Elon Musk’s Personal Mouthpiece, Raging Arctic Wildfires—And A Simple Emissions Solution For Coal Plants

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This week’s Current Climate, which every Saturday brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability. Sign up to get it in your inbox every week.

Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

When you picture the Arctic in your mind, you probably have a visual about snow, ice and cold. But thanks to rising global temperatures, there’s another image you can add to your mental picture: wildfires. New research has shown that 2019 and 2020 were huge wildfire seasons for the Siberian Arctic, resulting in the destruction of 4.7 million hectares of land. The number of fires in these two years alone accounted for nearly half of the total burns to the area from 1982 to 2020. Scientists note that when the permafrost in this area burns, it releases a huge amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses. This, they warn, could create a feedback loop where rising emissions lead to rising temperatures which lead to more wildfires and rising emissions. Earlier this year, researchers determined that the Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the world, meaning we’re likely to see more big wildfire seasons in the area.

The Big Read

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This Material Could Reduce CO2 From Coal Plants After Record Emissions Last Year, Study Finds

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology say that a material called aluminum formate could be used to scrub carbon dioxide from power plant smokestacks before it even reaches the atmosphere, which accounts for 30% of all global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study published Wednesday in the the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances.

Discoveries And Innovations

Rising carbon dioxide levels will cause crops to become less nutritious by cutting plants’ nitrogen concentrations, according to a new study, leading millions of people worldwide to face protein and mineral deficiencies as carbon emissions climb.

Connecticut-based startup Protein Engineering is working on genetically-engineered bacteria that can recycle textiles and mixed-plastic waste at scale.

Agricultural researcher Awais Khan is heading efforts to find new ways to breed apples that are resistant to disease to reduce the use of pesticide.

Sustainability Deals Of The Week

Direct Air Capture: Carbon Engineering announced this week that it’s working with its development partner 1PointFive planning and engineering of a one-megatonne direct air capture facility in Texas.

Arboreal Acceleration: Global reforestation company Terraformation announced this week that it’s launching a “forest accelerator” which will provide tools and resources for teams that want to launch reforestation projects at scale.

Digital Decarbonization: TerraPraxis says that it will be making its new EVALUATE application available on November 7. The app will allow energy investors and fossil fuel plant owners to evaluate existing coal power plants for potential conversation to emissions-free power generation.

On The Horizon

This Sunday will see the start of COP27, the annual United Nations Conference on Climate Change. The event will bring together world leaders, activists, non-government organizations, corporations and more to discuss action steps needed to achieve the world’s collective climate goals.

What Else We’re Reading This Week

After Ian, Florida’s waterways could remain polluted for months (Washington Post)

This Ancient Grain-Sowing Method Could Be Farming’s Future (Wired)

The Middle East Is Going Green while Supplying Oil to Others (Scientific American)

Green Transportation Update

NurPhoto via Getty Images

Elon Musk, the world’s pre-eminent clean transportation entrepreneur, learned long ago that Twitter was a powerful and free way to promote Tesla electric vehicles, often bragging that the company spent no money on advertising. Now that he owns it, the world’s wealthiest person is following other media moguls before him who wanted to own platforms to shape public opinion. Things are off to a rocky start but Musk’s Twitter could prove far more potent a tool than the traditional news outlets owned by fellow billionaires such as Rupert Murdoch, Jeff Bezos and Michael Bloomberg.

The Big Transportation Story

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GM, Pfizer, Audi Pull Ads From Twitter After Musk Sale—Here Are The Other Companies Rethinking Their Ties

An early warning sign for Musk’s Twitter and the direction the social media site is going to take is that many major companies are growing wary of whether it’s the best place for them to advertise their products–especially rival automakers that are ramping up their EV offerings. This week Audi and Volkswagen followed General Motors and Ford, along with General Mills, Pfizer and other big firms in saying they’ve halted advertising on Twitter, due in part to how it will moderate content.