There are many reasons why natural gas is the most common home heating source in America while fewer than 10% of U.S. homes burn wood as a primary heat source. If your home is in the wood-burning camp, you already know that fireplaces are not the best home heating system. Fuel availability is often the driving force behind choosing to heat with wood — either because you have your own woodlot, or because heating with electricity or pulling gas to a remote home is prohibitively expensive.

In some cases, wood stoves can be an ecological choice, if you choose your stove wisely and burn your wood properly. Take a few minutes to assess your choices, because some wood-burning options are far better for the environment.

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Stoves vs. Fireplaces

Sometimes people refer to wood stoves and fireplaces interchangeably. They are both hearth appliances (that is, safe containment systems for burning fires) and the fuel they both burn is generally wood. Sometimes they even look the same when wood stoves are placed inside a fireplace structure.

But there is a world of difference between the two. A fireplace is essentially an indoor campfire. At best, a fireplace achieves about 10% efficiency in its use of the energy stored in the wood. They can even operate at negative efficiency, meaning they actually draw more heat out of the house than they create. By contrast, a wood stove is a fully-enclosed appliance whose efficiency can be up to 50% higher than the fireplace. Wood stoves are rated by the EPA.

Measuring Wood Stove Efficiency

There are two ways of measuring the efficiency of wood-burning appliances.

Combustion efficiency refers to how much of the energy embodied in the fuel is converted to heat (rather than smoke, ash, or other byproducts). Overall efficiency is the percentage of the available energy that is actually transferred to the space to be heated.

Overall efficiency will always be lower than the combustion efficiency — by as much as 20%. So, when you are shopping for a wood stove, be sure to find out which efficiency the number on the tag refers to.

Good Wood

There is no Energy Star system for wood stoves because they generally do not draw electric power. But the EPA has established standards for wood stove efficiency. An EPA certified wood stove is independently tested by an accredited laboratory to meet the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) emission limits that govern how many particulates a stove can release into the air. Basically, NSPS requires all but a few grams of your wood is completely burned instead of going up the chimney as soot and ash.

In 2020, the NSPS emission limit for new room heaters was lowered to 2.5 grams of particulate per hour burning cordwood. Wood stoves certified under the 2015 NSPS meet a particulate emissions limit of no more than 4.5 grams per hour. So stoves manufactured before 1990 should be replaced, however aesthetically pleasing their design may be, to meet the new standards. They burn wood much less efficiently than contemporary models, wasting fuel and polluting the air inside your home and outdoors.

Currently certified wood stoves produce heat 50% more efficiently, require 30% less wood, decrease pollution by 70% and reduce the risk of creosote buildup compared to older stoves.

Alternate Fuels

Pellet stoves, which burn pellets of compressed sawdust, are still your best choice. They are the cleanest burning solid-fuel stove option.

Some models of EPA-certified pellet stoves can reach efficiencies in the range of 70% to 83% — comparable to a gas fireplace. You do have to buy pellets, which eliminates the savings from cutting your own wood. And some pellet stoves do require a small amount of electricity to operate the hopper that feeds pellets into the fire, which is a drawback if your home frequently loses power. But there is no question that operating a pellet stove is much less work than burning logs.

Choosing a Wood Stove

There are two types of high-efficiency wood stoves. Non-catalytic stoves are more common. They achieve high combustion rates by using firebox insulation and a large baffle to produce a longer, hotter gas flow path; and by introducing pre-heated air through small holes above the fuel in the firebox. Catalytic stoves tend to be more expensive and depend more on correct maintenance by the user. But they produce the long, even output that homeowners want from a heat source. Catalytic stoves pass the smoky exhaust through a coated ceramic honeycomb inside the stove. There, gases and particles in the smoke ignite and burn.

Proper sizing is also critical to choosing the right stove. Small stoves are best for heating individual rooms or for “zone heating.” Big stoves are best for heating the whole home, but only if you have an open-plan home. In homes with numerous rooms, a large stove can cause one area of the home to overheat while the rest remains cold. You can use a BTU calculator to estimate your heating needs, but it’s best to consult a professional who can help match your particular situation to a right-sized hearth appliance.

This article was originally published on February 12, 2021.

The strongest Arctic cyclone ever observed poleward of 70 degrees north latitude struck in January 2022 northeast of Greenland. A new analysis led by the University of Washington shows that while weather forecasts accurately predicted the storm, ice models seriously underestimated its impact on the region’s sea ice.

The study, published in October in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, suggests that existing models underestimate the impact of big waves on ice floes in the Arctic Ocean.

“The loss of sea ice in six days was the biggest change we could find in the historical observations since 1979, and the area of ice lost was 30% greater than the previous record,” said lead author Ed Blanchard-Wrigglesworth, a research assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at the UW. “The ice models did predict some loss, but only about half of what we saw in the real world.”

Accurate sea ice forecasts are important safety tools for Northern communities, mariners and others operating in Arctic waters. The accuracy of forecasts in the Arctic Ocean also has broader effects.

“The skill of a weather forecast in the Arctic affects the skill of weather forecasts in other places,” Blanchard-Wrigglesworth said.

The January 2022 cyclone had the lowest pressure center estimated since satellite records began in 1979 above 70 degrees north. It was an extreme version of a typical winter storm. Climate change doesn’t appear responsible for the cyclone: The researchers didn’t find a trend in the strength of intense Arctic cyclones since 1979, and sea ice area was close to the historical normal for that region before the storm hit.

During the storm, record winds howled over the Arctic Ocean. The waves grew to 8 meters (26 feet) tall in open water and remained surprisingly strong as they traveled through the sea ice. The ice heaved 2 meters (6 feet) up and down near the edge of the pack, and NASA’s ICESat-2 satellite shows that the waves reached as far as 100 kilometers (60 miles) toward the center of the ice pack.

Six days after the storm struck, the sea ice had thinned significantly in the affected waters north of Norway and Russia, in places losing more than half a meter (about 1.5 feet) of thickness.

“It was a monster storm, and the sea ice got pummeled. And the sea ice models didn’t predict that loss, which suggests there are ways we could improve the model physics,” said second author Melinda Webster, a research assistant professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She begins a research position in the new year at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory.

The new analysis shows that the atmospheric heat from the storm had a small effect, meaning some other mechanism was to blame for the ice loss. Possibilities, Blanchard-Wrigglesworth suggests, include sea ice that was thinner before the storm hit than models had estimated; that the storm’s waves broke up ice floes more forcefully than models predicted as they penetrated deep into the ice pack; or that waves churned up deeper, warmer water and brought it into contact with the sea ice, melting the ice from below.

The unexpected ice loss, despite an accurate storm forecast, suggests that this is an area where models could improve. The researchers hope to monitor future storms to pinpoint exactly what led to the dramatic sea ice loss, potentially by placing sensors in the path of a future approaching storm.

While this storm doesn’t appear to be linked to climate change, an increasing amount of open water as sea ice melts is allowing for larger waves that are eroding Arctic coastlines. Those waves, researchers said, could also affect the remaining sea ice pack.

“Going into the future, this is something to keep in mind, that these extreme events might produce these episodes of huge sea ice loss,” Blanchard-Wrigglesworth said.

Other co-authors are Linette Boisvert at NASA, Chelsea Parker at NASA and the University of Maryland and Christopher Horvat at the University of Auckland and Brown University. The research was funded by NASA, the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research and Schmidt Futures.

Video: https://youtu.be/p44XJ6rAP08

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Washington. Original written by Hannah Hickey. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Some scientists claim that food webs in the oceans have seen very little change over the last 540 million or so years. However, a team of UNLV researchers has revealed that some ancient food webs were actually very different from today.

The study, published in the latest edition of the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, used fossils to rebuild four different marine food webs from the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth over 65 million years ago. The food webs were also compared to a reconstructed food web from a modern Jamaican reef. The result? The four ancient food webs varied greatly from one another, and the youngest one was not the most similar to today’s Jamaican coral reefs.

Researchers say the findings point to big changes in the structure of marine ecosystems since they first evolved, and that when looking at conservation and restoration plans, damage to these structures over time caused by humans can impact the ability to fix imbalances and ward off extinction of the species living within them.

“Learning how food webs work is very important for conservation because it helps scientists predict how ecosystems will respond to climate change,” said study co-author Carrie Tyler, a marine conservation paleobiologist and assistant professor in the UNLV department of geoscience.

“There is an interconnectedness and dependency between each member, which means when a stressor affects one species, it will ultimately affect the rest of the web,” she said. “If a species is removed from the structure, the function in the food web may no longer be fulfilled because of the missing piece.”

Tyler said this can make it difficult to reintroduce species down the road, as their functions may no longer fit into the structure. “Using paleontology in this way can help us understand what we should be saving and how to save it, giving us another way to look at conservation efforts.”

Added Roxanne Banker, a UNLV postdoctoral researcher working with Tyler: “By studying these structures over time, we can find ways to promote more resilient communities now, and in the future.”

Takeaways

• Climate change and altered ocean ecosystems due to human activity are of increasing concern. “No pristine ecosystems — those unaltered by human activity — are left on the planet,” Tyler said.
• Community stability in ocean ecosystem structures is determined by which species are in it, what role they play in moving energy, how those functions interact with each other, and how strongly the animals at the top of the food chain affect the rest of the food web. Researchers are looking at how these systems respond to crises and whether or not the species and functions can survive these stressors.
• The new UNLV research can help researchers identify long-term effects of biological invasion — such as the introduction of new species and/or predators, as well as other disturbances in the environment — to determine how we can better help ocean ecosystems bounce back from damage.
• By looking at things over a longer time scale, we can develop a more specific understanding of how human activity has affected ecosystems, which can help us approach restoration and conservation efforts more effectively.

The study was supported by funding from the National Science Foundation.

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Original written by Erica Corliss, Keyonna Summers. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Earth911 is honoring the 52 years of Earth Day with 52 Actions for the Earth. Each week through Earth Day 2023, we will share an action you can take to invest in the Earth and make your own life more sustainable. We are past the halfway mark, and as folks start to get into the holiday spirit, the Earth Day spirit can be harder to maintain. This week, you can renew your environmental focus and activist energy by opting out of Black Friday shopping in favor of spending time on your own climate education.

Action: Improve Your Climate Literacy

Climate Literacy

Overcoming climate change will require a global transformation to a green economy based on renewable energy and sustainable technologies. Individual activism is not enough to get there. It will require governments, businesses, and individuals to all work towards the goal.

But as the old cartoon used to say, “Knowing is half the battle.” People have to understand the problem and its solutions in order to take effective action. Climate literacy is too important to leave out of kids’ basic education, leaving them unprepared to deal with the problems they will inherit from us.

For those of us who grew up without climate education, the onus is on us to develop climate literacy so we can take responsible action now.

Teach for the Planet

Teach for the Planet is a campaign sponsored by the nonprofit Education International. It aims to ensure that climate education, based on science and with a civic action focus, becomes as fundamental to elementary education as literacy and math. This mission aligns perfectly with EarthDay.org’s Climate and Environmental Literacy campaign that combines grassroots support and on the ground efforts with national-level commitments from government agencies.

The two organizations launched Teach for the Planet on Earth Day this year with a virtual global education summit.

Teach Yourself

The summit was recorded, and you can watch it now on YouTube. Educators from around the world share their first-hand experiences of climate change, like living through a deadly hurricane. They also share the challenges they face and strategies they use to teach their students about climate change. Other discussions focus on helping students develop a sense of agency to deal with an overwhelming problem. The event is three hours long. So you might need to bookmark it for later or watch it in chunks over the long weekend.

For people who are more interested in learning about climate change itself than about efforts to teach it, browse the Climate Education Hub videos on EarthDay.org’s YouTube channel or watch the entire playlist. If the call of the mall is too strong, and you can’t block out the time for a lengthy video series, reading Earth911’s Climate Change 101 series of articles shouldn’t take more than half an hour.

If you’re feeling fired up when you’re done, support and share the Teach for the Planet Manifesto, spread the word about climate literacy, or revisit previous Earth Action articles for more actions you can take to promote climate literacy during the holiday season and all year long. After all, every day is Earth Day.

As the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission finishes final preparations for its December launch, a new video series focuses on some of the engineers and scientists behind the satellite, which will be the first to observe nearly all water on Earth’s surface.

Led by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), SWOT will measure the height of water in lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and the ocean. The SUV-size satellite will improve scientists’ ability to track the movement of water around the world while providing data that will help communities monitor and plan for changing water resources.

In addition, the mission will boost scientists’ understanding of how sea level rise will affect coastlines around the world and the people who live near them. SWOT will also see ocean features too small for current space-based instruments to detect, improving researchers’ understanding of their role in climate change.

More than a machine, SWOT is the culmination of years of work by a global team of engineers, scientists, and technicians committed to improving our understanding of our home planet. In this video series, you can meet team members from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages the U.S. portion of the mission, and from the agency’s headquarters in Washington as they explain why working on SWOT means so much to them:

• Cedric David, a hydrologist who studies the world’s rivers, shares how water is the only place he feels truly comfortable because of physical challenges. As Cedric notes, SWOT will provide a global picture of freshwater resources and help improve water management, which is why he is so proud to help make a difference in protecting this precious resource.
• Christine Gebara, a mechanical engineer who helped test and integrate the spacecraft, tells the story of how she fell in love with engineering while learning to sail with the Girl Scouts on a lake near her childhood home in Houston. She reveals what inspires her most about building a spacecraft and offers advice for young women interested in engineering.
• Tahani Amer, the mission’s program executive, recalls growing up near Cairo, where her father encouraged her to study math and science – an atypical pursuit for young women in Egypt at the time. Today, she oversees several NASA Earth science missions, including SWOT. In the video, Amer shares how she’s been inspired by her Islamic faith, her family, and her colleagues.
• Marc Simard, a scientist who studies river deltas where they meet the ocean, discusses how he developed a passion for the environment in college, switching from a planned career in astrophysics to developing tools to study Earth. One of Simard’s favorite things about SWOT is that its data will help scientists better understand how sea level rise will affect coastal deltas around the world.

The full video series can be viewed here.

Watch a Q&A session with Tahani Amer on JPL’s Instagram account on Nov. 30. There will also be live chats on Instagram with Cedric David on Dec. 7, Christine Gebara on Dec. 14, and Marc Simard on Jan. 11. All three live chats will take place at noon PST, and questions can be submitted during the chats in the comments section or with the hashtag #AskNASA.

SWOT is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in central California Dec. 12. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is managing the launch service.

Updates about the satellite’s progress toward launch can be found at:

blogs.nasa.gov/SWOT

More About the Mission

SWOT is being jointly developed by NASA and CNES, with contributions from the CSA and the UK Space Agency. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, leads the U.S. component of the project. For the flight system payload, NASA is providing the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) instrument, a GPS science receiver, a laser retroreflector, a two-beam microwave radiometer, and NASA instrument operations.

CNES is providing the Doppler Orbitography and Radioposition Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) system, the dual frequency Poseidon altimeter (developed by Thales Alenia Space), the KaRIn radio-frequency subsystem (together with Thales Alenia Space and with support from the UK Space Agency), the satellite platform, and ground control segment. CSA is providing the KaRIn high-power transmitter assembly. NASA is providing the launch vehicle and associated launch services.

To learn more about SWOT, visit:

https://swot.jpl.nasa.gov/

Additional resources:

News Media Contacts

Jane J. Lee / Andrew Wang

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-0307 / 626-379-6874

[email protected] / [email protected]

According to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warming over land areas occurs significantly faster than over oceans, with 1.6 degrees and 0.9 degrees on average, respectively. It means that the global greenhouse gas emissions budget to stay under a 1.5-degree warming on land has already been used up. Now, the new study shows that the emissions budget to avoid a 2-degree warming over large parts of Europe during the summer half-year (April-September) has also been used up. In fact, measurements reveal that the warming during the summer months in large parts of Europe during the last four decades has already surpassed two degrees.

“Climate change is serious as it leads to, among other things, more frequent heat waves in Europe. These, in turn, increase the risk of fires, such as the devastating fires in southern Europe in the summer of 2022,” says Paul Glantz, Associate Professor at the Department of Environmental Science, Stockholm University, and main author of the study.

In southern Europe, a clear, so-called, positive feedback caused by global warming is evident, i.e. warming is amplified due to drier soil and decreased evaporation. Moreover, there has been less cloud coverage over large parts of Europe, probably as a result of less water vapour in the air.

“What we see in southern Europe is in line what IPCC has predicted, which is that an increased human impact on the greenhouse effect would lead to dry areas on Earth becoming even drier,” says Paul Glantz.

Impact of aerosol particles

The study also includes a section about the estimated impact of aerosol particles on the temperature increase. According to Paul Glantz, the rapid warming in, for example, Central and Eastern Europe, is first and foremost a consequence of the human emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide. But since emissions of short-lived aerosol particles from, for example, coal-fired power plants have decreased greatly over the past four decades, the combined effect has led to an extreme temperature increase of over two degrees.

“The airborne aerosol particles, before they began to decrease in the early 1980s in Europe, have masked the warming caused by human greenhouse gases by just over one degree on average for the summer half-year. As the aerosols in the atmosphere decreased, the temperature increased rapidly. Human emissions of carbon dioxide are still the biggest threat as they affect the climate for hundreds to thousands of years,” says Paul Glantz.

According to Paul Glantz, this effect provides a harbinger of future warming in areas where aerosol emissions are high, such as in India and China.

Background facts — The greenhouse effect and aerosol effect

Fossil burning leads to the release of both aerosol particles and greenhouse gases. Although their source is common, their effects on climate differ.

About the greenhouse effect

Greenhouse gases are largely unaffected by solar radiation while they absorb infrared radiation efficiently, leading to re-emission towards the Earth’s surface. The Earth absorbs both solar radiation and infrared radiation, which leads to the warming of the lower part of the atmosphere in particular.

Time-space: Greenhouse gases are generally long-lived in the atmosphere and this applies above all to carbon dioxide where human emissions affect climate for hundreds to thousands of years. It also means that greenhouse gases spread evenly over the entire planet.

About the aerosol effect

In contrast to greenhouse gases, aerosol particles affect incoming solar radiation, i.e. they scatter part of the sunlight back into space causing a cooling effect. Human emissions of aerosols can enhance this cooling effect.

Time-space: Airborne human aerosol particles have a lifetime of about a week, which means that they mainly cool the climate locally or regionally and in the short term.

According to the Paris Agreement, all parties must commit to drastically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, but it is also important to decrease concentrations of aerosol particles as well because, in addition to their effects on climate, aerosol particles in polluted air cause approximately eight million premature deaths each year around the world.

Earth911 is honoring the 52 years of Earth Day with 52 Actions for the Earth. Each week through Earth Day 2023, we will share an action you can take to invest in the Earth and make your own life more sustainable. It’s nearly impossible to cook every day. But take-out and frozen foods have a lot of environmental drawbacks. This week, you can take action for the Earth by cooking ahead.

Action: Cook Ahead

The Problem With Quick Dinners

Processed foods have a big environmental impact. Frozen dinners are often less healthy than food cooked at home, and meals prepared at restaurants usually are too. Frozen foods – even the ones in cardboard boxes – generate a lot of nonrecyclable plastic packaging and are also energy-intensive, requiring refrigeration along the distribution chain from the manufacturer to the grocery store to your home freezer. Life cycle analysis has confirmed that homemade meals have a much smaller footprint than industrially prepared meals.

Take-out containers generate a lot of waste. Food is wrapped in plastic or aluminum foil, then placed into paper, plastic, or Styrofoam containers, and then put into paper bags and/or plastic bags for carrying. Besides the packaging waste, take-out generates waste with plastic cutlery, wooden chopsticks, disposable napkins and straws, and individual sauce and seasoning packets. Nearly all of it ends up in the landfill. Restaurant food loss rates are high, and more food is wasted as customers throw away uneaten portions of oversized restaurant meals. Take-out also generates greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, either by you or a delivery driver.

The Benefits of Home Cooking

When you store food prepared in your own home, you can choose reusable containers like glass jars and other plastic-free options. Cooking at home gives you more control over portion size, which reduces food waste. Planning ahead reduces food waste further. When you cook at home and freeze or refrigerate leftovers, you only keep food frozen for a few days and no extra car trips are required for take-out or delivery. Cooking ahead gives you the benefits of homemade without the inconvenience.

Cooking Ahead

Some people like to take an afternoon on the weekend to prep meals for the whole week. But if you don’t like spending such a big block of time in the kitchen or think a week of pre-cooked meals feels like a week of leftovers, there are less extreme options. It only takes a few minutes reviewing your schedule to see which days you’ll have time to cook and when you’ll be too busy. Cook double batches on less busy days (which also makes your stove more efficient) and eat leftovers the other days.

If you’re not a fan of leftover dinners, try the “overlapping ingredients” method of weekly meal planning. For example, you might roast a whole chicken the first day. Chop up leftover chicken and extra vegetables to make a salad the next day, then use the extra precut vegetables for quick tacos on day three.