Unprecedented Fires Around The Globe Another Tipping Point

What is not being expressed by the media with sufficient emphasis is the escalating climate change fires that are now burning around the world and getting larger every year. The fires are indeed another tipping point that will cause the planet's temperatures to rise significantly on top of the escalation currently underway with fossil fuels. I am not sure that these fires and other tipping points such as CO2 emission from decaying plastics or CO2 releases from permafrost were ever in the models used by scientist to calculate the 1.5 or 2-degree estimate. However without these tipping points, we are on a trajectory to blow past 2 degrees at the moment, and there may well be a host of tipping points that have not yet been considered.
What I don't understand is why the media both public and private is still talking in such careful tones. They should be, given what is going on, ringing alarm bells and headlining these issue one after another every evening as the significants of this is far higher than most of the political controversies that are going at the moment. These stories are not really about the weather or whose house burned down it is about the planet burning down.

California Fire Impact on Climate

The fires burning around the globe represent another tipping point that will accelerate climate change. During the burning process that occurs in forest fires, 15% of the stored carbon is released into the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the remaining stored carbon is released slowly over the next decade as the fire debris decays. So the remaining 85% of the carbon will continue to be released over the next 10 to 15 years.

If we take just California's annual carbon release from their fires, putting aside that 2018's fires are far larger than previous fires, the emission of carbon from these fires alone is equivalent to 8 million passenger vehicles driven for one year. However, when you factor in the after fire carbon release then the figure is 19 million additional cars on the road.

Fort McMurray Fire Impact on Climate

The massive fires in Fort McMurray Alberta in 2016 released 41 megatonnes of CO2 but it was a mixture of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. To put that in perspective the none fire or land use release of greenhouse gas emissions in 2014 by Canada was 732 megatons, and of course, the current emissions are higher and escalating. Keep in mind the Fort McMurray figure does not include the other 85% carbon release that will occur over the next 10-15 years.

2017 British Columbia Forest Fire

In 2017 British Columbia had its largest forest fire season on record, and 2018 is likely to be larger. In 2017 the initial 15% release by August was 190 million tonnes of greenhouse gases which is triple its annual carbon footprint. It was expected to be another 20% before the fire season was over.

Natural Resources Canada

Siberian Fires Smoke Reaches Canada with Health Risks

NASA Image

The Siberian Fires burning in the have reached a point of 10 million acres and are burning out of control with no hope of containing them. In addition to the severe impact on the climate the fires also contain an impact on human health NASA has expressed it as follows:  Naturally burning timber and brush from wildfires release dangerous particles into the air at a rate three times as high as levels known by the EPA, researchers at Georgia Tech found.  The study also found wildfires spew methanol, benzene, ozone and other noxious chemicals.  Residents that smell smoke or see haze in the air should take precautions against breathing too much of it and stay tuned to local air quality information.

Feedback Loop

The research scientist at the Canadian Forest Service commented on the increasing amount of greenhouse gas release from fires as a dangerous "feedback loop." Climate change will continue to increase and accelerate as a result of increased fires and the lengthening of the fire season. This, in turn, will create even longer and more intense fire seasons around the world.

Reference

As California burns, climate goals may go up in smoke — even after the flames are out
Carbon release in wake of Fort McMurray wildfire spikes greenhouse gasses
'It's alarming': Wildfire emissions grow to triple B.C.'s annual carbon footprint
Smoke from Siberian Fires Reach Canada
BC wildfires caused in part by and contributing to climate change
B.C.’S Greenhouse Gas Emissions Have RISEN IN FOUR OF THE LAST FIVE YEARS

Plastic pollution: How one woman found a new source of warming gases hidden in waste - BBC News

New Climate Change Tipping Point

Sarah-Jeanne Royer Phd. has discovered that plastics are continually off-gassing in the environment initially it was thought this was restricted to CO2 but now it is apparent they are emitting ethylene, methane and propane into the atmosphere. Since plastics have only been around since the 50s the issue is minor at the moment but the problem will escalate quickly as these plastics are now beginning to break down in our environment and our production of plastics has increased exponentially. What Dr. Royer has discovered is another tipping point that will further escalate climate change that is now attacking our ecological and climatical systems that sustain the earth.

Plastic Industry Refuse to Cooperate

When the plastic industry was questioned about their process by so she could understand the dynamics of the problem the industry essentially excommunicated her. What does this mean? Does this mean they are perfectly aware of the looming danger of plastics? Does this mean they like many industries before them want to continue knowingly down a dangers path just because it is lucrative? I certainly don't understand why an industry based on science would not collaborate with another scientist who is trying to work on an issue that could seriously impact our ability to sustain life on the planet. You would think if they felt there was a problem with the research they would want to set the record straight, the reaction the scientist reported from the industry is frightening.

Research Paper Abstract

Mass production of plastics started nearly 70 years ago and the production rate is expected to double over the next two decades. While serving many applications because of their durability, stability and low cost, plastics have deleterious effects on the environment. Plastic is known to release a variety of chemicals during degradation, which has a negative impact on biota. Here, we show that the most commonly used plastics produce two greenhouse gases, methane and ethylene, when exposed to ambient solar radiation. Polyethylene, which is the most produced and discarded synthetic polymer globally, is the most prolific emitter of both gases. We demonstrate that the production of trace gases from virgin low-density polyethylene increase with time, with rates at the end of a 212-day incubation of 5.8 nmol g-1 d-1 of methane, 14.5 nmol g-1 d-1 of ethylene, 3.9 nmol g-1 d-1 of ethane and 9.7 nmol g-1 d-1 of propylene. Environmentally aged plastics incubated in water for at least 152 days also produced hydrocarbon gases. In addition, low-density polyethylene emits these gases when incubated in air at rates ~2 times and ~76 times higher than when incubated in water for methane and ethylene, respectively. Our results show that plastics represent a heretofore unrecognized source of climate-relevant trace gases that are expected to increase as more plastic is produced and accumulated in the environment.

About Sarah-Jeanne Royer

Over the past ten years, Sarah-Jeanne has been involved in 19 oceanographic expeditions in polar (Arctic and Antarctic), tropical and sub-tropical regions where on some occasions she was the chief scientist and responsible for the supervision of master and PhD students. Her research has been published in 15 scientific journals, presented at 18 scientific conferences where she gained a lot of expertise in report writing and grant writing.

After working in quantifying oceanic gases in the global ocean for more than ten years, she has now specialized herself on plastic pollution and marine debris in the environment. She published two papers one on the validation of ATR FT-IR to identify polymers of plastic marine debris, including those ingested by marine organisms by Jung et al., 2018 and her latest paper on the production of greenhouse gases by plastics that has caught a lot of attention with the media. She has many ongoing projects from citizen science to the tracking of marine debris in the ocean to a time series of the prevalence of micro-fibres in coastal regions.



References
a story by Matt McGrath the BBC Environment correspondent 02 August 2018
University of Hawai'i News
Production of methane and ethylene from plastic in the environment, Plos one
Sarah-Jeanne Royer's Research Gate 
sarahjeanneroyer.com

Kinder Morgan's Burnaby Tank Farm Could Destroy Large Area of Burnaby Killing and Injuring Thousands

In the middle of the city of Burnaby, in the middle of Vancouver's lower mainland the most densly populated city in Canada, between its local neighbourhoods, an urban forest and the University of Simon Fraser is Kinder Morgan's tank farm. A tank farm where the oil and diluted tar sands the products delivered by the Kinder Morgan pipeline are stored before shipping. Current the tank farm contains 1.7 million barrels of product to be expanded to 5.6 million barrels. The existing tank farm has long been a serious risk for the city and university, but more than tripling its storage capacity will increase the magnitude of destruction and death that will occur if a fire breaks out.

Burnaby Mountain Terminal

Concerned Professional Engineers (CPE) registered Professional Engineers have done a risk analysis of the Burnaby mountain tank farm and found the site unsafe. They have recommended it be relocated away from residential areas to Robert Banks terminal at the end of a causeway surrounded by the sea. Any fire at the current location of the tank farm facility could not be extinguishable they have concluded as there is a lack of firefighting positions because of its location. There are no safe access routes from which a firefighter could stage a response to a fire.

Existing Tank Farm

Tank Farm After Expansion

Such a fire could cause a "boilover," something that has happened at other tank farm fires, that would discharge heated molten crude oil outwards of 2000 feet from a single tank, resulting in a massive life hazard area. This area is likely to include the entire tank farm; the Forest Grove, Meadowood, Sperling-Duthie communities, and the only access road to the forested Burnaby mountain cutting of the whole university at the top of the mountain from being able to escape. It would also likely set fire to the the urban forest which could rage up the mountain and into the campus where thousands would be trapped.

Location of Tank far in the City of Burnaby

Adding diluted tar sands to the facility will introduce an additional risk to surrounding communities as was found in the Kalamzoo River spill which forced residence out of their homes because of the toxic fumes, some of these residence never returned. The crew that tried to clean up the spill had to wear respirators.

The existing Kinder Morgan tank farm has no immediate communication plans, protocols or procedures for notifying surrounding communities. So it is quite likely that it would be some time before a coordinated effort to address the fire could be made.

Not in Cities!

If you look at the placement of most tank farms they are not usually placed in densly populate cities like Burnaby, but rather in isolated areas for obvious reasons. The tank farm in Burnaby is one of a few inappropriately placed tank farms that needs to be relocated. If you look at the history of tank farm fires and explosions,  few videos are located below, they are devistating to any near by community.
So what might happen to a tank farm fire here in Burnaby especially if the most likely time for a fire might be during the heat of a summer? Initially the explosion and flying parts might do damage to the surrounding businesses and housing development. The ensuing fire which the experts say can not be fought will likely spread both into the surrounding communities and into the forest above the tank farm. SFUs two roads would be immediately cut of first because of exploding tanks and second from the fires. 

The Imfamous Whiting Indiana Tank Farm Explosion

James River Tank Farm Explosion

San Juan Puerto Rico Tank Farm Explosion

B-Roll of an explosion in San Juan Puerto Rico Oct. 24, 2009. Scenes include aerial shots of the fires.

Excellent Video on the Tank Farm Risk

References:

Whiting refinery explosion seemed like the end of the world

Mexico: Possible Geothermal Energy Resource Discovered off Baja California

Geothermal energy potential found in deep waters off Los Cabos (Mexico News Daily)

“We found that there were wells [with water] of 90 degrees C. When we went to get samples, we calculated that the temperature of the deposit was close to 200 C, which suggested that it could produce a lot of energy,” Leading researcher Rosa María Prol said.

Mexico News Daily article July 11, 2018.

Ireland Is Officially the First Country to Divest From Fossil Fuels

The rolling hills of Ireland.Photo: Giuseppe Milo (Flickr)

"The Irish have beaten the rest of us to it. The Republic of Ireland is the first country in the world to move toward divesting from fossil fuels. The divestment process should be wrapped up in five years, per the Guardian.
First, the move to divest has to pass through parliament, though. The lower house of parliament passed a bill Thursday to sell off fossil fuel investments in its $9.3 billion national investment fund, including those in coal, oil, gas, and peat, which is organic plant matter extracted from swamps."

The Guardian Article by Damian Carrington.

Provincial Government Behaviour Stuck in Last Century

The Province of BC has been fixated on a dangerous hydro-electric project in Northern BC. Unlike most countries, either advanced or not they have not abandoned hydro technology, anchored in the 19th century. This technology that began in 1881 ran its course through the first part of the 20th century as a miracle of technology. In the latter half of the century as new more modern methods of energy were being developed, the enormous drawbacks of hydro began to emerge. The enormous destruction of the ecological systems that we depend on for food began to become more and more apparent.
Why then would the Provincial government continue to pursue this failing technology at a time when there are cheaper more reliable methods to produce electricity? Especially in a Province where its geothermal capacity could not only power the whole province and also make it a power exporter.
One only needs to look at the insanity that went on with Meager Creek.

Well MC6 being flow-tested at Meager Creek, BC/ Canada (source: Western GeoPower)

The province has been talking about operationalizing this geothermal resource since 1984.
Meagre Creek is a high potential geothermal field, that if developed as a modern binary geothermal power plant would have a very large capacity. What seems to be getting in the way of forcing a fast development of this project is a diversion of funding and emphasis to a large dam project in the peace river that will destroy an agricultural area with one of the longest growing seasons in the province.
In the interim, the province has issued yet again another lease in this area until 2037. One can only hope that this time the company developing this resource will not leave to go elsewhere where there is greater interest, like last time.
Canada is falling further and further behind the times with its continued emphasis on hydro and fossil fuels (both last centuries technologies), and are now quite out of step with the rest of the world. If Edison and Rockefeller were starting out today they would not be looking at hydro and fossil fuels they would be looking at geothermal power plans.

Combined Heat, Power and Metal Extraction CHPM

Heat Power and Metal Extraction

At various locations in the world, geothermal power plants have been extracting metals from geothermal liquids, while producing electrical energy for the grid. Now an organization called CHPM203 is in the process of researching and designing systems that can do this more effectively while creating a scientific resource for future improvements in the process. They see the merging of mineral extraction and the production of electrical energy as a more sustainable financial model that solves two key problems. How to mine without damaging the ecological system and how to produce a clean constant source of energy. 

http://www.chpm2030.eu/introduction/

Geothermal Power Plant Advantages

A geothermal electric plant has a number of advantages it is clean green energy, it operates 24 hours a day 7 days a week, it has the smallest footprint of any power plant, it is the cheapest method of producing green energy and it's waste hot water heats cities. It can also extract minerals without having to create any environmental damage. So what are the minerals that have been extracted from geothermal liquids? Here is a short list of some of these minerals zinc, silica, lithium, manganese, boron, lead, silver, antimony and strontium.

Krafla, Geothermal Power Plant Iceland

So who is CHPM2030, it is a project funded by the European Commission tasked with improving a disruptive technology that can help Europe meet both its energy and strategic metals needs. They are partnered with 12 universities and agencies in addition to a number of third parties. Click here for a complete list. 

Geothermal Power Stations Around the World

Geothermal electric plants can be found all over the world in 24 countries and more countries are building these plants every year. In 2010 they produced 10,1715 kilowatts of power an increase of 20% since 2005. In the US alone there are 77 geothermal electric power stations producing clean energy. The Philippines, after the US, is the second largest producer of geothermal and it supplies 27% of the power needs of the country. Unfortunately, Canada is the only major country on the "Ring of Fire" that has not yet develop geothermal electric energy, and it has massive untapped reserves. 

Geothermal Plants in Japan

Sonoma Plant at Geysers, California Grid

Geothermal Plants in the US

Methods of Producing Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy uses a process similar to other steam turbine power stations except it needs no fuel it uses heat from the earth's core to heat water to drive the turbines. There are four types of power stations currently being used.

Dry Steam Power Stations

This is perhaps the most primitive of the systems as it uses steam directly from the earth to drive turbines.

Dry Steam System

Flash Steam Power Stations

This method of producing power from the earth's heat is slightly more refined than the Dry Steam Power Station, it uses high-pressure hot water to flash steam from cold water, which in turn drive the turbines. However it is old technology.

Flash Steam Power Station

Binary Cycle Power Stations

This is the modern method of producing geothermal electricity from the earth's heat. It fundamentally is a heat exchanger where geothermal liquids are passed by a secondary fluid that has a much lower boiling point than water. Thus it can drive a steam turbine using considerably lower temperatures. This is how modern Geothermal Plants are constructed. 

Binary Cycle Power Station

Geothermal Closed Loop Power Stations

This method of producing geothermal energy is revolutionizing the production of geothermal power as it does not require finding a hot water source. It simply circulates a liquid usually, usually one that has a lower boiling point, through a closed loop drilled into the earth's surface. This means, of course, it could be used much more easily outside of the ring of fire, anywhere in the world. 

Source ECO2G Infographic Green Fire Energy