Facebook has committed to reaching 100 percent renewables by 2020, and now it's investing in a solar project. But research from Sally Benson notes that doesn't necessarily equate to clean energy around the clock.
Research led by Stanford Earth's Noah Diffenbaugh projects that some of the environments conducive to severe weather will occur more often, but it's unclear if that means more tornadoes.
"If pollution were drops of blood, it's a lot easier to blot them from your fingertips than to clean them from a rug," says Stanford Earth's Rob Jackson in an interview about his research on converting methane to carbon dioxide.
“Many of the people growing the food in this world right now are family farmers, and I think sometimes we forget that,” says Stanford Earth lecturer Liz Carlisle.
Global warming has already increased the odds of record hot and wet events happening in 75 percent of North America, says Stanford Earth professor Noah Diffenbaugh.
Satellite technology will soon allow for close monitoring of carbon emissions and even methane from power plants, though it’s not quite there yet, says Rob Jackson.
"We need to cut emissions, but they are rising for both carbon dioxide and methane. We need to explore other ways to remove greenhouse gases after they’re in the atmosphere," says Rob Jackson.
Stanford scientists argue that we can limit warming by chemically converting methane to carbon dioxide. “Our paper is a call to view methane removal as an opportunity,” says lead author Rob Jackson.
“Methane emissions are a big deal. About a sixth of the warming that we’ve had since the start of the Industrial Revolution has been caused by methane,” says Rob Jackson.
“The notion of restoring the atmosphere sends a message of hope to people,” says Stanford Earth's Rob Jackson. “I would love to see something like this happen in my lifetime.”
