upworthy

carbon emissions

Science

He planted a giant sequoia to offset his lifetime carbon footprint and will help you do it, too

A giant sequoia could offset the lifetime carbon footprint of more than one person.

via One Life One Tree/Facebook and One Life One Tree/Facebook

Climate activist Henry Emson of One Life One Tree.

Climate activist Henry Emson told Euronews that when he became a father seven years ago, he was worried about his family’s effect on the environment. After doing some serious research he found the best way to eliminate their carbon footprint was by planting giant sequoia trees.

General Sherman, the world’s largest tree, has sequestered an estimated 1,500 tons of carbon dioxide in its trunk over the last 2200 years and could live another 800 more. The average human could generate close to 1,000 tons of CO2 over their lifetime, so planting one giant sequoia could effectively reduce the carbon footprint of more than one person.

The giant sequoia is ideal for capturing carbon because unlike other trees that slow their growth rate as they mature, they continue to grow consistently for centuries, sequestering more carbon over time.

After realizing the power giant sequoias have to fight climate change, Emson dedicated his life to planting thousands in the U.K. by creating the One Life One Tree project. Its ultimate goal is to plant 100,000 giant sequoias in the U.K. by 2030 and, according to The Mirror, as of March 2022, it has already planted 700.

“Our goal is to create The Great Reserve, a back-up of these majestic giants in the UK where they can survive the stresses of global climate change,” he said, according to The Mirror.

Trees are currently being planted near Abergavenny in Wales and the project is considering expanding to Devon, the Lake District and Scotland.

While the common assumption is that these giant trees can only be grown in Northern California, they actually do well in the U.K. at a time when the sequoia population is threatened back home.

According to One Tree One Life, 95% of the old-growth sequoia population has been logged over the past two centuries and what remains is under threat from climate change. “A 10 year+ drought and temperature increase have greatly reduced the immune systems and health of the trees. A secondary impact of the drought is making them increasingly susceptible to insect attack and fire,” the site says.

Considering the danger that climate change is causing giant sequoias in California, Emson’s work is helping promote the survival of people and these majestic trees at the same time. “They’re effectively like climate refugees—we help them with assisted migration,” he told Euronews.

Interested in planting a giant sequoia in the U.K. to cancel out your carbon footprint? For £395 ($478 US) One Life One Tree will plant a tree for you in its reserve. You’ll also receive an aerial photo of your tree and an e-certificate with its GPS coordinates. If you travel to the U.K. they’ll even let you meet your tree and give it a hug.

Just imagine if everyone planted one giant sequoia? The climate would cool and our planet would be even more beautiful.

To learn more about how to plant your giant sequoia go to One Life One Tree.

From Your Site Articles
climate change
Heroes

A hilarious commercial in Sweden is getting people hyped about public transport.

Sweden has been working on an exciting new technology, dubbed "The Future of Mobility."

Imagine climbing into your car, only now you can stretch your legs comfortably in the roomy cabin. Instead of fighting reckless drivers and morning traffic, you can whip open your phone or laptop, catch up on work, or just zone out, and be sure you'll show up at your destination safe and sound.

And all of that without feeling guilty about polluting the ozone.

It's not just a fantasy anymore. Behold:

Yes, the future of transportation in Sweden is ... a bus.

But it might not be as silly as it sounds.

The clever ad comes from Swedish public transport agency Västtrafik, which wants to encourage more commuters to take the bus (or train) instead of clogging the road with cars. In addition to the ad campaign, Västtrafik is also offering riders two weeks of free public transit to show them how great it can be.

Obviously, public transport isn't a good fit for everyone, especially those who live or work outside major urban centers. But according to a press release, Västtrafik expects to gain over 5,000 new regular riders from the experiment.

Sweden hopes to be "climate neutral" by 2050, and getting more cars off the road is a big part of the plan.

Photo by Erik Martensson/AFP/Getty Images.

We've seen lots of small islands and isolated communities completely wean themselves off fossil fuels, but for a developed nation like Sweden to do it would be a massive feat.

One of the biggest challenges will be to cut the country's carbon emissions — about a third of which come from domestic travel, according to Västtrafik. Frankly, it just makes sense.

"A normal car in Sweden stands still for 97 percent of its lifetime and for every car there are eight parking spaces and many miles of road," said Sweden's environment minister, Karolina Skog. "You can't call that effective."

The country already gets the majority of its energy from renewable sources wind, and it's working on making its fleet of buses and trains even more energy efficient.

Thanks, Sweden, for showing the rest of the world what climate-conscious policy should look like.

Not all nations believe the interests of its people and the planet can be served at the same time, but you have to wonder if they might be singing a different tune as the impact of climate change becomes more severe.

The more of us who are willing to get involved and (gasp!) maybe sit next to another human being on our morning commute, the better chance we have at slowing down this "runaway bus."

From Your Site Articles
Heroes

They spent 20 years developing this aircraft engine. Can it change the future of aviation?

True
United Technologies

At any given moment, there are about 5,000 planes flying above the United States.

87,000 flights take place per day. Millions of flights per year. And that's just the United States.

With that volume of air traffic, needless to say, a new type of aircraft engine — one that produces 75% less noise for those on the ground and burns 16% less fuel — is a huge deal for both people and the planet.

It’s called the PurePower® Geared Turbofan™ engine, and after 20 years in development at Pratt & Whitney, a division of United Technologies, it’s going to change the game of aviation.

See for yourself what makes this engine so special:

So what’s the secret? The basic concept is this: Pratt & Whitney’s engine is designed with a high bypass ratio, meaning that 12 times the amount of airflow passes around the engine’s core versus going through the core itself, which makes the engine more efficient overall.

Higher efficiency means less fuel burn, and less fuel burn means fewer emissions.

Still not impressed? Here's the kicker: This new aircraft engine reduces annual carbon dioxide emissions by 3,600 metric tons per plane.

At a time when our environment is in serious need of some tender loving care, cutting our carbon footprint in any way we can is more important than ever.

But even we'll admit that 3,600 metric tons of carbon dioxide is pretty hard to visualize. So what does that actually mean?

It's the equivalent of 766 cars being taken off the road for an entire year.

Calculated differently, that's 279,574 cars being taken off the road for a day — only a few thousand cars shy of the daily traffic crossing from New Jersey into New York City.

What if nearly all the cars driving into NYC simply didn’t show up one day? The resulting reduction of carbon dioxide would be equivalent to a single PurePower engine.

Image via iStock.

It's also equivalent to more than 4.6 million households using absolutely no electricity for 24 hours.

About 4,660,000 households, actually.

That’s like if everyone who lives in New York City (3 million households) Los Angeles (1.3 million households), and Las Vegas (213,000 households) used no electricity whatsoever for 24 hours.

Image via iStock.

It's even equivalent to 5,419 people going vegetarian for a whole year.

Typical meat eaters have a bigger carbon footprint than vegetarians — even those who only eat the USDA recommended 0.21 pound of meat per day (or less).

Have you ever considered going vegetarian for a year to reduce your impact on the environment? How about convincing 5,418 people to do it with you? Your collective impact would equal that of just one PurePower engine.

Image via iStock.

Chances are, commuters aren’t just going to suddenly stop driving into NYC. But that’s why innovations like this aircraft engine are so important.

As Pratt & Whitney Engineer Monica Dujic explains, “There is a future in aviation that can help the environment ... and the people around you.”

Now that is something worth celebrating.

Heroes

How scientists in Iceland turned harmful greenhouse gases into rocks.

For a modern-day climate scientist, this rock could be magical.

A basalt core with carbonate crystals growing inside. Photo from Annette K. Mortensen/University of Southampton.

Humans release at least 35 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, which can be tough on the environment.

But what if, alchemy-like, we could take all that carbon dioxide and turn it into rock?

At Iceland's Hellisheidi power plant, that's what they've been trying to do.

Photo from Árni Sæberg/University of Southampton.

Hellisheidi is a geothermal plant, which means it uses volcanically-heated water to run turbines, but the process isn't perfectly emission-free — it can bring up volcanic gases, including carbon dioxide.

And while the amount of those gases it generates are only a tiny fraction of what a coal plant would produce, the power plant still wanted to get rid of it.

So in 2012, they started a pilot program, Carbfix, to try putting that carbon back in the ground.


An early injection site. Photo by Kevin Krajick/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, used with permission.

How do they do it?

They capture the plant's carbon dioxide, mix it with water, and inject it nearly a half-mile down into the volcanic basalt.

This futuristic-looking space bubble is actually the newer injection site for the Carbfix project. Photo by Kevin Krajick/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, used with permission.

There, the carbon dioxide reacts with chemicals naturally found in the basalt and turns from a gas into chalky, white carbonate.

University of Iceland geologist and study co-author Sandra Snaebjornsdottir holds up a piece of basalt covered in carbonate deposits. Photo by Kevin Krajick/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, used with permission.

Some previous projects have tried pumping carbon dioxide into sandstone or aquifers, but that was essentially just hiding the carbon dioxide. This process transforms it.

That's great! But the truly amazing thing is that the process works hundreds of times faster than anyone predicted.

Two scientists inspect some of the rock samples. Photo by Kevin Krajick/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, used with permission.

We knew this chemical reaction was theoretically possible, but previous studies guessed that it'd take hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years to work.

But Hellisheidi blew that timeline away. Within two years, 95% of the carbon dioxide pumped down had been turned into rock. The researchers just published these astounding findings in the journal Science.

This is amazing because it's not just Iceland that can do this. We could do this anywhere there's basalt.

At Iceland's Black Falls, water pours over columns of pure basalt rock. Photo by Kevin Krajick/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, used with permission.

Basalt is formed from volcanoes. Most of the sea floor is made of basalt and about 10% of continental rocks are too.

The Iceland scientists aren't being too hasty though. The next step is to try again at a larger scale.

The Hellisheidi power plant from a distance. Photo by Kevin Krajick/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, used with permission.

The project is currently injecting 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year. They're planning to double that rate this summer and see how it works.

They're also being careful about any unintended consequences.

A rock core covered in slime. Photo by Kevin Krajick/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, used with permission.

Some of the cores contained a greenish slime, for instance, which may be biological. Microbiologists are going to study this slime to learn how the Carbfix process might affect underground microbes.

And all of this research is key if we're going to stop climate change.

Carbon capture is a needed bridge to help us while we transition to clean energy.

The 38th Session of the IPCC. Photo from Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images.

In 2014, the International Panel on Climate Change included carbon capture in their list of options to help us limit climate change.

There's still a lot we need to do to stop climate change, but this technique could be a huge step forward.

There are many things we can personally do — such as limiting energy use and using our cars less — but we need action at the systematic level too.

"We need to deal with rising carbon emissions," said Dr. Jeurg Matter, lead author of the paper, in an article from Columbia University. 

"This is the ultimate permanent storage — turning them back to stone."

Trending Stories