> is considering Glenrock, Wyoming, for his next-generation nuclear power plant. </li><li>The plant could replace 200 jobs that are at risk as a local <keyword id="6356966" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="coal">coal</keyword> plant closes, the mayor said.</li><li>Gates' company TerraPower is running the project with Warren Buffett-owned PacifiCorp. </li></ul>A small town in Wyoming is hoping that Bill Gates will pick it for his upcoming $1 billion next-generation nuclear power plant, which could save hundreds of local jobs.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-terrapower-molten-salt-nuclear-reactor-2018-10">TerraPower</a>, Gates' nuclear-power company, is considering Glenrock, Wyoming, for its first advanced Natrium reactor, per the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/bill-gates-wyoming-technology-environment-and-nature-government-and-politics-c647adc5f4a447eaef1c4ec28464e153">Associated Press (AP)</a>. Gates has said the reactor would be safer and cost less than a traditional nuclear reactor.A coal-fired power plant in Glenrock is due to shut in 2027, according to <a href="https://www.pacificorp.com/content/dam/pcorp/documents/en/pacificorp/energy/integrated-resource-plan/2019_IRP_Volume_I.pdf">plans published</a> by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-energy-companies-remotely-raised-smart-thermostats-temperatures-2021-6">energy company</a> PacifiCorp, the plant's owner. The plant, called the Dave Johnston Power Plant, employs nearly 200 people from Glenrock and two nearby towns, <a href="https://www.wyomingnews.com/rocketminer/news/troubling-future-of-coal-hits-dave-johnston-plant/article_a42d355a-421f-5647-ac3f-50d1f0b2289b.html">Wyoming News</a> reported.Glenrock Mayor Bruce Roumell <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/wyoming-bill-gates-terrapower-nuclear-replace-coal-jobs?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20foxbusiness%2Flatest%20%28Internal%20-%20Latest%20News%20-%20Text%290Text%29">told Fox Business</a> that the site could more than make up for lost coal jobs. "We've been told it'll be close to 250 people," Roumell told Fox Business when asked how many jobs could be created. "They've also said there would be around 1,500 people in the construction phase. That's a pretty good influx into this area for us." TerraPower is running the Natrium project with PacifiCorp - owned by billionaire <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-warren-buffett-spends-net-worth-philanthropy-2018-10">Warren Buffett</a> - and plans to <a href="https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/next-gen-nuclear-plant-and-jobs-are-coming-wyoming">open the plant by 2028.</a> The Natrium reactor could be a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/easy-ways-to-mitigate-climate-change-lower-your-carbon-footprint">carbon-free energy</a> source for about 400,000 homes during peak demand, <a href="https://www.terrapower.com/natrium-demo-wyoming-coal-plant/">TerraPower said in a press release</a>. Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stocks-to-buy-companies-that-will-profit-from-the-clean-energy-movement">UBS lays out the case for buying these 47 stocks across 11 sectors that are 'preferred winners' from a $140 trillion transition to clean energy that will transform the industry</a>Gates said in a June <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHzwwtSTbxY&amp;t=558s558s">press briefing</a> that the Natirum reactor, which uses liquid sodium as its coolant instead of water, would be safer and cost less than a traditional nuclear reactor. In October 2020, the US Department of <keyword id="6357014" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="energy">Energy</keyword> awarded the project $80 million in initial funding, per a TerraPower <a href="https://www.terrapower.com/doe-natrium-demonstration-award/">press release</a>. In June, TerraPower said in a <a href="https://www.terrapower.com/natrium-demo-wyoming-coal-plant/">press release</a> that it would <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-warren-buffett-nuclear-reactor-wyoming-terrapower-pacificorp-2021-6">select a town in Wyoming</a> for its first reactor project, and that it would announce the site by the end of the year. Gillette, Kemmerer, and Rock Springs are the three other towns under consideration, per the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/bill-gates-wyoming-technology-environment-and-nature-government-and-politics-c647adc5f4a447eaef1c4ec28464e153">AP</a>.TerraPower previously said the project would cost about $1 billion, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-nuclearpower-terrapower-idUSKBN25N2U8">Reuters reported</a>. Fox Business said that nearly all of Glenrock's residents it spoke to were excited at the idea of TerraPower moving into town. "We've got to do something," resident Deb Schell told Fox Business. "I think it's the wave of the future. Coal is on its way out so we have to do something."TerraPower and PacifiCorp did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

A small Wyoming town is hoping Bill Gates' $1 billion nuclear power plant could save hundreds of jobs

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Burning <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fossil-fuel-companies-spend-millions-to-promote-individual-responsibility-2021-3">fossil fuels</a> is a huge health hazard. The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/types-of-pollution-health-effects-2019-3">air pollution</a> alone causes 1 in 5 deaths annually.</li><li>A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-approval-alaska-drilling-could-be-big-oils-last-surge-2023-3">rapid transition to green energy</a> sources would prevent a lot of disability and early death, researchers say.</li></ul><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackouts-power-outages-more-common-climate-change-electric-grid-infrastructure-2023-3">The world's energy choices</a> between now and 2050 will determine so much about the future. Climate change, natural ecosystems, and economic development are all on the line. Add to that list 181 million years of healthy human life — annually.That's how many years can be saved from death or disability by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/speed-up-transition-green-energy-leaders-davos-2023-1">quickly ramping up</a> renewable energy and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/clean-energy-transition-net-zero-businesses-leadership-trust-pwc-2023-1">dialing back fossil fuels</a>, according to a new assessment published on Friday, from the nonprofit <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/publications/building-a-nature-positive-energy-transformation--2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Wildlife Fund</a> and the Boston Consulting Group.<div type="image" title="workers install solar panels using a drill" height="1707" width="2276" msid="105080516" hostid="261" sizebytes="298220"></div>The report compares two futures: one in which the world rapidly transitions to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/carbon-emissions-2022-record-renewables-growth-solar-wind-iea-2023-3">renewable energy sources</a> like solar, wind, and bioenergy; and one in which the world continues business as usual by relying largely on fossil fuels."The rapid-transition future is not only essential to mitigating climate change, but it's also quantifiably better for ecosystems, wildlife, and our well-being," Stephanie Roe, WWF's lead scientist on climate and energy, and a lead author of the report, told Insider.<h2>Millions of people's lives are on the line</h2><div type="image" title="dozens of people walk between cars stuck in traffic on a street" height="1498" width="1998" msid="105080517" hostid="261" sizebytes="423152"></div>Disability-adjusted life years, or DALYs, capture years of life affected by disability and years lost to premature death. The metric allows scientists to do a global, lifetime assessment of health risks due to air pollution or <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-climate-change-crisis-extreme-weather-is-costing-you-2023-9">climate change</a>, for example.That's what the WWF and BCG used to calculate the toll of the two futures on the table.If the world rapidly transitions to renewables, they found, the energy system will still hurt human health enough in 2050 to lead to early death and disability that affects 30 million years of human life.<div type="image" title="Wind turbines pictured at sunset." height="5091" width="6788" msid="105080518" hostid="261" sizebytes="229948"></div>That is to say that the impacts of the energy system in one year, 2050, would cause about 30 million people to live one year less or have one extra year of disability, or would cause 15 million people to live two years less, for example.Those health impacts would mostly come from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/types-of-pollution-health-effects-2019-3">air pollution</a> and climate change, but also from other toxicity and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/radioactive-fallout-from-nuclear-bomb-surprising-facts-2023-3">radiation</a> associated with nuclear energy.In the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/exxon-acquisition-permian-basin-pioneer-fossil-fuels-energy-transition-2023-10">fossil-fuel future</a>, though, the researchers estimate that in 2050 alone the energy system would cause 211 million years of human life to either be lost or lived with a disability. That's 181 million more years than the green-energy scenario for 2050.<h2>Fossil fuels are terrible for human health</h2>Fossil fuels like gasoline, coal, or diesel are so deadly because burning them releases heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That's raising average global temperatures and driving <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-change-alter-human-life-un-ipcc-report-2022-2">increasingly extreme weather</a>.Fossil fuels also release toxic gases and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/does-the-us-have-the-cleanest-air-in-the-world-2018-10">particulate matter</a> — minuscule, toxic flakes that can increase the risk of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/most-least-toxic-countries-pollution-environment-2017-2#-1">asthma</a>, lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke.<div type="image" title="bird flying through dark orange skies above the london skyline" height="1500" width="1999" msid="105080519" hostid="261" sizebytes="42820"></div>Car exhaust and gas stoves are day-to-day sources of exposure to these pollutants, according to the American Lung Association. Mines, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-air-pollution-levels-in-2015-2015-12#china-has-a-lot-of-coal-power-plants-which-spew-out-large-amounts-of-a-pollutant-called-pm-25-a-type-of-particulate-matter-thats-found-in-soot-smoke-and-dust-those-coal-mines-when-combined-with-car-exhaust-are-responsible-for-the-smog-that-makes-it-almost-impossible-to-see-the-cars-pictured-here-4">coal-burning plants</a>, and other fossil-fuel facilities also emit poisonous substances.In 2018 alone, more than 8.7 million premature deaths could be attributed to air pollution from burning fossil fuels, according to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0013935121000487" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Harvard scientists.</a> That's one in five deaths worldwide."We knew this, but it's nice to have some numbers on it," Jonathan Buonocore, an assistant professor of environmental health at Boston University School of Public Health, told Insider.The report also assessed 2022, and concluded that the current energy system already enacts a heavy toll, to the tune of 159 million healthy life-years with each year that passes.<h2>How researchers measure years affected by disability or early death</h2>The researchers made their projections based on groundwork laid in a 2017 study, which had calculated DALYs per kilowatt-hour of energy from solar, wind, coal, and more.The WWF and BCG researchers applied those DALYs-per-kilowatt-hour calculations to the energy profiles of both scenarios for 2050.This may even be an underestimate of the human life and health that's at stake, Buonocore said, since the calculations in the 2017 study didn't include the impacts of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-with-the-worst-air-pollution-2016-9">smallest particulate matter in the air</a>.<h2>What global green energy means</h2><h2><div type="image" title="a crane installs a massive wind turbine in the water" height="3708" width="4944" msid="105080520" hostid="261" sizebytes="692114"></div></h2>As of 2019 , 80.9% of the world was powered by fossil fuels, 5% of the world was powered by nuclear energy, and 14.1% of the world was powered by renewables, according to the <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-balances-overview/world">International Energy Agency</a>. To meet the projections laid out in the WWF report, we'd need to reduce global dependency on fossil fuels to 15% and scale up our renewable energy use to 85%."I think it's important to think about energy as a determinant of health," Buonocore said. "People need energy to do everything."That means building solar panel fields and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-powers-on-16-megawatt-offshore-wind-turbine-taiwan-strait-2023-7">wind farms</a>, ramping up mining <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/north-american-rare-earth-minerals-supply-hunt-domestic-clean-energy-2022-4">rare earth minerals</a> to make more batteries, and shutting down coal mines and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-gas-prices-rising-energy-fracking-boom-ending-oil-shortage-2022-6">fracking operations</a>. So a shift into a green future would require a massive investment, upending many corners of our current operating system, from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-ban-gas-stoves-in-new-buildings-emissions-reduction-2023-4">individual kitchens</a> to national power grids. In 2022, <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/145Country/22-145Countries.pdf">Stanford scientists</a> estimated that the transition could require $61.5 trillion in funds. But, the researchers who ran the report say that the investment would be worth the returns. "A fossil-fuel future is just so many orders of magnitude worse than this transition," Roe said.

A rapid clean-energy transition could save 181 million years of healthy human life annually by 2050, report finds

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The House GOP passed a bill to bar federal regulation of gas stoves.</li><li>Republicans framed efficiency rules for stoves as government overreach in conservatives' kitchens.</li></ul>Venturing back into the nation's culture wars, the Republican-controlled House is taking up legislation that GOP lawmakers say would protect gas stoves from overzealous government regulators.A bill approved Tuesday would prohibit use of federal funds to regulate gas stoves as a hazardous product, while a separate bill set for a vote Wednesday would block an Energy Department rule setting stricter energy efficiency standards for stovetops and ovens.The White House said the administration "has been clear that it does not support any attempt to ban the use of gas stoves,″ but GOP lawmakers say rules on gas stoves represent classic government overreach."It's not a petty concern to the hard-working Americans who will be impacted,″ said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. "The last thing they need is to have the Biden administration's Green New Deal regulatory assault reach their kitchen appliances."The bill targeting regulation of gas stoves as hazardous was approved, 248-180.President Joe Biden opposes both GOP bills as blocking "common-sense efforts to help Americans cut their energy bills,'' the White House said in a statement. Neither bill is expected to advance in the Democratic-controlled Senate.The House bills were set for approval last week, but action was postponed after House conservatives staged a mini-revolt in retaliation for Speaker Kevin McCarthy's leadership on a measure to raise the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/debt-ceiling-biden-mccarthy-default-negotiations-cb0646c6301f1df97211896897df3723" target="_blank" rel="noopener">debt ceiling</a>. Led by outspoken members of the House Freedom Caucus, 11 Republicans <a href="https://apnews.com/article/gas-stoves-republican-revolt-freedom-caucus-1952006c4f6fa7a727cf635208d851d1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">broke with their party on an otherwise routine procedural vote</a> that threw the House schedule into disarray for a full week.McCarthy appeared to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/house-republicans-impasse-spending-gas-stoves-aba009853861b06937ed4cab042482be" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resolve the dispute late Monday</a> after promising more meetings with GOP holdouts and seeking to reduce future federal spending.Dozens of Democratic-controlled cities, including San Francisco and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/berkeley-california-natural-gas-ban-overturned-court-3546acbaec5db011c89a610baa42cebc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Berkeley, California,</a> have moved to ban new buildings from using gas stoves as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve indoor air quality <a href="https://apnews.com/article/environment-gas-ban-stoves-612319f94b42b035921bf30aad141780" target="_blank" rel="noopener">. New York state approved a law last month banning natural gas stoves and furnaces</a> in most new buildings.Fears of a national ban grew after a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-united-states-government-us-consumer-product-safety-commission-ap-fact-check-texas-2003dcf8d0bee8ddf45080186b2e0c7b" target="_blank" rel="noopener">member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission said in January that "any option is on the table" when it comes to regulating gas stoves,</a> which have been linked to poor indoor air quality and health harms such as asthma. The remark prompted online images of the government dragging four-burner cooktops from homes, as social media users and GOP lawmakers vowed to defend the popular appliances.Debate reignited after the Energy Department proposed a rule requiring both gas and electric stoves and cooktops to use more efficient designs and technologies.The Energy Department rule, which has not yet been finalized, could ban about half of gas stove models currently sold in the United States as of 2027, according to an Energy Department analysis. The rule would apply only to sale of new appliances and would not affect stoves already in homes or businesses.House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Washington state, called the DOE plan "just the latest in a long line of power grabs by the radical left and Biden administration.''The rule is "not about public safety. It is about telling the American people the federal government knows best and will decide what kind of car they can drive, how they can heat their house and now how they're allowed to cook food for their families,'' McMorris Rodgers said.Forcing Americans to switch to more expensive alternatives to natural gas will increase costs while disproportionately harming the poor and low-income families, she said.Democrats called those concerns overheated."This is nothing more than a conspiracy theory cooked up to embroil Congress in culture wars that shed more heat than light on the issues facing our nation,'' said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pennsylvania."Contrary to the heated rhetoric from our colleagues across the aisle, the federal government has not proposed to remove appliances from Americans' homes,'' Scanlon said. The proposed Energy Department rule would save consumers up to $1.7 billion and cut down on emission that are dangerous to children's health, she added.The bill blocking regulation of unsafe gas stoves threatens the government's ability to identify and regulate appliances with design defects that could cause injury or death, Scanlon said, noting that that the consumer safety panel recently recalled gas stove models that placed consumers at risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.An Energy Department spokeswoman said the proposed rule is "intended for nothing more than increasing energy efficiency and promoting innovation, without sacrificing the reliability and performance that Americans have come to expect.''Eliminating the energy efficiency rule would "deny the American people the savings that come with having more efficient new appliances on the market when they choose to replace an existing appliance,'' the White House said, while approval of the other bill "would undermine science-based Consumer Product Safety Commission decision-making.''

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