Eco-science at a glance:
Understanding the science behind our human survival and growth is a complex relationship. This relationship is a balance of all living things sharing dependency of all parts of those systems working together. We've learned that our own behavior affects how we thrive or don't. We need to understand we rely on our world for survival long term. There is a need to care for our world just as we care for ourselves.
Cultivated biomass as a fuel provides a carbon and hydrogen rich makeup of natural wood and other various plants and substances. They provide a truly "sustainable" source of energy. The use of cultivated biomass offers a means to reduce land fill accumulation at the same time sustainable farming can repair damaged soils and water while repairing the air we breath through cleaner energy production. Biomass fuel and sustainable farming work hand in hand as nature intended.
Our growth as a species relies on energy in many forms and has for centuries. The manner of how we convert and use energy and how much of it each of us uses, has changed in recent decades. The chart below gives a look at these changes in time.
Profit motives in large corporate systems contribute to fossil fuel dependency.
Non-profit groups are more likely to adopt a mission with greater ecological focus.
For-profit organizations are required to protect investor capital for gains and growth. There are many excellent for-profit companies growing aware of the need to sustain our world. Non-profit groups can focus directly on this objective, offer better employee benefits and obtain government grants to help more effectively.
Fossil fuel and petroleum companies are also not "the enemy". They employ hundreds of thousands and are an essential part of a global economy today. But, due to environmental impact and depletion of fossil fuel resources, there needs to be a path for the petrol / gas industry to transition to sound ecology without destroying their own existence. Biomass provides that opportunity as long as the means to "refine" biomass matures the same as fossil fuels have. Carbon Analytic has undertaken the study, design and means to those goals.
For those interested in the more technical...
The loss of balance to nature is mostly two fold.
1) Non-sustainable farming and logging practices have altered the balance of what makes up healthy soil, shades our planet, manages rain water retention and stabilizes regional weather. Increases in high volume processed foods continue to reduce the nutritional balance of food with many unwanted additives, much of which are forms of highly processed sugars and modified manufactured fillers lacking substantial nutritional value.
2) Our dependence on fossil fuels from oil and gas, has taken carbon and hydrogen rich stores from below ground, combusting them above ground. This results in both CO2 and water vapor atmospheric accumulation which would never occur, if not for fossil fuel use over the last century. The extent of damage this causes toward climate instability still remains too complex for science to evaluate. The chart above however reflects very clearly our trends toward non-sustainable dependence.
#1 above has grossly reduced shade, cooling and massive loss of water storage of more than 3 Trillion trees deforested releasing the captured carbon and water as vapor into the atmosphere. This is "neutral" carbon above ground, but releases stored water intended to remain stored with plants or harvest rotation. Nature seeks to sustain water vapor and CO2 perpetually in balance. Non-sustainable farming and deforestation impact this balance on a rapidly growing scale today among global population increases doubling to over 7.5 billion people in the last century.
#2 above has caused NEW CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere from what was once "safely" kept below ground. At the same time NEW water vapor is released to the atmosphere from combustion combining hydrogen in the fossil fuel with atmospheric oxygen. The result generates both heat and NEW H2O above ground . Most understand increased CO2 contributes to smog and greenhouse warming. Unfortunately even most of science today has misunderstood the role of increased water vapor as an even more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, explained further below.
Only about 87% of the ocean's rising level is caused by the upper levels of the ocean warming plus related glacial melt over the last 20-30 years. Where is the other 13% extra water coming from? It is very likely the balance of NEW water from increased water vapor resides among both 1) and 2) above. So far, the world's climatologists and scientists remain unable to dispute this concern with verifiable proof.
The increased atmospheric temperature increases the height of our troposphere layer we depend on, causing the troposphere to have increased approximately 2 Kilometers of higher altitude around the globe. The warming expansion and increased atmospheric volume increases the amount of warming and rate of change as the warming condition continues. Due to water vapor being twice as greenhouse reflective, 13% increase can mean upwards of 26% greater warming effect, which grows even more as water vapor increases how reflective CO2 in the atmosphere is. This is referred to as "positive feedback loop amplification".
Roughly, for every gallon of gasoline (or equivalent natural gas or other petroleum fuel) just over one gallon of NEW water is produced in the form of water vapor. The water is NEW because the fuel source was converted from stable storage below ground which never would have produced the additional water above ground if not for fossil fuel combustion.
Every commercial jet produces roughly a gallon of new water vapor every 60 seconds. Just as every time we put 20 gallons of gas in our car, we create just over 20 gallons of new water vapor as we burn it. Every furnace heating a home, every power plant burning "supposedly cleaner" natural gas, every diesel engine, natural gas or propane truck on the highway, are all pouring new water vapor into the atmosphere. This ends up increasing the atmosphere's size due to warming which increases precipitation. It adds directly to the rising oceans and regional flooding as we see increasing today. At the same time previously vital lands inland are at further risk of becoming deserts from the same shifting forces.
How does water vapor effect climate impact?
Where land mass is concerned, removal of rooted plants and trees leads to soils left barren between crops or after complete depletion causing the surface to act like a mirror. Bare soil reflects far greater infrared heat back at the atmosphere adding to "greenhouse" reflection among the loss of evaporation trees and plants would manage otherwise. The result moves the needle ever closer to causing "desertification" over time. Rain that falls on exposed soils breaks up soil structure and either evaporates quickly and / or runs off to local rivers or creeks bringing increased silt and fertilizer with it. This plugs off the gravel / sand bottoms of these tributaries, starving return flow to aquifers below ground. The problem is even worse when water is drawn out for high volume irrigation increasing the losses.
Where ocean water is concerned, the ocean is about 70% of the surface of the earth. The ocean IS an infrared heat "sink" or heat absorber, causing the upper levels of the ocean to warmer infrared reflection. This in turn gives up heat in warmer evaporation temperatures causing more changes in precipitation. Most rain occurs over the ocean. As fossil fuel combustion from cars, power generation and other sources increase, the water vapor from these sources results in additional increased annual rainfall, (in complete agreement with rising greenhouse temperatures).
Worse yet, water vapor has a dual impact on greenhouse effect. Not only is water vapor the most potent greenhouse gas of all, but also amplifies how much heat CO2 reflects back at the earth. The water vapor acts as a kind of "magnifying lens". We call this force amplification, as a normal side effect. A small increase in water vapor has a much larger effect on combined greenhouse effect. What's NOT normal is the temperature rise increasing the height and overall size of the lower atmosphere containing the increasing vapor. The result is the extra water vapor aloft with the additional CO2 being added increases rate of greenhouse reflection. This in turn increases the rate of warming in the upper reflective ocean levels also growing. It is a spiral increase as a function of the forced amplification; a well documented effect in climate science.
Some scientific circles argue that water is a constant for the environment. If the above concerns are real, we would expect to see changes in global annual precipitation and increased water vapor in the atmosphere. Below is the recent historical data which proves the concern is valid. We simply don't know HOW valid, or more accurately how much it has accelerated the rate of change over time.
(a) global (b) tropical, (c) temperate and (d) polar regions
during the period 1979-2014.
The increase in ocean volume these causes contribute is estimated to be more than 125,000 cubic miles of ocean water. Scientists are NOT lacking this knowledge. That means there is some other reason this fact isn't rising to greater global awareness. NASA is making further inroads to increasing the frequency and accuracy of these measurements.
In part, the public focus after this many years has lead to something akin to "learned helplessness." The problem is so big for so long it seems overwhelming. The effort to project accurate models and cover up the reasons they're not truly accurate has become a mental burden for both science and the average person to contend. We're invited to believe if we just reduce CO2 the problem will go away. It wont, because the problem is not just about CO2, but more so the combination of increased total liquid and atmospheric water PLUS the CO2, both which continue to increase.
Producing and replacing biomass at a rate greater than consumption is totally water and carbon neutral. When refined as we do fossil fuel, biomass combustion is water and carbon negative, working to restore the natural balance of both.
Some scientific circles argue that water is a constant for the environment. If the above concerns are real, we would expect to see changes in global annual precipitation and increased water vapor in the atmosphere. Below is the recent historical data which proves the concern is valid. We simply don't know HOW valid, or more accurately how much it has accelerated the rate of change over time.
Seem like too much change to handle? The Wright brothers were told "Man isn't meant to fly." Now we're sending people into space on a regular basis. Humans are unstoppable in their gift of ingenuity. If we cooperate and point our ingenuity toward favorable conditions, the results to transition from fossil fuels is a successful approach, less demanding than crude oil or fossil gas refinement.
Every effort toward biomass improves lives on a global scale. Local and regional non-profit initiatives are the most efficient and cost effective means to accomplish it. One person, one group, one community at a time, all in the same frame of time.
Be part of that effort. Do the homework for yourself. Find those who understand and Carbon Analytic NPO will help.
Fact check:
NASA - Heat stored in the ocean causes its water to expand, which is responsible for one-third to one-half of global sea level rise.
Nature publication: We show that during 2000–2019, glaciers lost a mass of 267 ± 16 gigatonnes per year, equivalent to 21 ± 3 per cent of the observed sea-level rise6. We identify a mass loss acceleration of 48 ± 16 gigatonnes per year per decade, explaining 6 to 19 per cent of the observed acceleration of sea-level rise.