195 results for author: Joanna Campe

Engineers Without Borders is Addressing Food Security in Tanzania

David Paul and Pupils of Chagu Primary School fetching water from the lake with crocodiles. Click to enlarge photos and graphics. David Paul (standing, left) uses a groundwater detection electrode system to survey water resources Kilimanjaro region. This work is part of a project to supply clean, safe drinking water to the Maasai Community of this area.     David Paul Blessing, current president of Engineers Without Borders-Tanzania (EWB-Tanzania), sat in his hotel room in Nguruka township after a long day of work. He and his team were on-site helping to develop safe drinking water sources and sanitation facilities for ...

UNDO Matters: UK carbon removal company taking remineralization mainstream

The story of UNDO Carbon Removal began as the story of the Future Forest Company, says Jim Mann, cofounder and chief executive officer of both, with the former using enhanced weathering and the latter taking the reforestation route to ecological restoration in the United Kingdom. And so, UNDO spun out from Future Forest in mid-2022. Jim Mann, cofounder and CEO of UNDO “We were trying to move quickly with in-house rock weathering, trying to scale fast. Reforestation and ecological restoration are relatively slow processes. You might spend a year planning and then two years getting the appropriate permissions and signoffs from government ...

Puro.earth and Nasdaq in Partnership Propel a Green Economy Forward

A seminal breakthrough in the global carbon removal market came when Nasdaq  acquired a majority stake of Puro.earth in June 2021. This partnership between Puro.earth, described as “the world’s leading carbon crediting platform for engineered carbon removal,” and Nasdaq, a global electronic stock exchange, represents a huge opportunity to scale the marketplace as more companies look to offset their emissions.  Puro.earth and their innovative CORCs Antti Vihavainen took the first steps toward creating Puro.earth in a pitch to Scandinavian clean energy company Fortum. His goal was to create a business model to incentivize ...

Crash Course on Enhanced Rock Weathering for Carbon Removal

Rock dust delivered to agricultural fields for a terrestrial enhanced weathering field trial (photo courtesy of Lithos). Click photos to enlarge. Melting iceberg, Greenland (credits: NASA/Saskia Madlener). According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), without significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the global temperature will increase by 3 to 4 degrees Celsius by the year 2100. This could have catastrophic consequences for human society. We are already living with the effects of the 1.1-degree increase that has occurred since the industrial revolution began around 1760. Major heat waves, wildfires, floods, and ...

AirMiners Panel Engages the Challenge of Verifying Carbon Removal for Enhanced Weathering

Across a landscape, weathering rates can vary widely due to differences in soil. These include properties such as moisture content, soil pH, temperature, soil mineralogy, and vegetative cover. (Credit: John Spencer) Mary Yap, founder and CEO of Lithos Carbon In November 2022, a panel of four AirMiners (those working to ‘mine’ atmospheric carbon and stabilize it in the ground) met to discuss the potential of Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) and associated challenges for establishing credibility and trust. In short, we need a way to prove that greenhouse gasses have been removed from the atmosphere. To help with this goal, the panel proposed a ...

The Science of Rock Dust and Carbon Removal with Enhanced Weathering

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the three main greenhouse gasses causing climate change, which is projected to increase global temperature by 5.7° F  by the year 2100. This may not seem like a large change, but the Natural Resources Defense Council warns that it can lead to serious consequences for the planet and humanity, including more severe weather, higher sea levels, crop loss, and more. As a planet, we need to prevent this. According to Professor Jason Smerdon of Columbia Climate School, the soil and oceans naturally remove CO2 from the air, making them what are called carbon sinks. However, existing carbon sinks are not currently ...

Teaching Bold New Methods: Arina Duvenhage and the Garden of Eden Garden School

Mineral malnutrition is a serious global issue affecting hundreds of millions of people. It is estimated that worldwide, 60% of people are deficient in iron, 30% are deficient in zinc, and approximately 15% are deficient in selenium. Calcium, magnesium, and copper deficiencies are also common in both developed and developing nations. These nutritional deficits result in widespread healthcare problems and diminish the quality of life and community resilience. Arina teaching at the Garden of Eden Garden School How do we fight global mineral malnutrition? The answer is one farm at a time. As experts such as Arina Duvenhage of the Garden of Eden ...

OpenAir CDR on Enhanced Rock Weathering: Scaling up climate solutions globally

Dirk Praessler, CEO of Carbon Drawdown Initiative One of the biggest challenges we face today is climate change. Scientists have long-since warned of the inevitable effects of a warming planet, yet despite this urgency, today’s economy continues to run primarily on fossil fuels. Decarbonization – the active capture and storage of CO2 from the atmosphere – is one possible solution. However, as Dirk Paessler, founder and CEO of Carbon Drawdown Initiative explained in a recent “Open Air This is CDR” episode, Decarbonization is “pointless without 90% emissions reduction.” We need to decarbonize the economy while simultaneously pulling ...

Rockmin Composts Provides Local Solutions to the Global Soil Crisis

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations:  Soils are fundamental to life on Earth but human pressures on soil resources are reaching critical limits. Careful soil management is one essential element of sustainable agriculture and also provides a valuable lever for climate regulation and a pathway for safeguarding ecosystem services and biodiversity Chris Cameron and his daughter Catriona Dale  In other words, soil degradation is one of humanity's greatest threats. Fortunately, there are experts like the father-daughter team behind Rockmin Composts who are on a mission to do something about it. The ...

Rock dust can remediate harmful nickel contamination

Researcher from EMBRAPA in Brazil checking on plots testing effects of nickel in soils. Nickel contamination impacts our crops By the year 2050, we need to grow 56% more food to feed the projected global population while simultaneously preserving our forests instead of turning them into fields for agriculture. The World Resources Institute has identified five solutions to this problem, one of which is to increase the production capabilities of our existing farmland (Ranganathan et al. 2018). This could be difficult due to nickel, which causes problems in soils around the world. Although nickel occurs naturally in soil, when it is above benefi...