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Healthy Rivers, Healthy Planet Naturally (Video)
Presentation by Eddie Halfyard & Shannon Sterling to the Halifax Field Naturalists June 18, 2024. Recorded on Zoom & archived by HFN.
“The Nova Scotia Salmon Association’s Ecologist Edmund Halfyard, PhD, along with Dalhousie environmental scientist Shannon Sterling, PhD, co-founded Carbon Run, a company whose mission is to ‘restore the health of rivers and their natural ability to draw carbon from land — to sea’. The presentation details the situation we are currently in, the steps needed to rectify this, and Carbon Run’s approach to doing so. Through their research, they have found that when water quality is restored, rivers regain their natural ability to markedly increase biodiversity while drawing down carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.” View more about Carbon Run/Liming of Forest Soils
Premier Course in Forest Carbon Credits: Now Available on Coursera
Michigan State University, July 3, 2024 “The course, “Forest Carbon Credits and Initiatives,” was originally launched in 2019 as part of the course “Understanding Forest Carbon Management.” It is now offered as a stand-alone learning experience, filling a knowledge gap for understanding forest carbon markets and designing carbon projects…The course is free to take, with an optional certificate of completion available for $49.”
Improved Forest Management [to increase carbon benefits]
by The Climate Trust “After centuries of land conversion and frequent natural disturbances, protecting and enhancing forests across the nation is one of the most cost-effective natural climate solutions to reduce global carbon emissions and help us meet the world’s 2030 mitigation goals. By adjusting how we manage forests, we can increase carbon storage and build climate resilience for the ecosystems that are critical to providing us with abundant clean water, wildlife habitat, and biodiversity.The Climate Trust works with private and public forest owners, including land trusts and Tribal nations. We understand the many stakeholders involved in managing forest lands and manage every step of the process for our partners. By ensuring that both small and large landowners can access carbon markets, we’re making it easier for land stewards to take climate positive action and rely less on frequent timber harvesting as the sole revenue source to manage their forests.”
Will regulators OK controversial effort to supercharge ocean’s ability to absorb carbon?
Warren Cornwall in www.science.org Aug 14, 2024 “Geoengineering study that would disperse alkaline chemicals off Cape Cod draws environmental opposition…Some other alkalinity experiments have fared better. With the blessing of local regulators, the Canadian company Planetary Technologies last summer poured 280 tons of a mineral form of magnesium hydroxide—a common ingredient in antacid tablets—into the harbor in Halifax, Novia Scotia, and dyed parts of the water near the busy downtown pink with a tracer for several days. The experiment generated local news stories, but little opposition, says Katja Fennel, an ocean modeling expert at Dalhousie University who is collaborating with the company, which began a second round of tests there this year. In contrast, the company’s plan to pour magnesium hydroxide into the U.K.’s scenic St. Ives Bay has been met with suspicion and protests by some local officials and residents. The company postponed the experiment, originally scheduled for 2023, but is still seeking a permit. Fennel suspects the receptions have differed partly because Halifax Harbor is industrialized whereas St. Ives Bay seems unspoiled. “Doing an experiment or field trial in an environment that people value as pristine or people perceive as undisturbed is probably not a good idea,” she says.”
CARBON REDUCTION SCHEMES THAT
FAILED OR ARE IN TROUBLE OR ARE CURRENTLY ‘SKETCHY’
– Can dumping seaweed on the sea floor cool the planet? Some scientists are skeptical
Warren Caldwell in Science, Aug 29, 2024 “An ambitious strategy aims to cool the planet by dumping farmed seaweed on the sea floor. Will it work? “I think it’s nonsense,” one expert says”
– Mountain of Wood Chips Remains in Akranes, Iceland Following Running Tide Closure
By Erik Pomrenke Iceland Review, June 18, 2024 “ICELAND — Carbon sequestration firm Running Tide recently announced it will be shutting down its global operations. Before its closure, the company had attracted major investors, including Microsoft and Shopify. …Running Tide was a carbon-sequestration company based in the US which attempted to sequester carbon from the atmosphere at scale by sinking biomass, including seaweed and lumber, into the ocean. …Running Tide founder and CEO Mark Odlin stated: “Unfortunately, today we are beginning the process of shutting down because we are unable to secure the right kind of financing. The problem is the voluntary carbon market is voluntary, and there simply isn’t the demand needed to support large scale carbon removal.” …The company sunk some 19 thousand tonnes of wood chips into Iceland’s coastal waters and that a “mountain” of wood chips, made from imported Canadian lumber, remains at their facility in Akranes.
Mosaic committed to cease some logging to create carbon credits. Now the credibility of its program is being questioned
By Wendy Stueck The Globe and Mail June 21, 2024. Subscription required. Extract from Treefrog Forestry News: “For more than a century, the forests of Vancouver Island have been the economic backbone of the region. …In 2022, Mosaic Forest Management flipped that model on its head, saying it would defer logging on 40,000 hectares of its land throughout coastal B.C. for at least 25 years. Instead of logging those sites, Mosaic said, it would package the carbon stored in those trees into nature-based carbon credits. …But this past February, Renoster Systems, a carbon-credit-ratings agency assessed the project on measures such as “additionality” and transparency. …The agency gave the project a failing grade, saying it lacks additionality because most of the sites included in BigCoast are not actually at risk of being logged because they are on steep slopes or in other areas that are unlikely to be harvested……Mosaic forcefully disputes the Renoster review. Mosaic accused Renoster of making “false, misleading and defamatory” statements. “
Nova Scotia wood chips dumped into Iceland coastal waters and called ‘carbon capture’
By Joan Baxter in The Halifax Examiner Jun 27, 2024: (subscription required, intro in Morning File) “In 2022, credulous media were writing flamboyant headlines venerating Running Tide CEO Marty Odlin as “the guy who wants to help save the planet with thousands of buoys, seaweed and giant antacids.” … Spotify and Microsoft were so taken by the hype that both bought carbon credits from Running Tide, which bills itself as a carbon-sequestration company that can “fix the planet.” …Two years after those big headlines Running Tide is being shut down. … On June 14, the Icelandic weekly newspaper, Heimildin, known for its investigative journalism, published an article about Running Tide’s carbon capture scheme, noting that it sounded “too good to be true.” That’s because it was. … last summer Running Tide dumped 19,000 tonnes of wood chips into Iceland’s coastal waters, “completely unsupervised.” … the “Canadian” wood chips Running Tide dumped were shipped from Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia … On June 14, Odlin reported that he was shutting down Running Tide’s global operations…”
NS Hydrogen
Province Helping Industries Move Toward Cleaner Fuels
NRR News Release, 22 May 2024 “The fund helps replace fossil fuels with cleaner fuels for heating, transportation and industrial processes. Options include biofuels and biomass from forestry waste products, green hydrogen and renewable natural gas.”
Government now expecting hydrogen market to be worth 16% of 2020 estimate
By John Woodside in National Observer, Jul 8, 2024 “Four years ago, Canada crafted a plan to capitalize on a global hydrogen market the government expected to be worth up to $11.7 trillion by mid-century. Billions of dollars of public money has been provided to seize the country’s share of the pie. In a hydrogen strategy progress report published in April, Natural Resources Canada noted by 2050 the global hydrogen market is now expected to be worth $1.9 trillion. That’s a seismic, 84 per cent drop from the estimate the same ministry offered just four years ago to justify the tremendous sum of money Canada made available for companies to scoop up.”
Nova Scotia goes all-in on ‘green’ hydrogen, but at what cost?
Joan baxter in the Halifax Examiner Dec 18, 2023