| Environmental Issues
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| Despite what the current federal administration has been saying or doing, environmental conditions have been worsening and can have a traumatic impact on future generations. Referring back to news items prior to the last national election reflects these issues.
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| In the "News in Brief" column in the 23 December 2023 issue of Science, it notes that "nearly 200 countries agreed last week at the United Nations's 28th Conference of the Parties climate summit to 'transition away from' fossil fuels. It asked countries to develop new plans within 2 years to curb greenhouse gas emissions." However, in The Guardian in 14 December 2023, Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania stated "It's like promising your doctor that you will 'transition away from doughnuts' after being diagnosed with diabetes."
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| Under the heading of "2024 Looms" in an editorial in the 23 December issue of Science, H. Holden Thorp pointed out that "The solution to this is daunting but doable. The scientific community must figure out how to speak out against anti-science attitudes and beliefs without sounding condescending and furthering populist paranoia." Several optimistic perspectives appeared in the January/February 2024 issue of MIT Technology Review.
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| Casey Crownheart noted the following in "Climate's Hardest Problem":
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| "The cement industry pumps 2.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. Cleaning that up will require addressing the two distinct sources of cement’s greenhouse-gas emissions: heat and chemistry.
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| "Humans use more concrete, by weight, than any other material except water. Cement is the glue that holds the material together, accounting for about 10% of its volume.
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| "...fossil fuels have become ingrained in production processes because of their low cost....However, lower-cost renewables are coming to the grid, opening the door for more industrial sectors to switch to electricity.
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| "...the other sources of emissions from cement production: the roughly 60% that comes not from heat but from the chemical reactions required to transform the starting materials into the building material.
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| "By 2019, Ellis and her fellow researchers...found that an electrolyzer could be used to form a pH gradient in a tank, with dissolved limestone on the acidic end and hydrated lime on the other. The lime could then be combined with reactive silica to form the same compounds formed by traditional cement.
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| "Sublime's pilot can make about 100 tons per year....
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| "Sublime has its sights set on scaling, and quickly. The next stage for the startup is a demonstration commercial facility producing tens of thousands of tons of material each year, which should come online in early 2026."
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| Zach Winn pointed out in "Cleaner Concrete" that:
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| "Last summer, in the dusty basement of a building in Seattle, workers poured about 60 tons of concrete for a renovation of a historic building.
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| "The pour used cement-free concrete--a big deal because the global cement industry accounts for as much as 7% of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions. And concrete is the second most-used substance in the world....
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| "...the Seattle pour used a more sustainable binding material developed by the startup C-Crete Technologies.
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| "C-Crete's materials bind with locally available mineral feedstocks and industrial by-products to make cement-free concrete--and they can be manufactured in a process that doesn't require the high temperatures needed to produce Portland cement. The company says C-Crete's binder also absorbs carbon dioxide over time, making the material even greener.
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| "This fall, the US Department of Energy awarded the company $3 million to develop ways to use carbon dioxide captured from the air in its concrete, which would make it carbon negative, and to expand the types of material it can use."
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| Jennifer Chu shared two advances. [This concept was also covered in a brief by Carolyn Gramling in the June 2025 issue of Science News.]
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| Jennifer Chu shared two advances. In "Fuel from Sunlight" she shared that "Hydrogen is a clean fuel that can power trucks, ships, and planes, but producing it usually requires fossil fuels. A new system conceptualized by MIT engineers uses the sun's heat to split water and generate hydrogen without emitting greenhouse gases", referring to "...solar thermochemical hydrogen, or STCH." In "Sea + Sun = Drink", she stated that "MIT engineers and colleagues in China are aiming to turn seawater into drinking water with a completely passive solar-powered device."
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| As noted in the 1 May 2025 issue of Science, "Scientists fear the administration will now try to produce a report downplaying the risks of climate change." This issue has been festering for almost six decades. Eric Schulz wrote "Gaslighted -- A History of Lies" which is the key article in the Spring 2025 issue of Catalyst, the newsletter of the Union of Concerned Scientists. In 1959, nuclear physicist Edward Teller warned that the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere would pose major environmental risks. As the author noted, "fossil fuel companies took inspiration from the tobacco industry's tactics to deceive the public and divert attention. Thus developed a decades-long campaign of collusion, persuasion, and disinformation that continues to this day."
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| It might help if the general public becomes more aware of these topics.
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