EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/
US issues carbon offset guidelines; could clean shipping fuel have caused unintended consequences?; scientists create eco-friendly chocolate; Congress to fund deep-sea mining project.
About EarthxNews:
A weekly program dedicated to covering the stories that shape the planet. Featuring the latest updates in energy, environment, tech, climate, and more.
EarthX & EarthXtra
Love Our Planet.
The Official Network of Earth Day.
About Us:
At EarthX, we believe our planet is a pretty special place. The people, landscapes, and critters are likely unique to the entire universe, so we consider ourselves lucky to be here. We are committed to protecting the environment by inspiring conservation and sustainability, and our programming along with our range of expert hosts support this mission. We’re glad you’re with us.
EarthX is a media company dedicated to inspiring people to care about the planet. We take an omni channel approach to reach audiences of every age through its robust 24/7 linear channel distributed across cable and FAST outlets, along with dynamic, solution oriented short form content on social and digital platforms. EarthX is home to original series, documentaries and snackable content that offer sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. EarthX is the only network that delivers entertaining and inspiring topics that impact and inspire our lives on climate and sustainability.
EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/
Follow Us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthxmedia/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/earthxmedia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EarthXMedia/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@earthxmedia
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EarthXMedia
Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/earthxmedia
How to watch:
EarthX - Cable:
- Spectrum
- AT&T U-verse (1267)
- DIRECTV (267)
- Philo
- FuboTV
EarthXtra - Streaming:
- Plex
- Fire TV
- Xumo
- Sling
#EarthDay #Environment #Sustainability #EcoFriendly #Conservation #EarthX
US issues carbon offset guidelines; could clean shipping fuel have caused unintended consequences?; scientists create eco-friendly chocolate; Congress to fund deep-sea mining project.
About EarthxNews:
A weekly program dedicated to covering the stories that shape the planet. Featuring the latest updates in energy, environment, tech, climate, and more.
EarthX & EarthXtra
Love Our Planet.
The Official Network of Earth Day.
About Us:
At EarthX, we believe our planet is a pretty special place. The people, landscapes, and critters are likely unique to the entire universe, so we consider ourselves lucky to be here. We are committed to protecting the environment by inspiring conservation and sustainability, and our programming along with our range of expert hosts support this mission. We’re glad you’re with us.
EarthX is a media company dedicated to inspiring people to care about the planet. We take an omni channel approach to reach audiences of every age through its robust 24/7 linear channel distributed across cable and FAST outlets, along with dynamic, solution oriented short form content on social and digital platforms. EarthX is home to original series, documentaries and snackable content that offer sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. EarthX is the only network that delivers entertaining and inspiring topics that impact and inspire our lives on climate and sustainability.
EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/
Follow Us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthxmedia/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/earthxmedia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EarthXMedia/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@earthxmedia
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EarthXMedia
Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/earthxmedia
How to watch:
EarthX - Cable:
- Spectrum
- AT&T U-verse (1267)
- DIRECTV (267)
- Philo
- FuboTV
EarthXtra - Streaming:
- Plex
- Fire TV
- Xumo
- Sling
#EarthDay #Environment #Sustainability #EcoFriendly #Conservation #EarthX
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Building integrity. The federal government issues some new principles to guide participation in voluntary carbon markets. A highly criticized climate tool. Plus an environmental policy aimed at cleaning up shipping fuel may have had some unintended consequences.
00:20And eco-friendly chocolate? Scientists are whipping up a new recipe that could make the sweet treat both healthier and sustainable.
00:30Hello and welcome to EarthX News where we focus on conservation, sustainability and the environment. I'm Sarah Williamson in for Christina Thompson. Let's get into some of the biggest headlines facing our planet.
00:52The US is seeking to boost confidence in the carbon offset market with a set of new guidelines.
00:59The federal government recently announcing new principles seeking to define high integrity offsets that deliver real, measurable emission reductions.
01:09Under the guidelines, which are neither binding nor enforceable, businesses are encouraged to prioritize reducing emissions within their supply chains before purchasing offsets.
01:21Now the move comes amid concerns that current practices to reduce emissions often don't cut greenhouse gases as claimed. Supporters of voluntary carbon markets say that they could help cultivate a bigger market for high quality offsets that actually work.
01:39Critics of carbon offsets, however, say that the new federal policies are too vague and don't do enough to describe what sorts of projects count as high quality.
01:50According to a growing number of studies and reports, many say that the method meant to cancel out the effects of global warming activities by funding projects such as planting of trees that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and simply don't work, with some scientists and researchers arguing they are flawed and should be rejected altogether.
02:11Congress is looking to jumpstart the deep sea mining industry in the US.
02:18The House Armed Services Committee has directed the Pentagon to commit $2 million to a feasibility study seeking to explore ocean floor mineral refining.
02:27Now the process will begin once the annual defence budget is signed into law later this year.
02:34And it's likely that any funds committed to the industry won't be seen until next year.
02:39The move comes as the nation eyes ways to secure non-Chinese sources of the critical metals that are needed for the energy transition, such as EV batteries, consumer electronics and defence technology.
02:54Scientists say that deep sea mining involves the harvesting of small rocks or nodules that are lying on the seabed and processing them for minerals and metals, including cobalt and nickel.
03:07The investment is being praised by the deep sea mining industry, who say collecting minerals from the seabed avoids damage to land-based sources of minerals.
03:17Now, conversely, critics argue that a deep dive for the minerals will cause irrevocable damage to an environment largely untouched by humans.
03:27US and Chinese environmental officials gathered for a high-level climate conference in California.
03:33The Sub-National Climate Action Forum brought together national, state and city leaders from several parts of both countries for the two-day summit.
03:42During the event, officials participated in a number of roundtable discussions on green energy transition, sustainability and development.
03:51Leaders also announced new initiatives to advance climate cooperation at the state and local levels.
03:57Some of the actions being taken include establishing the China-US Youth Future Climate Leadership Exchange Program, sharing progress on the global stage and expanding the climate dialogue.
04:09Officials attending the event also emphasise the importance of cultivating relationships as the two countries strive to reach a wider collaboration in order to protect the planet.
04:19Listen.
04:20This is an opportunity to develop relationships and ultimately that is how anything gets done.
04:25You know, we can take on enormous challenges together if we have relationships with each other.
04:30The gathering serves as one of the commitments established in a previous climate agreement signed between the two countries last November.
04:38A California lake has turned green and photos showing the Emerald waters are now visible from space.
04:45Satellite images taken by NASA suggest that Clear Lake, north of Napa Valley in San Francisco, may be infested with a type of blue-green algae strong enough to poison humans and animals, according to the US Geological Survey.
05:01County officials say that overall, algae is essential to the freshwater lake's health and aquatic ecosystem, but this bloom can cause skin irritation and gastrointestinal issues, plus deplete water's oxygen levels, creating dead zones that kill fish and other aquatic life.
05:22Clear Lake's waters once closely resembled its name, but it started becoming noticeably murkier in the 1920s due to agriculture and mining activities in the area.
05:33Officials report the number of blooms in the lake has increased in recent years and expect that the potential for blooms will increase in the coming decades.
05:43From more than 400 miles above Earth, NASA is tracking some of the Earth's smallest lifeforms floating just beneath the ocean's surface in an effort to monitor how warming affects ocean health.
05:56The mission involves the space agency's newest Earth-observing satellite called PACE.
06:03And joining us now to talk about the initiative is one of the scientists involved in the project.
06:08Oceanographer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and project scientist, Dr Jeremy Wardell.
06:15Dr Wardell, thank you so much for joining us today.
06:18It's my pleasure.
06:21First off, just tell us what does PACE stand for and what is the mission of PACE all about?
06:30Okay, so PACE is an acronym for plankton, aerosol, cloud and ocean ecosystem.
06:37So not super clever, but at the same time, it indicates that we are an Earth science mission.
06:42And I realize when you think of NASA, you don't always think of their science, but there's a fleet of Earth-observing satellites.
06:48And PACE is the latest investment, super advanced, for the combined study of our oceans and our atmosphere.
06:56We make the invisible visible in this series of instruments.
07:00Beautiful.
07:01Now, what is the satellite observing and how does it all work?
07:05So the instruments operate a lot like your eyes do.
07:10They infer colour where they take images of colour and convert that into some metric of biology.
07:19And so in the case of oceans, and I'm an oceanographer so it starts there, we look at the colour of the ocean to better understand what is in there.
07:28And the invisible in this case are phytoplankton.
07:31And Doctor, what can you tell us about phytoplankton and how it affects our climate?
07:38So the beauty of a mission like this and the study of phytoplankton is they really are important to not just our everyday lives,
07:47but our generational multi-year, multi-decade of lives.
07:51Various timescales, if you're thinking super short term, even if you're not in view of the ocean, our oceans are incredibly important.
08:00Phytoplankton feed our bellies, they feed our economy, recreation.
08:04Sometimes they're phytoplankton out there, they're harmful, then they'll close beaches or contaminate drinking water.
08:10So it's really, really important to understand where they are and what communities are there.
08:15And then when you think longer term, the ocean and the atmosphere are completely interconnected.
08:20And what happens in the atmosphere can influence the ocean and vice versa.
08:24And so where phytoplankton come in is they can not only influence creations of clouds,
08:30which can warm and cooler or warmer, reflect light in the atmosphere, but they also move carbon around.
08:36So their distributions are incredibly important to really understand all of the aspects of our changing plan.
08:42Tell to us about where you might see NASA taking this in the future.
08:46Oh, that's a great question.
08:49There is a lot to think about in terms of interconnectedness.
08:54So it would be really amazing for the discovery that PACE will offer for all walks of life to be hopefully institutionalized to long term monitoring through multiple missions.
09:06But, you know, NASA would also invest in other ways of viewing the ocean that complement PACE as well.
09:12This really is fascinating stuff.
09:15Dr. Jeremy Wardell, thank you so much for your time today.
09:18Thank you. Really appreciate the interest.
09:20Shipping fuel regulations aimed at cutting pollution may inadvertently be harming the environment.
09:27According to a recent study, the policies meant to clean up the industry may have made the ocean warmer by reducing cloud cover.
09:36Researchers at the University of Maryland say the International Maritime Organization rules to tackle marine pollution forced shippers to cut their fuel sulfur content by 86 percent, leading to lower sulfur dioxide emissions.
09:53Scientists say besides being a major pollutant, SO2 also forms aerosols that thicken and brighten clouds reflecting the sun's rays back into space.
10:04Climate scientists say the cooling effect in SO2 is well understood.
10:09And whilst some researchers are worried about the impact the reduction in SO2 could have on global temperatures,
10:16others believe the study may have exaggerated the impact of the IMO fuel policy.
10:23Scientists in the UK say they've developed a healthier, more sustainable recipe for chocolate.
10:29Instead of using just the beans, the new method involves mashing up a whole cocoa pod, including the husk and pulp, to create a sweet and fibrous gel that could act as a substitute for sugar, according to a report published in the online journal Nature Food.
10:46Researchers said the whole-food approach creates a more nutritious product than conventional chocolate, all while still satisfying a sweet tooth.
10:55One food technologist said the lab-based chocolate was basically identical to dark chocolate, saying in part, quote,
11:03The sweetness released in your mouth is slightly slower than if you eat traditional dark chocolate, and you have more of these fruity notes and acidity coming from the juice.
11:14The study also found the new method used 6% less land and water, but an extra step in the drying process generated a 12% jump in emissions.
11:24However, the report said that drying the pulp in the sun or using solar energy could reduce the greenhouse gases emitted during the drying process.
11:33Coming up, does climate litigation spark change?
11:38A law professor weighs in.
11:40Stay tuned, that conversation is just ahead on EarthX News.
11:44According to recent data, the number of climate cases has more than doubled across an expanding
12:13number of jurisdictions over the past several years.
12:17As more people challenge governments and corporations for not doing enough to combat environmental issues.
12:24But as the lawsuits mount, so do the questions about whether the legal actions actually make a difference.
12:31Joining us now to discuss is law professor at Florida International University
12:36and senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, Mario Loyola.
12:40Mario, thank you so much for joining us today.
12:43Let's get right into it.
12:45There's been a recent wave of climate-related court cases that could have broad implications
12:51for legal systems around the whole world, really.
12:54Most notably in Switzerland, where the senior women for climate protection went to court.
13:00First off, can you just tell us about this landmark case?
13:03Well, these cases in general are trying to advance a theory of rights-based environmentalism in which,
13:12you know, under various theories, they're trying to make people liable for contributing to the carbon emissions
13:19that are supposed to be warming the planet and so forth.
13:23But it's a really bad idea because, you know, climate policy, like all environmental protection policies,
13:31involves trade-offs that hopefully in a democracy have to be made through the democratic process.
13:37Can you just tell us about what the outcome of this case was?
13:40So, in this particular case in Switzerland, they found that some people had been contributed to carbon emissions
13:54that had warmed the planet.
13:57But again, tracing liability to where it actually starts is very difficult.
14:04Talk to us about how symbolic this was.
14:07Do you think it's actually going to make a difference in the end?
14:11I don't think that it will.
14:12These climate policies and the transition to a net-zero economy,
14:17to a low-carbon emissions electricity grid, is an extraordinarily complicated set of policy issues
14:24that, again, can only be done through the democratic process.
14:27Even trying to address it through regulatory means, as has been done in the United States,
14:32by which agencies step in, where, let's say, Congress has failed to enact a carbon tax scheme,
14:39a carbon trading scheme, even doing it through regulatory agencies involves problems
14:45because you're cutting the public out of making those trade-offs.
14:48The problems of cutting the public out of those trade-offs is even worse if you're doing it through the courts.
14:54The kinds of rights-based lawsuits, even if they produce victories.
15:01But at the end of the day, you may result in some people getting hit with liability that their amounts that they owe
15:11that they have to pay over.
15:13But none of this can, you know, none of this is going to affect the actual climate.
15:18And the problem, because those are planetary, you know, the climate issue affects the entire planet
15:24and can only be addressed by a successful clean energy transition.
15:30And successful clean energy transition requires energy abundance.
15:35If climate policies produce energy scarcity, if, say, you're starting to reduce the supply of fossil fuels
15:41before renewable substitutes are ready in sufficient quantities to make up the slack,
15:47all you're going to do is produce an energy scarcity crisis because people can't be without energy.
15:52And so they're willing to pay, you know, they're willing to forego other things that they need in order to pay more for energy.
15:59And so all you're going to do in the end is create a political backlash against climate action.
16:04So if that's the case, then what else can be done?
16:07If we have this renewable energy scarcity, but people are still concerned about global warming, what can be done?
16:17So the pursuit of renewable substitutes is great as long as it's done through market-based mechanisms
16:26that allow people to switch to renewable substitutes when they are actually cost-competitive.
16:31So subsidies are bad because subsidies make it impossible for, you know, nuclear, the big plants on which electricity relies,
16:42like nuclear and natural gas plants, can't recoup their costs when solar is getting dumped on the grid for free in the middle of the day.
16:50I think the guiding principle here is that climate action has to leverage energy abundance.
16:56And that's why if you want, for example, for solars to be able to contribute to a grid,
17:02solar energy needs to be backed up by a dispatchable source such as smaller natural gas plants.
17:08And so this has to be an all-of-the-above approach where the market is allowed to transition seamlessly to cleaner forms of energy.
17:18If it's done in a top-down way, those policies are going to produce energy scarcity
17:23and, at the end of the day, a political backlash against climate action.
17:26OK, Mario Loyola, thank you so much for joining us today. We appreciate having you on.
17:31Thank you very much for having me.
17:33Coming up, there's a renewed surge in pandamania inside the Beltway
17:39after officials at the Washington Zoo make a big announcement.
17:43Stay tuned. That story is just ahead on EarthX News.
17:47Giant pandas are officially returning to Washington's National Zoo.
18:12John Gizzy has that story.
18:14No matter how much the relationship between the United States and China has changed over the years,
18:21panda diplomacy lives on.
18:24The Smithsonian National Zoo recently announced that two more giant pandas will be brought there from China by the end of the year.
18:35Their names are Bo Li and Qing Bo, and like their predecessors going back half a century,
18:42they are sure to be loved by local residents and tourists to the nation's capital.
18:48Aside from delighting visitors who eagerly snap pictures of them, the giant pandas serve another very important purpose.
18:56The National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute maintains one of the world's most elaborate and acclaimed panda conservation programs.
19:06As a result, the panda has moved from the endangered to the vulnerable on the world's list of endangered species.
19:16For your information, Bo Li is Mandarin Chinese for energetic, and Qing Bo is translated as treasure.
19:25Visitors to the zoo are sure to be energetic about the new visitors, and all will surely consider them to be a treasure.
19:35For EarthX, I'm John Gizzi.
19:38John Gizzi, thank you.
19:41And a heartwarming moment at the Toronto Zoo in Canada.
19:46As a snow leopard at the facility gives birth to two adorable cubs.
19:51Zoo officials say the little ones came into the world overnight, with the first arriving on a Monday evening,
19:57and the second making its debut early the next morning.
20:01The zoo says first-time mum Jita is doing very well and has proven to be a nurturing and attentive parent,
20:09diligently nursing, grooming and cuddling her precious snowballs.
20:13The snow leopard is currently listed as a vulnerable species,
20:17and the Toronto Zoo is currently participating in a breeding program aiming to help the animal maintain a sustainable population.
20:26And before we leave you a special send-off at the beach in South Carolina, watch.
20:32And we are going to go ahead and watch her head back out into the ocean now.
20:41Thank you all so much for watching and watching this really exciting experience.
20:47We're so happy to send her home.
20:52And hopefully we'll get to see her swim out a little bit further.
20:56A crowd of onlookers gathering at Folly Beach to cheer on a pair of loggerhead turtles as they make their way back to the ocean.
21:05The two turtles, Bree and Gruyere, were released back into the sea after spending months at the South Carolina Aquarium's Sea Turtle Care Center.
21:15Bree had turtle syndrome, which left her thin, lethargic and severely dehydrated.
21:20Plus, she was covered in leeches.
21:22And Gruyere had a severe case of pneumonia and was stranded because of cold stunning.
21:28Officials say both sea turtles were in good health before being returned to their natural habitat.
21:35And that's it for this edition of EarthX News.
21:38Please join us again next week.
21:40I'm Sarah Williamson.
21:41I'm Sarah Williamson.
21:42Thanks for watching.
Be the first to comment