The Green Report: Call it a cellphone with a conscience

Solar sway, CFC’s dangerous proxy, and an environmental Brita filter

15 December 2007

The Globe and Mail

Solar sway, CFC’s dangerous proxy, and an environmental Brita filter

DIAL-UP DATA

THE NEWS Scientists with the European Commission have developed mobile phone software that allows users to chart emissions generated by day-to-day activities ranging from cooking to watching television to flying – and even compare their results to Kyoto targets. Called mobGAS, it builds on the success of earlier tracking programs by clocking emissions for three different greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Developers presented their product to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Bali this week.

THE BUZZ More than 2,000 Europeans have already downloaded mobGAS software to their phones. But will it help the continent cut down? “One problem may be that those who are willing to use this application are those who are already reducing their emissions,” says Tiago Pedrosa, a European Commission researcher who developed the software.

THE BOTTOM LINE Still, the free calculator could help to reduce emissions by putting people’s environmental footprint right in their hand. “As individuals, we have an important role to reduce emissions and fight climate change,” Mr. Pedrosa says. “It’s not just about industry and government.” No word on whether Bali delegates are using the calculator on their plane rides home.

FARMING THE DESERT

THE NEWS The European Parliament may buy up more energy from the Middle East and Africa – but this time not from oil wells. Instead, the EU is considering investment in Desertec, a string of proposed solar farms in the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East. These farms would export a third of the power they generate to Europeans, leaving the rest to provide local electricity and create fresh water. The project was among the presentations to the IPCC in Bali.

THE BUZZ Unlike solar panels, which chemically convert sunlight into electricity, these farms use mirrors to turn water into steam that drives power-plant turbines (as well as desalinates sea water). This technology is proven – a solar thermal plant has been operating in California since the 1980s – but critics say it still costs twice what coal-generated electricity does and may deter European buyers.

THE BOTTOM LINE Price isn’t deterring Desertec’s backers, who include Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan. They are confident solar farming will become cheaper in coming years and say Europe could get a sixth of its power supply from it by 2020. And that could be just the beginning: In one hour, enough sunlight falls on the Earth to supply global energy needs for a year.

COOL AIR ON THE HOT SEAT

THE NEWS The Environmental Investigation Agency, a London-based group that exposes environmental crime, was in Bali pushing for a global ban on hydrofluorocarbons. HFCs are refrigerants used in cars, air conditioners and supermarket chillers – and were once seen as a good alternative to chemicals banned in the 1980s for gouging a hole in the ozone layer. In fact, HFCs are potent greenhouse gases, thousands of times more powerful at trapping the sun’s heat than carbon dioxide.

THE BUZZ There are already alternatives to HFCs that work, such as ammonia, but industry is reluctant to make the switch. “Without a big push by the international community to encourage safe alternatives, HFCs will continue to be produced,” says Clare Perry, a senior campaigner for the EIA. More than 280,000 metric tons of HFCs were produced in 2005 and their use is projected to increase dramatically.

THE BOTTOM LINE A number of corporations, such as Coca-Cola and Unilever, as well as the German car industry have already volunteered to phase out HFCs. “If the German car manufacturers can do it, why isn’t this happening in other countries?” Ms. Perry asks.

ADD CARBON AND STIR

THE NEWS The same technology found in your Brita filter could soon be used to clean up San Francisco Bay. Stanford University’s Richard Luthy has designed a way to clean the bay’s sediment using “activated” carbon. The process involves mixing a couple of pounds of the stuff (imagine tiny bits of charcoal) into the top six inches of mud – which then soaks up polychlorinated biphenyls, pesticides and other pollutants. This locks the pollution away from clams, worms and other creatures that live in the muck and ultimately prevents those chemicals from getting into fish (and us).

THE BUZZ Traditionally there are two ways to deal with contaminated soils: Dig it all up and store it somewhere (or, for a much higher cost, clean it and return it to the site), or just cover up the whole mess and hope it doesn’t leak. In Hamilton Harbour, for example, a 9.5-hectare containment facility is being constructed around the bay’s sediment to keep it in place. But Prof. Luthy’s method takes a different tack. He leaves the mud in place, but makes it safer by adding an extra ingredient.

THE BOTTOM LINE Prof. Luthy has done tests on about 400 square feet plots in the bay, and hopes that the U.S. Navy will adopt his method for the cleanup of the entire region. Most containment strategies “are like engineered burials,” he says. “But putting reactive material into the sediment is a new way of thinking.”