In the Media

U.S. panel calls for boosting research into capturing potent greenhouse gas

Emissions of the long-overlooked nitrous oxide gas are rising quickly. But proven, low-cost efforts to reduce emissions offer hope.

Nitrogen is absolutely essential for all forms of life, plants, animals and microbes. Nitrogen is the basis for making amino acids, and amino acids are the basis for making proteins, enzymes. Synthetic nitrogen has enabled our modern food systems to produce enough food to feed 8 billion people. It has also resulted in widespread nitrogen pollution in water ways and ever increasing levels of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. Nitrogen 2.0 is focused on reducing nitrogen wastage and pollution, and increasing the circularity of nitrogen use.

Agriculture in the U.S. produces more methane than the American oil and gas industry, and the biggest share of that agricultural methane is from enteric fermentation – essentially cow burps. Cows and other ruminant animals release methane because of the way they digest food. And as animal protein consumption rises, so will enteric emissions. It’s a problem for climate change, but also for farmers. Methane is wasted energy that could have been used for beef or dairy production – and so enteric methane production is a challenge that researchers have been trying to solve for years. Some promising solutions are starting to make it into practice. In this episode, Shayle talks to Charles Brooke, program manager for enteric methane at Spark Climate Solutions.

Earth Day reminds us of the importance of the soil, water and air upon which our health, prosperity and food security depend. The good news is that, on average, humans are better nourished now than at any time in human history, although nearly 1 billion people are still undernourished. The bad news is that our agricultural achievements have come as the expense of extensive air and water pollution and a changing climate.

Nitrous oxide, or N2O, is the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions behind carbon dioxide and methane. Also known as laughing gas, it’s long-lived like carbon dioxide and incredibly potent like methane. And it accounts for about 6% of global warming. So where does it come from? And what do we do about it? In this episode, Shayle talks to Eric Davidson, professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and principal scientist at Spark Climate Solutions. Eric studies a surprising source of nitrous oxide: bacteria in the soil.

The intervention may break down methane, mimicking a phenomenon that could have amplified ice ages. But scientists (and Spark) say far more basic research still needs to be done.

This podcast covers two climate blind spots—methane and short-term warming—that Spark is working on, discussing topics like: why we should consider different time-scale standards for measuring global warming impact, such as GWP100 and GWP20; how short-lived aerosols mask the full warming impact of greenhouse gasses; methane removal, including the process of oxidation and methane sink; different sources of methane, such as wetlands, livestock and fossil fuel production; ready-to-deploy solutions to fossil fuel methane emissions, such as flaring, detection, capture and storage; how flaring may be less effective than previously thought; and solutions under development for livestock methane, such as manure management, biogas digesters and feed additives like seaweed-derived bromoform.‍