UNFCCC - COP 26 in Glasgow (UK) Oct. 31st - Nov 12th - 2021

 Copright © Françoise Herrmann

Beginning October 31st, and for the next 12 days, the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Conference of the Parties serving as Meeting for the Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol (CMP16), and the Conference of the Parties serving as Meeting for the Parties to the more recent  2015 Paris Agreement (CMA3), will be meeting to discuss urgent topics, to review existing commitments and targets, and to secure more international, national and local pledges on the matter of climate change, at a time variously qualified as humanity’s “last best hope” (Jordans, 2021), “a critical moment for leadership” (Hitchings-Hale, 2021) and "one minute before midnight on the Doomsday Clock” (Johnson, 2021). A conference bringing together more than 30,000 delegates, with representatives from 200 countries, including 120 world leaders. Indeed, a summit on the topic of climate change with an agenda, including the following:

• finalizing the Rulebook for the (controversial) flex-mex carbon exchange market  
• increasing investments in clean energy sources
• increasing joint action of the private and public sectors for accelerating the implementation of  mitigation and/or resiliency plans  
• reforestation, planting trillions of trees
• elimination of coal power plants
• conversion to electric vehicles (EV)
• securing rich nation grants (vs. loans) within the context of the 2015 Paris Agreement on an annual pledge of 100 billion USD for nations who are not responsible for the anthropogenic causes of climate change [UNFCCC - Paris Agreement]
• detailing the costs and implementation of a “just transition” within the context of a global “Green New Deal” to a clean (non-fossil fuel) and sustainable economy, considering that visionary Labor Union leaders have endorsed the conversion, and the workforces of whole sectors of the fossil fuel industry (coal in particular) are implicated (Chomsky & Pollan in Polychroniou, 2021, Chomsky & Pollan with Polychronou, 2021).
• developing resiliency plans, considering that the consequences of climate change are already causing drought, famine and floods, impacting millions of people, creating a new category of refugees, designated climate refugees (UNHCR,)
• compensating and remedying existing climate-related losses and damages, per the African Youth Climate Leader, from Burundi,  Vanessa Nakate.
• "turning the tide on coal, cash, cars and trees" (Johnson, 2021);  panic, action, and no more empty promises, to mitigate and remedy the catastrophic scenarios of global warming that science has already specified, per the Swedish Global Youth Leader Greta Thunberg, on behalf of future generations, who might inherit irremediable situations.   

Concretely, however, the new Glasgow COP 26 Summit takeaway will, at least, result in a sector-specific Declaration on Climate Change in the Tourism Industry. A Declaration bringing together members of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), in an effort to scale up efforts to control the tourism sector’s emissions, which are predicted to increase 25% by 2030 (from 2016 levels). Specifically, the working session draft of the  Glasgow Declaration calls for:

• monitoring of the CO2 emissions from tourism operations
• decarbonizing tourism with greener transportation and infrastructures
• removing carbon
• promoting science-based targets in view of meeting the Paris Agreement targets, which call for cutting emissions back 50% by 2030 and achieving net zero(1) by 2050, to prevent global warming in excess of 1.5 degrees Celsius, above pre-industrial levels (per the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  (IPCC ).
• setting forth the One planet Sustainable Tourism Programme to host the Tourism Section action plan. A program designed to implement transition to a circular economy, invoking recycling, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, remanufacturing, and repurposing to reduce waste and pollution, and as a pathway to sustainable development.  The creation of a circular economy to bring added value, to promote creativity and new business models, with efficient use of water and resources. A program also arising within the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), in particular Goals No. 13, 14 and 15 on climate action, and the protection of marine and terrestrial ecosystems (UNDP - SDGs).
• promoting Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) in tourism policies
• supporting global tourism initiatives against plastic pollution
• supporting green travel
• promoting sustainable recovery from COVID 19, according to 6 lines of action (UNWTO- Climate action).

The COP26 conference is taking place at the Scottish Event Center (SEC) campus, in Glasgow, Scotland (UK), a location that has become as much a transformative architectural landmark. as it is currently a destination for crucially important Climate Change action. For example, the monumental 3000-seat Clyde Auditorium, known as the Armadillo because of its eight, overlapping,  aluminum-clad roofs, was inaugurated in 1997, specifically as a highly distinctive site, that still remained efficient and easily maintained. On a  shipyard location, the scale of the Armadillo is that of a  large ship or warehouse. Together with the other monumental conference venue building, designated the OVO Hydro, with a capacity for 13,000 patrons, the site offers special synergy for the twelve conference days ahead.

The Armadillo @ The Scottish Event Center  (SEC) 

-----------

Note

(1) Definition for Net-zero:  Net-zero emissions are achieved when anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere are balanced by anthropogenic removals over a specified period. [IPCC Report  Glossary]

References

Chomsky, N. & R. Pollan (with C.J. Polychroniou)  (2021). Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal. London, UK & Brooklyn, NY:  Verso Books. 

De La Garza, A.,  Nugent, C., Baker, A.,  Duggan, J. and C. Wilson (Oct 28,2021). Here Are the Goals of the COP26 Climate Change Meetings—and Where the World Stands in Accomplishing Them. Time Magazine   https://tinyurl.com/jekhcmyd

Foster + Partners - SEC Armadillo
https://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/sec-armadillo/

Foster + Partners - https://youtu.be/MIc3tZ7HIIk

Glasgow Climate Change Conference -  https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/conferences/glasgow-climate-change-conference

 

Greta Thunberg full speech at UN Climate Change COP25 - Climate Emergency Event  https://youtu.be/Eo_-mxvGnq8

 Hitchings-Hales, J.  (Aug. 16, 2021). What Is COP26 — and Why Is the Summit a Critical Moment For Leadership on the Climate Crisis? Global Citizen   https://tinyurl.com/3xne33sk

IPCC – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/

IPCC - Report Glossary.  https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/glossary/ 

Johnson, B. (Oct. 31, 2021). Opening Ceremony Speech. https://youtu.be/SOaZP0YND6c

Jordans, F. (Oct.  31, 2021). Last best hope: Crucial Climate summit open in Glasgow. AP News.   https://apnews.com/article/cop26-climate-summit-un-glasgow-fbe482ba15f0c83dbe784d73b92f5817

Maizland, L. (Oct. 22, 2021). COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow: What to Expect. Council on Foreign Relations   https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/cop26-climate-summit-glasgow-what-expect

One Planet Network - Sustainable tourism -  https://www.oneplanetnetwork.org/sustainable-tourism

One Planet Network - Covid 19 - How tourism can recover responsibly.  https://www.oneplanetnetwork.org/sustainable-tourism/covid-19-how-tourism-can-recover-responsibly

OVO Hydro -  https://www.ovohydro.com/about 

Polychroniou, C. J.  (Oct. 28, 2021). Chomsky and Pollin: COP26 Pledges Will Fail Unless Pushed by Mass Organizing. Truthout  https://tinyurl.com/2dhptbyn

Rapold, N. (Nov. 12, 2020). ‘I am Greta’ review: Birth of a Climate Warrior. NYTimes. https://tinyurl.com/hbadkuf4

Scottish Event Center (SEC) -  https://www.sec.co.uk/

UKCOP26.org  - https://ukcop26.org/ 

UNDP - United Nations Development Programme - Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS).  https://tinyurl.com/87k3js5c

UNFCCC - https://unfccc.int/ 

UNFCCC - What is the Kyoto protocol? - https://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol

UNFCCC - 2015 Paris  Agreement [full text English version]  https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/english_paris_agreement.pdf

UNHCR - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Climate change and disaster displacement.   https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/climate-change-and-disasters.html

UNWTO - United Nations World Tourism Organization. - https://www.unwto.org/

UNWTO - The Glasgow Declaration - An Urgent global call for commitment to a decade of climate action in tourism.   https://www.unwto.org/news/the-glasgow-declaration-an-urgent-global-call-for-commitment-to-a-decade-of-climate-action-in-tourism

UNWTO - Transforming tourism for climate action. https://www.unwto.org/sustainable-development/climate-action

UN  (Sept. 29, 2021). Vanessa Nakate's Full Keynote Speech at Youth4Climate Pre-COP26 | Doha Debates. UN Youth4Climate -   https://youtu.be/W71eBGN2iSw

Vanessa Nakate: You cannot leave this responsibility to young people. Youtube video. https://youtu.be/bXH--TDGId8

An inconvenient sequel

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

10 years ago, former Vice-President Al Gore, delivered the message of climate change to the world in a beautiful documentary and book, both titled An inconvenient Truth. A year later, in 2007, Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in connection with this message. Although the effects of greenhouse gasses on the climate were known well before the publication of this book and release of the documentary, no one had really understood the urgency of the situation or felt compelled to take action.

Thereafter, this much changed on a planetary level. Whether it was Energy Star appliances in the home economics department, idle functions on laptops, solar energy initiatives, the widescale adoption of hybrid cars as a step towards electric ones, or flyknit uppers on sports shoes, everyone both personally and collectively began taking steps to reduce their fossil fuel footprint. On an international level, the largest industrial polluting nations of the Northern hemisphere also began taking responsibility for creating an increased threat of famine and hardship, arising from ever greater climate changes in the Southern hemisphere.

Now, mark July 28, 2017 in your agendas as the release date of An Inconvenient Sequel: From Truth to Power,  a documentary that promises to be at least as game-changing as the first. 

In any event, green might be staying, contrary to what was feared at Patents on the soles of your shoes in the aftermath of the Nov 2016 elections.

References

AL Gore

https://www.algore.com/

IPCC – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

https://www.ipcc.ch/index.htm
Nobel Peace Prize 2007
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2007/
The Climate Reality Project
https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/inconvenient-truth-then-and-now
Green gone grey post November 2016 US elections?
http://patentsonthesolesofyourshoes.blogspot.com/2016/12/green-gone-grey-post-nov-2016-us.html

NASA's eye-poppin' global warming CO2 emissions

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

 The following video animation from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center shows the accelerated life-cycle of global warming CO2 greenhouse gas emissions, during a year, from Sept. 1, 2014 to Aug. 31, 2015. 

The NASA Goddard Earth Observing System Model - 5 (GEOS-5)  simulation data was combined with live observations and measurements collected by the NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite, in a process called "data assimilation" to provide a better understanding of  carbon flux - that is, the sorts of exchanges occurring between CO2 emissions and the absorption taking place on land and in the oceans. The OCO-2 satellite returned about 100,000 CO2 estimates, daily from the Earth to inform the modeling process.

As you can see the red and purple-colored CO2 emissions are concentrated in the Northern hemisphere, and they change during the year as about 50% of CO2 greenhouse gas emissions are absorbed through photosynthesis during the summer and by ocean sinks. 

Scientists are seeking to answer such questions as which ecosystems sink CO2 emissions, and most importantly whether the rate of absorption on-land and in the ocean will remain constant, or eventually saturate, considering rates of increased CO2 emissions arising primarily from burning fossil fuels for energy. 

References

NASA - OCO-2 and GEOS team up to produce a new view of carbon dioxide

https://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/research/science_snapshots/new-view-CO2.php 

NASA - Eye-popping view of CO2, critical step for carbon-cyle science

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/eye-popping-view-of-co2-critical-step-for-carbon-cycle-science 

Global warming and clean air (New Delhi)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann 

And you thought that Los Angeles smog was bad! Here is what the worse air pollution on earth looks like in New Delhi.

 On Nov. 1, 2016, the airborne pollution of particles measuring less than 2.5 microns (PM_2.5^­ particulate matter < 2.5 microns) measured 1.2 ppm (or 1200 ɥg/m³ - micrograms per cubic meter of air), that is, 120 times more than the annual mean threshold (PM_2.5^­  = 10 ɥg/m³) set by the World Health organization for protecting public health, or close to 50 times more than the 24-hour mean average of 25 ɥg/m³ set by WHO for protection public health (WHO, 2005, p. 8).

Similarly, in comparison, the US EPA National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) sets the threshold level of PM­_2.5^­ at 12 and 15 ɥg/m³ mean average for 3 years, respectively for primary and secondary air standards. Primary air standards are set to protect public health, including vulnerable populations such as the elderly, children and asthmatics. Secondary air standards are set to protect public welfare, including “protection against decreased visibility and damage to animals, crops, vegetation and buildings.” (US NAAQS)

For a 24 hour period, the EPA NAAQS for PM_2.5^­ is set at 35 ɥg/m³, for both primary and secondary air standards, averaged over three years. Thus, in New Delhi, on Nov 1, 2016, the air quality was about 35 times too dangerous even for buildings and vegetation, according to the EPA NAAQS standards. (US NAAQS)

And none of this is measuring any other pollutants, considered critical air quality criteria both by the US EPA NAAQS, and the WHO Air Quality Guidelines, such as levels of ozone (O₃), sulphur dioxide (SO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), lead (Pb) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). 

Nor does the particulate matter measurements include those “well-mixed” GHG gasses and emissions such as: “carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6)” incorporated in Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act by the US Administration on Dec. 7, 2009, as “Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings” deemed threatening to the public health and welfare of current and future generations (Clean Air Act, Section 202(a), and Technical Report in support of the Findings). 👠

References

EPA – Table NAAQS – National Ambient Air Quality Standards

https://www.epa.gov/criteria-air-pollutants/naaqs-table

US Clean Air Act (1990)

https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview

WHO Air quality Standards (2005 – English)

http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/69477/1/WHO_SDE_PHE_OEH_06.02_eng.pdf

US Clean Air Act - Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under the Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act

https://www.epa.gov/climatechange/endangerment-and-cause-or-contribute-findings-greenhouse-gases-under-section-202a

Technical support for the findings on GHG appended to the Clean Air Act on Dec. 7, 2009
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-08/documents/endangerment_tsd.pdf

New Delhi suffoque dans un brouillard de pollution – Le Monde Nov. 7, 2016

http://abonnes.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2016/11/07/new-delhi-suffoque-dans-un-brouillard-de-pollution_5026655_3244.html

New Delhi asphyxiée par la pollution - Le Monde  Dec. 1, 2016

http://abonnes.lemonde.fr/planete/video/2016/12/01/new-delhi-asphyxiee-par-la-pollution_5041431_3244.html?xtmc=new_delhi_pollution&xtcr=1

Green gone grey post Nov. 2016 US elections?

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The UNFCCC - COP22 (Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), held this year in Marrakesh, Morocco, ended on Nov. 7, 2016, just one day before voters elected Mr. Trump as the 45^th President of the United States.

During the presidential campaign, President-elect Donald Trump expressed the following position and opinions about climate change:

“I’m not a big believer in man made climate change. There could be some impact, but I don’t believe it’s a devastating impact … I would say that it goes up, it goes down, and I think it’s very much like this over the years. We’ll see what happens. I mean, we’ll see what happens. Maybe you and I – even you, as young as you are – you won’t be around to see. But certainly, climate has changed. You know, they used to call it global warming. They’ve had many different – they call it extreme weather. They always change the name to encapsulate everything.” interview [Miami Herald, 8/11/16]

“This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps, and our GW scientists are stuck in ice.” [Donald Trump Twitter, 1/1/14]

“It's really cold outside, they are calling it a major freeze, weeks ahead of normal. Man, we could use a big fat dose of global warming!” [Donald Trump Twitter, 10/19/15]

“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” [Donald Trump Twitter, 11/6/12]

[Quotes extracted from: League of conservation voters (Oct. 2016) – In their own words – 2016 Presidential candidates on climate change http://www.lcv.org/assets/docs/presidential-candidates-on.pdf ]

Does this mean that the US is slated to become color-blind, and that the new color green is going to be grey, like the color of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, for the next 4 years? Is this for real?

According to Noam Chomsky, in response to a question on the long-term consequences of a Trump administration:

 “First we have to ask if he means what he is saying... And if he does, then not only we, but the human species is in very deep trouble.”  (Chomsky, 2016)

Indeed… the above-cited President-elect electoral campaign remarks and opinions are not only disturbing, they are backed by an even more unsettling policy agenda which includes such items as: 1. a pledge to revive the US coal industry; 2. a vision of the US as a leader in fossil fuel production with an expansion of both onshore and offshore drilling and, 3. a plan to dismantle, or greatly cut back on the activities of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). All of which arises in direct and complete opposition to internationally binding climate change decisions and agreements. First, beginning in 1994, with the ratification, and quasi-universal acceptance of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an agreement whose essential goal is to prevent “dangerous human interference with the climate” and that brought together 197 countries party to the Convention.  Secondly, the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 which set internationally binding emissions reduction targets for all the 197 countries party to the UNFCCC.  And finally, in stark denial of the UNFCCC – COP21 - Paris Agreement, ratified on Dec. 12, 2015, and now in force, 113 countries of the 197 Parties to the UNFCCC having already signed the agreement which calls for keeping the rise in global temperatures this century down to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and if possible even down to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

As a result of such denial, responses to the new grey color of climate change have ranged from raw despair, fear and anger on the part of climate change activists, to a more tempered, firm and hopeful response on the part of scientists and current climate change policy makers, who complacently believe that their indisputable data on climate change and global warming will ultimately be recognized --once the new administration is in place.

In other words, and as Chomsky put it, activists definitely believe that the President-elect “means what he says” and that the US is on a new path to opt out of all previous international climate change agreements, whereas scientists and climate change policymakers think the President-elect “can’t possibly be meaning what he says”, considering the amount irrefutable data on global warming, produced by such widely recognized and reputable institutions as: the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), The World Meteorological Organization, the CNRN - Centre national de recherches météorologiques (France), Environment and Climate change Canada, the UK Met Office, plus many more.

As Daniel Kammen, science envoy for the U.S. State Department, Professor of Energy at the University of California at Berkeley, has responded:

“To be a climate denier in 2016 is to simply ignore science. A businessman is supposed to be flexible and thoughtful about opportunity. Clean energy is an economic boom, and it’s a boom for equity around the planet. And to turn your back on that is to put ideology over simple, good clean energy business and clean energy jobs.” (Democracy Now!, Nov. 15, 2016)

So, at the end of the day, do we, translators, all update our term bases with the term “grey” instead of “green” in reference to technology and patents that seek to both reduce global warming and/or mitigate its effects?

Well, it is perhaps too early to tell, since the US has just entered the transition period between administrations, before the January 20^th, 2017 inauguration day. What is certain, however, is that the President-elect’s opinions and remarks are both misguided and the reflection of a true misunderstanding of global warming and climate change. 

Such statements as: “This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps, and our GW scientists are stuck in ice” uncover several important misconceptions of global warming, climate change and the science that drives the interpretation of planetary temperature.  

First, scientists understand climate change as a result of global-warming, and not vice versa. Scientists understand global warming as a phenomenon arising out of the accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHG) such as carbon dioxide (CO₂). In other words, it is not the weather that is responsible for global warming, it is our fossil-fuel and heavy emissions industrial activity, and more particularly the industrial activity of the Northern Hemisphere, that is assumed responsible for the accumulation of GHG, which in turn has steadily augmented the temperature of the planet. A record streak of freezing temperatures in New York City, Paris or Vienna will not “cool” our planet, just as a record heat wave in Detroit, Chicago or Southern Europe will not “increase the temperature” of our planet. These exceptional climate events are the consequences, not the cause of global warming, especially when recorded as increasingly frequent phenomena.

The following glossary entry on “Global Warming” extracted from the EPA Student’s guide to Global Warming clearly explains the relationship between global warming and climate change (italics mine):

Global warming: An increase in temperature near the surface of the Earth. Global warming has occurred in the distant past as the result of natural causes. However, the term is most often used to refer to recent and ongoing warming caused by people's activities. Global warming leads to a bigger set of changes referred to as global climate change.  

Secondly, a warmer planet does not mean just warmer weather, it means an increase in the frequency of extreme weather and catastrophic weather events, such as for example, an increase in both the number and intensity of hurricanes arising from the increase in ocean temperature; a record number of tornados, an increase in rainfall and floods by almost 20% in the last century, and an increase in snowfall and resulting damages, pointing to “weather gone-crazy” in the Northern Hemisphere, and to the disappearance of lakes and increased droughts in the non-industrialized Southern Hemisphere generating increased suffering from the resulting shortages of both food and water supplies. However, these points are truly nothing new. This is a message that was already delivered loudly and very clearly in 2006 by Former Vice-President Al Gore in the book and non-fiction documentary titled An inconvenient truth: The planetary emergency of global warming and what we can do about it.

In fact, this message was powerful enough to generate a quasi-universal response, consolidating the action of 197 countries in the fight against global warming and its consequences (Lapowski, 2016). All of which makes the President-elect's remarks all the more disconcerting.

The hope then, as far as translators and interpreters are concerned, is that we might be commissioned to build more communication bridges in educational campaigns designed to gain the support of “climate change deniers”, whose loudest and winning representative is about to take the highest office.

 If the new grey color of green is just a misconception, then there is still a place for reason, and for hope. Indeed, if President-elect Donald Trump really meant what he said when he asserted:

“I think that clean air is a pressing problem. You want to have clean air, clean water. That's very important to me, and I've won many environmental awards. I am not a believer in climate change,’ [Politico, 9/24/15 in League of Conservation Voters, 2016]

then it won’t be too difficult to reconcile the contradiction expressed above, so that green, clean and renewable energy remains the true color of climate change and the fight against global warming. 👠

References

Al Gore (website)

www.algore.com

COP22

http://www.cop22-morocco.com/

Chomsky, n. (2016) If Trump becomes president (YouTube recording)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVqO3r3ugVo

CNRM - Centre national de recherches météorologiques (France)

http://www.umr-cnrm.fr/?lang=fr

 Democracy now! (Nov 15, 2016) U.S. State Dept. Science Envoy on Trump's Climate Denialism & Why Sanders Could Have Beaten Him

https://www.democracynow.org/2016/11/15/us_state_dept_science_envoy_on

Environment and Climate Change Canada

https://www.ec.gc.ca/meteo-weather/default.asp?lang=En&n=40E402D6-1

EPA-  Environmental Protection Agency - EPA

https://www3.epa.gov/

EPA – Student’s Guide to Global Climate change

https://ofmpub.epa.gov/sor_internet/registry/termreg/searchandretrieve/glossariesandkeywordlists/search.do?details=&glossaryName=Global%20Climate%20Change

Gore, A. (2006) An inconvenient Truth: the Planetary Emergency of global Warming and what we can do about it. New York, NY: Rodale.    

Lapowski, I.  (2016) Ten years after An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore may actually be winning.

https://www.algore.com/news/10-years-after-an-inconvenient-truth-al-gore-may-actually-be-winning

League of Conservation Voters (Oct. 2016) – In their own words – 2016  Presidential candidates on climate change 

http://www.lcv.org/assets/docs/presidential-candidates-on.pdf

The World Meteorological Organization

http://www.wmo.int/pages/index_en.html

UK Met Office

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research

Oh, patents! Naïo Technologies

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Aloha!* It's time for farmers to Rumba! The French startup Naïo Technologies is designing agricultural robots!

Do you have any idea how hard it is to till soil…? High tide for automating the year-in, year-out, back-breaking tasks of weeding, plowing, hoeing, sowing, mowing, spraying and clipping.

The prior art of agricultural machinery is significant. All sorts of tractor or rototiller machines assist farmers in toiling the land; machines equipped to sow, to hoe, to weed, to harvest and to apply pesticides. But all of this machinery requires a user/driver, and the machines are often too big to navigate narrow rows of fruit and vegetable crops. Besides, this heavy machinery is also well-known and criticized for its large fossil fuel footprint, with designs supporting extensive use of pesticides and herbicides, in turn also contributing to greenhouse gas effects.  

In comes the Naïo Technologies automated autonomous agricultural device… an agricultural robot (and farming companion) which no longer requires a driver, and is small enough to navigate narrow rows of crops, in particular fruits and vegetables. The Naïo agricultural robot is also optimized to perform non-randomly in a field of obstacle geometry with a delimited perimeter. 

The Naïo robot is equipped with an on-board computer allowing it to navigate obstacle geometries consisting of the plants, and to use (for ex,. to lift or to lower) its various weeding and hoeing tools. Its payload includes a camera and means to process images captured of crops or surroundings, a data collection module both to analyze soil, crop and other relevant geospatial and environmental variables, and to keep track of tasks, and it also has extensions allowing for harvesting, weighing and unloading products. 

At the end of day, or of a particular set of tasks....when the Naïo robot runs out of power, it is also equipped with means to return to it’s charging unit and to dock – all of which is viewable and controllable via mobile device such as a phone or tablet!

Reminiscent of the highly adaptable Naïo plant native of Hawaï, the design of Naïo robots can be customized to sow (informed with geo-local information), weed, hoe and harvest according to various crops, or to maintain a whole vineyard. The Naïo robots might also be programmed to function as “scarecrows” with various sounds, lights and smells designed to protect seeds prior to germination against pests and insects. They might be programmed as irrigation devices, dispensing, monitoring or carrying water. They might work in collaboration with several other robots each programmed with a specific task. Thus, the Naïo robots are not only designed to make farming easier and less strenuous but also to mindfully produce healthier and more environmentally friendly crops, decreasing the need for herbicides and pesticides, measuring with precision the geo-local needs of the crops, and consequently also reducing the carbon footprint of agriculture.

The Naïo Technologies robotics and various embodiments of the invention are disclosed in FR3001202, titled; in English; Autonomous automated agricultural device.   The English abstract is included below with a figure drawing showing the sorts of crop geometries that the robot is able to navigate – non-randomly.

The present invention concerns an autonomous automated agricultural device (1) comprising at least energy supply means (13) and movement means (12), as well as comprising movement optimisation means (21, 20, 211, 212) enabling it to use the geometry of the crops in which it is disposed in order to move in a non-random manner. The present invention also concerns the use of a device according to the invention for cultivating agricultural plots and gathering data. The present invention also concerns a method for assisting in the cultivation of agricultural plots, using the device of the invention to carry out at least one maintenance operation on an agricultural plot.

Reference

Naïo Technologies

http://www.naio-technologies.com/en/

* "Naïo" is a small native plant of  Hawaii able to adapt to its environment.

Oh, patents! Nike ColorDry

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

It takes about 30 liters of water to dye a single tee-shirt using traditional water-intensive dyeing methods.  In response, Nike is pioneering the use of ColorDry a waterless dyeing process that relies on the use of Supercritical CO­2. Thus, for the estimated 30 million tons of polyester that Nike dyes yearly, the process is now waterless, with better and more consistent coloring of garments! [NIKE 1]

Various Supercritical CO2-based industrial processes, using less water and energy, are disclosed in the European patent application EP2876203A1 titled Supercritical CO2. EP2876203A1 discloses that SuperCritical CO2 is a fluid solvent technology widely used since 2011 by Nike, Adidas, and Ikea for coloring textiles [0002].  EP2876203A1 further recites that Supercritical CO2 is also a process widely used since the 1980s for decaffeination of tea leaves and coffee beans, and for extracting natural products in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries [0002]!

So, what is Supercritical CO2?  

EP2876203A1 specifies that when a gas is sufficiently compressed, it becomes a liquid and that there is a critical temperature (Tc) and critical vapor pressure (Pc), when the gas is heated, beyond which the hot gas can never be compressed into a liquid. The substance just beyond Tc and Pc is a Supercritical fluid (SCF), that is, a substance that is neither a gas nor a liquid but that takes on many of the varying properties of both gas and liquid when the temperature and pressure are manipulated [0003]. The SCF CO2 then becomes  solvent used for extraction or purification, or in the case of Nike garments, as a waterless dying process.   

 Wait a minute!... How can the use of Supercritical Fluid CO2 (SCF CO2) be beneficial to the environment if precisely the point is to reduce all the CO2 emissions that create the Greenhouse Gas effects (GHG)?

The process of dyeing garments using SCF CO2 actually recycles the SCF CO2 remaining in the dyeing vessel, as a gas, which is then liquefied anew and re-used.  The following diagram shows the waterless SCF CO2 dyeing process, where the fabric is first rolled onto a perforated dyeing beam, which is inserted into a dyeing vessel. Inside the vessel, the SCF CO2 will be released, mixed with the dye, and forced through the fabric to color it. Then, the dye will be separated from the SCF CO2, and pressure lowered so that the SCF CO2 leaves as a gas, which is then compressed and liquefied for storage and re-used as SCF CO2. [NIKE 2]

Copyright © Nike, Inc. 

Going back to the patent application EP2876203A1 [0005], it is further suggested that the sources of SCF CO2 could potentially be already sequestered liquefied CO2, so that SCF CO2 then becomes Carbon Capture and Use (CCU) technology rather than a controversial Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) solution – at least until carbon capture still has to occur -- in the absence of a complete conversion to energy sources that no longer produce GHG emissions and CO2 in particular.

 References

[NIKE 1] – Nike ColorDry

http://www.nikeresponsibility.com/innovations/nike-colordry

[NIKE 2] – Nike ColoDry  process

http://www.nikeresponsibility.com/report/content/chapter/targets-and-performance#infographic458

Oh patents! Green, what’s green?

Copyrights © Françoise Herrmann

Emeralds, duh!..

.

All that is green, as in the green economy, green tech and green patents is connected to global warming, assumed to arise from the accumulation of greenhouse gasses (GHG) in the atmosphere. 

The accumulation of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere arises as a consequence of burning excessive amounts of fossil fuels (such as gas, coal and oil). Fossil fuels are also called “dirty” fuels in contrast to “clean” green fuels which do not produce emissions of gasses with a greenhouse effect. .

 

The quest for finding sustainable solutions to the problem of global warming and the consequences of climate change are part of a geo-engineering framework, and the IP solutions presented within this framework,  as inventions or patents, are all designed to address global warning in their own very different ways.

 

The WIPO green portal (World Intellectual Property Office, under the auspices of the United Nations) offers a green marketplace portal for the exchange of green technologies, knowhow and IP, with six particularly useful categories for the various areas of green activity. 

These six areas include:

1. Alternative energy production

2. Administrative, regulatory or design

3. Waste management

4. Transportation

5. Energy conservation

6. Agriculture and forestry

 

It is well worth exploring each of these categories to critically discover and understand the implications of some of the types of inventions connected to global warming, and invoked in each of these areas of activity. Emissions trading, for example, is part of the second above listed categories, namely --administrative, regulatory or design activity invoked in the efforts to curb global warming.

 

Succinctly, lets see how green is green in some of these categories --not necessarily in the exact same order.

 

Caution...there are also unintended consequences… 

The Irish are going to have several field days... ..! 

 No duh!