How some U.S. businesses are helping reduce greenhouse gasses | Climate Watch: Protecting the Planet

[Music] welcome to climate watch I'm Ben Tracy our modern lives depend on Industries like construction farming manufacturing and transportation but all of these are significant contributors to Planet warming greenhouse gases today there is more carbon in the atmosphere than there has been in the last 4.2 million years our oceans are rising two times faster than just a decade ago and could rise as high as 6.6 ft by the year 2100 Antarctic sea ice hit its lowest level ever in 2023 was the hottest year on Earth since Global recordkeeping began in 1850 so today we take a look at initiatives from across the country to lessen the impacts of carbon dioxide and methane on our planet we explore the use of mass Timber to build large stru from wood instead of using materials that emit a lot of CO2 and I catch up with Bill Gates to learn about the companies his breakthrough energy organization invests in to create more climate friendly solutions to power our world but we begin with an environmental group tracking methane gas polluters from the air with a highly specialized plane methane is invisible to the naked eye and it's the second biggest contributor to climate change 80 times more powerful at warming the planet in the short term than carbon dioxide the environmental defense fund is working on creating a $90 million satellite funded in part by Jeff bezos's Earth fund that will detect methane leaks from around the world 247 I sat down with senior climate scientist Alysa AKO to learn more inside a hanger in Boulder Colorado this appears to be just another fancy private jet you can always pull these graphs up but it's actually filled with scientist on a mission to help save the [Applause] planet they take to the skies to hunt down an invisible gas seen here with infrared cameras which is rapidly heating up the atmosphere and fueling some of the worst impacts of climate change what exactly is methane methane is a greenhouse gas it is the second largest contributor to climate change and it accounts for more than a quarter of the warming that we're experiencing today Alysa AKO is a senior climate scientist at the environmental defense fund she says methane emissions mainly come from leaks during fossil fuel production from the digestive tracts of cows when they burp and from rotting food in landfills and here's why it matters methane is like carbon dioxide on steroids 84 times more powerful at warming the planet but unlike CO2 which can stay in the atmosphere for centuries methane only lasts for about a decade reducing methane emissions is the single fastest opportunity we have to slow down the rate of warming if we're able to cut these methane emissions what impact would that have on on warming we have the Technologies available to cut methane emissions globally in half over the next 10 years and if we do that then we can slow down the rate of global warming by 30% slowing warming could mean fewer destructive storms wildfires and heat waves and slower melting of the world's ice sheets which is causing sea levels to rise we need to know how much methane is being emitted from where and by whom so you actually detect the methane through the the bottom of the plane yeah that's correct and that's where the plane comes in up front is actually methane air itself and if you look up you can actually see two lenses the scientists call it methane air they've been flying it over what's known as The peran Basin more than 86,000 square miles in Texas the largest oil field on the planet special sensors on the plane detect methane leaks from oil and gas facilities on the ground according to the EDF those Industries account for about a quarter of all human-made methane emissions and knowing where the leaks are can help in identifying the polluters and holding them responsible a new $90 million satellite called methane in sat is being built by the environmental defense Fund in part with money from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos Earth fund they plan to launch it next year at top a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket once in orbit it will find and map methane leaks around the world 24 hours a day this is the structure Steve St is CEO of blue Canyon Technologies which is building the satellite including the solar panels that will act as its wings to power its flight and so what we're seeing here this is pretty much as big as it is and then the solar arrays come out from there that's exactly right this is the size of it the solar arrays will extend out about uh 10 to 12 ft on each side of the satellite so this will absolutely be a game Cher reducing Planet warming emissions has been Alysa oo's life work since a trip to Greenland during college I watched as ice was melting off of glaciers and just rushing out into the ocean and she now has another more personal reason to work even harder a foury old daughter and it really worries me what the climate will be like when she's my age I look at my daughter every day and I just want the best for her and a huge part of that is the world that we're leaving behind a world we still have a chance to [Music] save up next how capturing carbon from the atmosphere could slow climate change carbon capture technology removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it in an effort to mitigate its effects on the planet I spoke with the CEOs of two startups on a mission to do just that we also talked about the cost and just how well it actually works so this is where carbon goes to die exactly this field in central Arkansas will soon be a great graveyard for Planet Waring pollution it's going into the ground and it will stay here forever barlay Rogers is CEO of graphite a startup that takes leftover material from Timber and rice Mills and locks away the carbon dioxide that plants naturally removed from the atmosphere by turning it into bricks wrapping them up and burying them in the ground we're taking the carbon captured by plants and keeping it out of the atmosphere for a thousand years or more so you got a lot of space here yeah absolutely graphite plans to turn this empty Warehouse into the world's largest carbon removal facility eventually removing 50,000 tons of CO2 per year that's like taking 10,000 cars off the road American Airlines is paying graphite to offset some of the pollution from its flights this brick of dead plants and trees is really going to be a solution it's going to be a very big solution to avoid the worst impacts of climate change scientists say we need to stop burning burning fossil fuels and switch to cleaner forms of energy but also need to remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide we've already put up into the atmosphere it's not a nice to have anymore this is a must have shishang samala runs heirloom carbon it just opened the nation's first commercial carbon capture plant in central California the automated facility Stacks trays of limestone 40 ft High allowing the rock to suck carbon dioxide from the air like a sponge in that takes months heirlooms technology does it in just days carbon that might have come out of somebody's tailpipe is now being sucked down into this yeah exactly heirloom says its pilot plant removes just 1,000 tons of CO2 per year but plans to build facilities that capture 1,000 times more carbon removal is often knocked for being too expensive but given the climate crisis we now face somala says it's an essential part of the solution we need to start turning back the clock on climate change you know what carbon iMobile offers us is the closest thing to a time [Music] machine there's an unlikely and more eco-friendly material being used to construct everything from museums to high-rises and now a$2 billion airport Mass Timber is made by pressing and bonding together large pieces of wood to create a stronger and more durable Building Material proponents call it a Greener alternative to concrete and steel but critics say it's greenwashing Jeff glore sat down with the president of Timber lab a mass Timber Construction Company wow oh jeez that is a lot of wood walking into Portland Oregon's new airport pretty wild is like seeing a version of the future firmly rooted in in the past 9 Acres over us correct all wood all wood Curtis roben hold is the executive director of the port of Portland the man who's led a $2 billion project to build this airport it's pretty exciting and you know you can start to see it all coming together now the dream is to make this more than just a place to take off or land you want people to come here just to hang out would not hurt the the idea of the space in front of us here is sort of Auditorium seating where you have more of a community space and you know how that's used we'll have to see how that plays out but it's to be more of a community space rather than a transactional space all of this is possible because of mass Timber which is not all that different than the kind of wood you find at the store except it's been bonded and pressed into huge pieces used as walls and Floors that can be installed all at once which for one dramatically speeds up construction time what is this this is cross laminated Timber like if you went in the Lowe's or Home Depot you see all the 2x sixes this is just a whole bunch of 2x sixes glued together is this the future absolutely Chris Evans is the president of Timber lab one of the firms pioneering the technology Timber lab manufactured the airport's roof Mass Timber is increasingly being used in museums Comm commity centers Office Buildings even this 25 story condo in Milwaukee When you mention this to people they're like why would you build a skyscraper of wood or or of an apartment building it's going to burn down yeah that's the first reaction and honestly the first uh you know eight years ago when I was first introduced to it on an office building that was my first reaction once you really start to understand what it is and you don't just think of it as wood you think of it as a highly sophisticated structural system that has this natural fire resistive quality to it then you start to see that oh man this is a game changer Timber lab says today's treated Mass Timber can be as strong as steel and more fire resistant to prove it they do testing like this never mind the aesthetic Advantage if we think about the workplace nobody wants to go to work in a 9-t acoustic tile ceiling with a bunch of cubicles and everything some version of white or or tan um out there right that's that's we want Beauty yeah there's movies based on that type of work environment you going to start quoting office space or no I won't when done right Advocates say Mass Timber can be a win-win longterm for everyone you can actually look up on the roof and you can identify where each of these pieces came from it's a system called track and Trace and the folks who did it honestly it's the first time it's been done it's really astonishing I think it's something we're going to see in the future around wood and increasing use of wood it has to be more expensive that way you know we thought it was going to be a lot more expensive and I would say it was marginally more expensive but really it's worth it some critics wonder whether right now it is worth it they say too many mass Timber projects today are a form of greenwashing often relying on irresponsible harvesting methods every time I see a clear-cut it looks apocalyptic yeah I mean and they take a while uh to to grow back to any semblance of a forest Sean Stevens is the executive director of Oregon wild he took us to a forest 90 minutes outside Portland the Timber from this site was used for a project in Washington state that was build as climate friendly was it climate friendly you really can't call clear cutting especially um at this scale uh climate friend friendly do you think skyscrapers made of mass Timber are a good idea can a big Mass Timber building be built and have it be green yes but right now mostly Mass Timber is being used as a way to greenwash existing bad practices critics of mass Timber say it's it's greenwashing I wouldn't say It's greenwashing At All American forests are producing more Timber than we're consuming you know a natural part of forest growth is to have some Devastation landslides wildfires things happen where the forest regenerates and grows but this isn't natural it's man-made if you're clear cutting absolutely and I'm not a proponent of saying yes go clearcut I what I'd say is subscribing to sustainable forestry practices that are understood and and known those are in alignment with long-term Forest Health can you ensure that the timber used here in this Mass Timber is responsibly harvested absolutely yeah without a doubt the Portland airport acknowledges they did get some of their wood from smaller clearcuts which many forestry experts say are currently unavoidable but there are ways to mitigate the harm like allowing longer growth of trees doing smaller cuts and leaving a larger percentage of the trees untouched which the airport says they did as new beautiful Mass Timber structures push higher every day Builders are being pushed to Source them the right way you think this is going to be a big deal in every state there's more projects in the Northeast now than there are in the Pacific Northwest as far as like coming online or being designed and that's surprising to me I couldn't believe that and now you're really starting to see this spread across the uh the whole [Music] country after the break bill Gates's push for a more climate friendly future welcome back co-founder and former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates started his breakthrough energy initiative in 2015 with the aim to make everything from energy to clothing production Greener I met up with him in Texas at the Infinium plant a startup creating Ultra lowc carbon fuels that could one day replace Diesel and jet fuel when you replace it you open those things up when you spend the day with Bill Gates the first thing you notice what is that is that he asks a lot of questions what type of uptime is realistic do you want like 6 10 12 we met up with him in Corpus Christie Texas as he learned about a startup called Infinium you know I'm a software guy I wasn't even that good in the chemistry lab so Infinium built what it calls the world's first commercial e fuels facility it uses waste carbon dioxide from nearby oil and gas refineries and converts it into ultra low carbon fuels that may replace diesel for Long Haul Trucking and jet fuel for airplanes if they weren't using the CO2 to make this fuel that's CO2 that would just be warming the planet right and so this has all the benefits of fuel as we know it today without the emissions what is this vehicle running on so this vehicle is running on our e fuels uh n zero carbon fuel from our e fuels facility it also powered our ride around the plant this plant is literally aund the size of what the one they're dreaming of making Infinium got $75 million in funding from breakthrough energy an organization Gates founded in 2015 that's raised more than $2 billion to support about 120 climate Tech startups they're trying to transform everything from how we make cement and clothing to how we power our lives and even how we turn the pollution we can't eliminate into bricks that are buried underground breakthrough energy only funds things that can make a significant impact on emission so many of these things people hear about them and they say that sounds really cool but can they actually do this at the scale that we need it can happen I mean this is much harder than we think it's not like software and the hardest part is not actually the breakthroughs in the lab now that's been going very well the hardest part is when you take that and actually build these big physical plants this is a particularly large Reservoir under this King Ranch one of those big plants will be built here on the largest cattle ranch in Texas it will be a direct air capture facility which sucks in Planet Waring carbon dioxide and buries it underground this term direct air capture means that they're just pulling it out of the air this facility in Iceland is currently the world's largest operating plant removing about 4,000 tons a year not even a drop in the CO2 bucket but a new one being built in West Texas called Stratos is expected to remove 500,000 tons per year this is really the Hub of CO2 enhanced oil recovery and the one here on the ranch could eventually capture 1 million tons they are being developed by oil and gas giant ocidental which plans to build 100 of them with the help of federal tax credits Vicky Hollow is the company CEO and we're the only company doing it at a large scale but accidental is doing this so it can sell so-called carbon offset credits to other companies creating a new Revenue stream it will also take the CO2 captured at its Stratos plant and inject it back into the ground to push out more oil a product halb argues is environmentally friendly even calling it Net Zero oil you know your detractors look at this and say this all sounds like a clever bit of green washing we are developing a technology that the world needs we have to do that critics and scientists worry that using direct air capture this way will Prolong oil production leading to more planet Waring emissions just as world leaders have pledged a transition away from fossil fuels the real cynical view is that you don't really care about reducing the emissions that this is about kind of future proofing your business that you can make money off selling carbon offsets and at the same time you can use CO2 to pump more oil we do need money coming in because we do have shareholders and so the way that we are approaching this mitigation and of climate change is in a way that does provide value for our shareholders carbon capture won't solve the entire problem it's part of our arsenal of tools G says the oil and gas industry can be part of the solution if they use their expertise to reduce emissions he personally pays carbon capture companies $9 million a year to offset his own pollution a perk of being one of the richest people on the planet I have a plane uh you know I have a huge carbon footprint he knows most people can't afford to do that which is why he believes technology and American innovation is the key to combating the climate climate crisis some of these things will not succeed and that's why it's great to have multiple technologies that are showing [Music] promise for more stories like these and live coverage of breaking news stream us right here on CBS news 24/7 available across all platforms thanks for watching climate watch I'm Ben TR [Music]

Channel: CBS News

Views: 12,546

Keywords: protecting the planet, climate watch, ben tracy, carbon dioxide, methane emissions

Id: KYrVwUD7jIc

Length: 21min 36sec (1296 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 22 2024