Wildfires are spreading at rapid rates around the world. Many states, including New York, experienced poor air quality in June, when smoke from the raging wildfires in Canada blew south. Record high temperatures are regularly occurring throughout the globe. July 4, 2023 was the hottest day on Earth since the 1970s. Extreme flooding happens globally as a result of more frequent and stronger typhoons and hurricanes. In northern China, near Beijing, flooding has displaced over a million people. These extreme conditions are all a result of climate change. It can be discouraging to hear about a new climate catastrophe every day, but many new technologies are being created to combat the grim consequences of climate change. Here are a few inspiring examples.
Flash Forest
One solution to counter climate change is reforestation, or planting new trees. Two brothers from British Columbia are taking a unique approach to plant trees. After witnessing the devastation caused by the Okanagan Mountain Park fire in 2003, Bryce and Cameron Jones decided that they were going to plant one billion trees around the world by 2028. In 2019, the two started their own company, Flash Forest. Flash Forest uses drones to drop “Seed Pods” into forests that have just been destroyed and are still unsafe for humans to enter. The seeds dropped are a mixture of multiple types of trees, to try and emulate the natural biodiversity a forest has. The drones that drop the “Seed Pods” are also unique. They use AI and massive amounts of geographic data to strategically place seeds in locations where outcomes are most effective. The Canadian government has contributed 1.3 million dollars to Flash Forest as part of its climate change solution. Reports from 2020 suggest that these specialized drones have been able to plant twenty thousand trees within a single day.
Green Cement
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are a massive contributor to climate change, but what you may not realize is that the production of concrete actually produces huge amounts of CO2. The company Solidia has a solution. By producing concrete at lower temperatures and trapping CO2 into the cement, the carbon emissions of concrete production can drop by seventy percent. This new “green” cement can potentially have a significant impact on the climate. Solidia says by using this new concrete, annual CO2 pollution will be reduced by 1.5 gigatons and three trillion liters of water can be saved. “Green” cement is still in the trial stages, but it has been produced in fifty different production facilities with the desired results. Solidia hopes that within the next few years, “green” cement will become more widely available.
Lab-Grown Meat
Almost ninety percent of Americans regularly eat meat. The meat industry uses large amounts of water and accounts for 14.5 percent of global carbon emissions. Additionally, the conditions under which livestock are raised are problematic. Livestock are confined to cramped cages and live in their own filth. These conditions make livestock farms breeding grounds for bacteria, many of which are resistant to antibiotics. As an alternative, two companies, GOOD Meat and UPSIDE Foods, have been experimenting with lab-grown meat. To accomplish this, scientists first isolate stem cells from a fertilized chicken egg. They then select the cell lines that grow most robustly and freeze them. These cell lines are then submerged into a culture medium, which contains all the nutrients needed for the cells to grow and divide. Within a few weeks the cells will have clumped together and produced enough protein to be harvested. Scientists can then make final adjustments to the meat to ensure the texture mimics that of typical chicken meat. Lab-grown meat is still in the early stages, but it appears to reduce land and water usage. Currently chicken is the only lab-grown meat that has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and it is being served in restaurants in San Francisco and Washington D.C. Writer Paolo Bicchieri had the opportunity to try the lab-grown chicken at Bar Crenn in San Francisco when it was first served to the public. He says the chicken isn’t as white as normal chicken, but the taste provides the same meaty, nostalgic flavor that chicken should have. Maybe someday soon, lab-grown chicken will be available for all of us to try!
These are just a few of the innovative technologies that are being used to combat climate change. Continued innovation will be critical to reverse the negative impacts of climate change, and to save our beloved planet.