Tag: climate solutions

  • Top 3 challenges for livestock emission calculators

    Top 3 challenges for livestock emission calculators

    Seaspray Labs is currently designing and developing livestock emission calculators. But let’s step back. Why do we need to quantify livestock emissions? Most countries have agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Now we need reliable ways to measure and track emissions to see where we stand. There are several greenhouse gasses that are emitted from livestock farming. For example ruminants, such as cattle, emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The good news? There are many things we can do to reduce emissions, from eating a more plant-rich diet to feed adjustments for cattle. How can we quantify and measure current emissions and future reductions? We are designing a calculator for livestock emissions and here are our top three challenges.

    Challenge 1: Different experience levels. Who are our end users? We have expert users, who know all the details of climate science for livestock. One the other side we have absolute beginners, who have been tasked with creating an inventory for livestock emissions without having prior experience in this field. How can we explain and simplify this extremely complex process and at the same time allow experts to quickly enter data and navigate results?

    Challenge 2: Limited data. Inventory compilers enter or import activity data to then estimate emissions. For livestock this means data such as how many animals, at what temperature are animals being kept, and what manure management systems are being used. Some users have extremely limited data sets. How can we allow these users to plug in the data they have and generate comparable emission estimations with the help of default values?

    Challenge 3: Complex datasets. On the other hand, there are inventory compilers with extremely complex datasets. Their livestock species are divided into populations and subcategories. For each subcategory they have different temperature and manure management system usage data. While this is great for reducing uncertainty, it poses other challenges. How can we provide estimations that are transparent and easy to manipulate?

    Design thinking is about solving problems and tackling challenges. Let’s hope we can solve these challenges and address the different user needs. Our goal is to make emission estimation easier, more user friendly, and more transparent. Seaspray Labs works to quantify emissions and hopefully bring us closer to a low carbon future.

  • How can we make climate reporting easier?

    How can we make climate reporting easier?

    This story starts in Japan, where the United Nations body for climate reporting, the TFI, is based. Countries all over the world report yearly emissions to the UN. It’s like a financial report but for greenhouse gases. Countries determine their emissions and removals of greenhouse gases and send the final balance sheet to the UN.

    This sounds easy and straightforward, but in fact it’s a highly complicated process. There are tools to help, but most are old. While an enormous amount of experience and thought went into the development of existing tools, they haven’t been designed with end users in mind.

    This is where Seaspray Labs comes into play. We are currently working on a web-based app for greenhouse gas inventories. Like most inventory tools it is based on the guidelines developed by the TFI. Here are our design questions:

    • How can we simplify the inventory process?
    • How can we help and guide users through the process?

    Here are three steps we are taking to tackle this:

    Step 1: Understand the inventory process. When designing interfaces, this step is often skipped, even though it’s so important. How can designers simplify a process if they don’t have an in-depth understanding of it? This step includes user research to see how current users are using existing tools. During user interviews we learned how inventory compilers approach their inventories, and we heard about their struggles with existing tools. In the context of a greenhouse gas inventory, this step also includes understanding climate science and the guidelines for climate reporting from the TFI.

    Step 2: Design a simplified workflow. The majority of our users are newcomers. How can we make the user interface straightforward for them? We identify the actions for a simple inventory every step of the way and hide all other functions. This way, we don’t overload newcomers with information that doesn’t apply to them.

    Step 3: Architect the tool with flexibility. While the majority of our users are newcomers, we also have many expert users. They have more complex datasets and need more sophisticated estimation methods. We need to allow for flexibility. Functions and actions for expert users, such as importing massive data sets, are part of the design to address user needs from basic to extremely sophisticated.

    What do I like most about designing tools for climate reporting? There are existing tools out there. They are not easy to use, but a lot of experience and thought went into their development. It’s a fun challenge to transform them into intuitive, easy to use apps. And hopefully they can help to make climate reporting easier and more accurate.

  • An Unexpected Ingredient for Climate Action

    An Unexpected Ingredient for Climate Action

    This week’s climate story brings us all the way to the island Tasmania in Australia. Imagine standing next to a beautiful bay overlooking the Tasman Sea, this is where the company Sea Forest is headquartered.

    Have you heard that cows release the potent greenhouse gas methane? Have you also heard that mixing a little bit of seaweed in their diet reduces their emissions greatly? Research teams all over the world are racing to find out more: What type of seaweed works best? How much is needed? How can it be grown and mixed into feed sustainably?

    Asparagopsis is an edible red seaweed, native to Australian waters. Sea Forest is the first company to produce and scale Asparagopsis at a commercial scale. They are developing innovative ways to cultivate the seaweed on land and in the ocean. This is how it works:

    On the left side you can see how a boat farms seaweed in the ocean. Alternatively it can be grown in tanks on land. After it is harvested, the seaweed needs to dry. Sea Forest then produces a feed supplement for cattle.

    No, the milk and meat don’t taste like seaweed. And amazingly, the cows are more productive with this supplement. They need less feed because they are saving energy by not producing methane. A 2020 study found that methane emissions from cattle can be reduced by up to 98%:

    Animals whose diets contain 0.2% Sea Forest’s supplement will have methane reductions up to 98%.

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652620308830?via%3Dihub#ack0010

    That is a very impressive reduction of methane! There are still a lot of open questions and scientists say there is not enough seaweed for all the cattle in the world. What I like most about Sea Forest is that they are acting now. We need climate solutions now and Sea Forest is one of the teams delivering. They are planning to sell the first supplements later this year.

    As with so many other amazing teams all over the world, Sea Forest is producing climate solutions right now. Their rapid and innovative approach is inspiring and I hope they succeed!

  • How a Small Grain Can Make a Big Impact

    How a Small Grain Can Make a Big Impact

    This week’s climate story brings us to the green rice fields of Thailand. As in many other countries, rice is a staple food here. But did you know growing rice causes a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions?

    Traditionally, rice is grown on flooded fields called rice paddies. These paddies create ideal conditions for bacteria that emit methane. Why is methane bad? Methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere.

    Today’s story shows how rice farmers in Thailand and all over the world tackle global warming. Reducing and interrupting the period of flooding reduces emissions. This method is called “alternate wetting and drying” and this is how it works:

    Traditionally, rice fields are continuously flooded as you can see in the left picture. When irrigation is stopped, the water level slowly decreases, as shown in the center. On the right, the water level is about 15 cm below soil level, where the roots still get water. Once the water level gets lower, the fields gets flooded again and the process of alternate wetting and drying starts all over. This actually increases yields while farmers safe water and electricity to pump the water.

    Let’s get back to Thailand. A project funded by the climate finance program NAMA Facility will outreach to 100,000 rice farming households to shift from conventional to low-emission farming. They are implementing best practices from the sustainable rice platform :

    • Alternate wetting and drying: Mid-season drainage alone reduces methane emissions by 35 to 70 percent.
    • Laser land leveling: Fields are leveled with the help of lasers to reduce water usage and increase grain yield and quality.
    • Site specific nutrient management: Farmers reduce the amount of fertilizer and apply it based on local conditions and only when needed.
    • Straw and stubble management: Instead of conventional burning, rice straw and stubble get removed from the field and used for other purposes or incorporated back into the soil.

    In Thailand, rice farming has long traditions. The NAMA rice project works with the government and directly with rice farmers to change to new, sustainable farming methods. Here is a quote from Rampha Khamhaeng, a rice farmer from central Thailand:

    To be honest, at first I didn’t buy it….Now I tried it and it works — it’s the best way

    https://www.ft.com/content/8ff2b454-9390-11ea-899a-f62a20d54625

    What I like most about this project is that it reduces emissions and the same time safes farmers money by using less water, fertilizer, and energy. This is another climate solution that is not only more sustainable, but also safes money. Let’s hope many more farmers all over the world are switching to sustainable rice growing practices soon!

  • How Whales Could Offset Global Warming

    How Whales Could Offset Global Warming

    To stop global warming we need to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I have been writing about different ways to do this, from planting trees, restoring wetlands, to capturing carbon. Although I have been writing about the importance of seaweed, I haven’t looked at marine animals before. So here we go…

    Imagine you are on a boat off the San Diego coast. The sun is shining, and you are looking over the calm water. Suddenly there is a splash and a huge whale comes out of the water and dives back in. What an incredible experience.

    Turns out, besides being amazing animals, whales help to offset global warming. An article from the International Monetary Fund explains how they do this and what monetary value whales have.

    Whales store carbon in their bodies and help phytoplankton growth. Wherever whales are, phytoplankton increases. What do these tiny microorganisms have to do with climate change? Let’s find out…

    Basically, whales are natural fertilizers. They move from cold, nutrient rich water where they feed to nutrient poor water, such are surface waters, stimulating phytoplankton growth. They also migrate from cold, nutrient rich waters to warm waters for breeding and stimulate phytoplankton in the process.

    Phytoplankton not only contribute at least 50 percent of all oxygen to our atmosphere, they do so by capturing about 37 billion metric tons of CO2, an estimated 40 percent of all CO2 produced

    https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/12/natures-solution-to-climate-change-chami.htm

    Before whaling there we 4-5 million whales, now there are only 1.3 million left. This is how whales could help tackle climate change:

    Even a 1 percent increase in phytoplankton productivity thanks to whale activity would capture hundreds of millions of tons of additional CO2 a year, equivalent to the sudden appearance of 2 billion mature trees

    https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/12/natures-solution-to-climate-change-chami.htm

    Beside stimulating phytoplankton growth, whales themselves store massive amounts of carbon dioxide. When whales die, they sink to the bottom of the ocean where this carbon is stored for hundreds of years.

    What I like most about the article is that they show the economic benefits of restoring whale populations. They value an average great whale at $2 million. Subsidizing whale’s greenhouse gas sequestration would be worth $13 per person a year.

    Whales are helping to restore ocean health and capture massive amounts of greenhouse gases. What’s stopping us from helping whale populations to grow right now?