Equality Matters
Record Methane Emissions Driven by Agriculture and Fossil Fuels
Scientists Confront Academic Racism Nearly 6,000 scientists signed a pledge to #ShutDownSTEM on June 10, the day of the Strike for Black Lives across higher education. (STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and math.) They canceled lab meetings, halted research projects and actively confronted perceived racism in their institutions in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Particles for Justice (ParticlesForJustice.org) physics collective members Brian Nord and Chanda Prescod-Weinstein helped develop the idea for the strike. They called on university science departments, national laboratories and all others engaged in scientific endeavors to stop business as usual for that one day. The aim was educating themselves and their colleagues about the role of their own institutions in perpetuating white supremacy and creating concrete actions they could take to reduce antiBlack bias after the strike. According to the Pew Research Center, only 24 percent of college faculty members were nonwhite as of 2017, and a study published in the March edition of the journal BioScience found that Black, Latino, Native American and other underrepresented scholars account for only 9 percent of faculty members in STEM fields.
A worldwide inventory of methane sources reported by researchers online in Environmental Research Letters reveals that atmospheric levels of the heattrapping greenhouse gas are at an all-time high. Africa and Asia are seen as major contributors due to increasing agriculture activity. Increasing fossil fuel use and landfill waste also heighten emissions in China and the United States. Science News reports that methane “is one of the most important greenhouse gases—arguably the second-most important after CO2,” according to atmospheric scientist Alexander Turner. Methane can trap approximately 30 times as much heat as the same amount of CO2. Possible solutions include strategies to moderate pollution such as consuming less meat to cut down on emissions from cattle ranches and using aircraft or satellites to find gas pipeline leaks. In 2017, human activities discharged about 364 million metric tons of methane into the atmosphere, compared with 324 million tons per year on average in the early 2000s. About half of the increase was the result of expanding agriculture and landfills, while the rest came from fossil fuels. Emissions from natural sources such as wetlands held steady.
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global briefs
Putt Putt The state of California has approved a $437 million campaign devoted to building thousands of electric vehicle (EV) chargers, making it the nation’s largest single utility program to expand its charging infrastructure. Southern California Edison (sce.com) will install nearly 40,000 chargers. Half of the investment will take place in low-income communities and 30 percent will be for multifamily residences, where it’s more difficult to charge an EV. The program is expected to help achieve the state’s goal of putting 5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2030.
Apple Seeks 2030 Carbon Neutrality
Apple, Inc., the maker of the iPhone, iPad and Mac computers, has committed to becoming 100 percent carbon neutral overall, from its supply chain to retail outlets, by 2030. The goal is to achieve a zero net climate impact. According to BBC Science Focus Magazine, CEO Tim Cook says, “Businesses have a profound opportunity to help build a more sustainable future, one born of our common concern for the planet we share. The innovations powering our environmental journey are not only good for the planet, they’ve helped us make our products more energy-efficient and bring new sources of clean energy online around the world. Climate action can be the foundation for a new era of innovative potential, job creation and durable economic growth. With our commitment to carbon neutrality, we hope to be a ripple in the pond that creates a much larger change.” If successful, the 10-year plan will reduce carbon emissions by 75 percent and develop solutions such as the use of low carbon and recycled materials to achieve the other 25 percent. 16
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Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Surging in California
