The driest desert in the world is now full of flowers (not a good thing丨Environmental Trumpet)

Hello everyone, this is the 14th issue of the Environmental Trumpet column. In this issue, we have collected the following environmental research and news worth reading:

1) Ocean warming and acidification threaten shark hatching

2) PFAS is also found in lithium batteries, and the pollution situation is not optimistic

3) Google's carbon emissions soared, is AI the culprit behind it?

4) A cactus that can grow up to 6 meters tall has become partially extinct due to rising sea levels

5) Carbon dioxide turns into butter, and cows breathe a sigh of relief

6) Abnormal climate, a sea of ​​flowers appears in the desert in winter

Shark hatchlings threatened by ocean warming and acidification

Sharks have two reproductive modes: viviparity and oviparity. For oviparous sharks, environmental conditions are very important. Season, water temperature, and seawater acidity may affect the hatching of shark eggs. Recently, an article published in Marine Environmental Research found that warming and acidifying seawater will hinder the successful hatching of shark embryos and affect shark development .

Global warming could put egg-laying sharks at risk | Wikimedia Commons

The researchers used the small spotted catshark as the research object and simulated different climate scenarios to explore the impact of environmental conditions on shark embryos. The experiment simulated three climate scenarios: in the first scenario, the temperature of the seawater increased by 2.7°C compared with pre-industrial times, and the pH value decreased by 0.2; in the second scenario, the temperature of the seawater increased by 4.4°C, and the pH value decreased by 0.4 ; in the third scenario, the seawater restored the water temperature and pH value of the shark habitat from 1995 to 2014. After 4 months of embryonic incubation, the study found that the hatching of shark embryos was not significantly affected in the first and third climate scenarios, but in the second climate scenario, the mortality rate of shark embryos was close to 90% !

As one of the largest carbon sinks on Earth, the ocean absorbs a large amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, while the ocean is fixing carbon, it also causes the seawater to warm and become acidic. As the ocean has continuously broken the "hottest" record in recent years, the survival pressure faced by egg-laying sharks is also increasing.

Lithium batteries, under the shadow of "eternal" pollutants

In the wave of energy transformation, lithium batteries are rapidly expanding and are used in energy storage power systems such as wind and solar power, as well as electric vehicles, aerospace and other fields. But along with green energy comes environmental problems. There is a toxic permanent chemical in lithium batteries , and a study published in Nature Communications evaluated the status of this pollutant for the first time, and found that the pollution caused by it is not optimistic.

Lithium batteries are used in energy storage power systems such as wind power, solar power and other clean energy sources｜TuChong Creative

This toxic chemical is one of the perfluorinated and polyfluoroalkyl pollutants (PFAS) category. PFAS is a class of chemicals with the element fluorine (F). They are chemically stable, difficult to decompose, will accumulate in the environment for a long time, and are toxic to the human body. For many years, PFAS has been used in various daily necessities to improve the product's water resistance, heat resistance, and stain resistance . PFAS is used in coatings for non-stick pans, outdoor waterproof jackets (such as Gore-Tex), and some food packaging materials.

The PFAS used in lithium batteries is bisperfluoroalkylsulfonylimide (bis-FASI) , which is mainly used in the production of adhesives and electrolytes.

Researchers tested samples of air, water, snow, soil, etc. in many parts of the world and found that bis-FASI has shown signs of polluting the environment. Around industrial areas that produce PFAS, such as near factories such as 3M and Arkema, the concentration of bis-FASI is extremely high . With the help of air, pollutants may be transmitted to longer distances to cause pollution . Further experiments found that bis-FASI, like many PFAS pollutants, can exist stably in the environment for a long time and can easily harm the metabolic activities of organisms, increasing the risk of cancer, infertility, etc.

Google's carbon emissions soared, is AI the culprit behind it?

As climate change becomes increasingly severe, technology giants have begun to seek solutions. As one of the leaders in sustainable development of commercial companies, Google has stated that it will achieve net zero emissions by 2030 and will no longer emit additional greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. However, according to Google's latest annual environmental report, in 2023, the company's carbon dioxide emissions increased by 13% compared to 2022 and 48% higher than in 2019.

What bad intentions can AI have? It just wants to use more energy｜By The Pancake of Heaven! - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

The "black hand" behind the significant increase in emissions is artificial intelligence (AI). The development of AI has led to the rapid expansion of data centers , increasing the energy consumption demand of data centers. Currently, these data centers are often built near coal-fired power plants, using cheaper fossil fuels as energy and consuming a lot of water for cooling cycles.

The sustainability plans of other large technology companies have also been affected by AI. In an environmental sustainability report in May this year, Microsoft said that its carbon emissions increased by 29% compared with 2020.

A cactus that can grow up to 6 meters high.

However, local extinction due to sea level rise

In the Florida Keys, the Key Largo tree cactus (Pilosocereus millspaughii), a plant that can grow up to 20 feet tall, has become the first plant species in the United States to become partially extinct due to rising sea levels .

The Key Largo tree cactus was discovered in the United States in 1992, but is often confused with other cacti. | Susan Kolterman

Rather than saying that the cacti were "drowned," it would be better to say that they were killed by a series of ecological problems caused by rising sea levels. As sea levels rose, seawater continued to invade the archipelago, causing the island soil to become more salinized , squeezing the living space of the Key Largo tree cactus. At the same time, the flooding of seawater caused a shortage of fresh water resources on the island, and many herbivores began to gnaw on the cacti in search of the fresh water they needed to survive. With the advent of hurricanes, these problems worsened, and eventually the Key Largo tree cactus was overwhelmed and disappeared from the Florida Keys.

People have tried to save the endangered cactus, but because researchers initially misidentified the plant, protection work was not carried out in time. By 2021, the number of Key Largo tree cacti, which originally had only 150, had dropped sharply to 6. As the 6 remaining cacti were taken back to the research base for rescue, the plant was officially declared extinct in the wild in the United States.

Carbon dioxide turns to butter

Imagine that the butter on your table is not from cows, soybeans or palm oil, but converted from carbon dioxide! This is not a plot of science fiction, the American company Savor has really developed such a product, and it is said that the taste is similar to ordinary butter .

Ordinary butter is often made from cow's milk, and traditional animal husbandry is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions . In addition, the production of butter also involves a series of steps such as fermentation and sterilization, which also emit a large amount of carbon dioxide.

Savor uses CO2 to make butter, a vegan fat | Ailin Zhang

Compared with the traditional food production process, the production process of this butter does not involve any biological reaction at all, but uses a thermochemical process: extracting carbon dioxide and hydrogen from the air and water respectively , heating and oxidizing them to form fat and finally make butter. Compared with ordinary butter, the carbon emissions of the new butter are greatly reduced.

Desert + rain + winter = sea of ​​flowers?

The Atacama Desert may tell you that the desert also has its own "Altay". However, to enter this "Altay", you need some time to wake up, plus some rain to moisten it.

This desert in Chile is known as the Earth's "Dry Pole" because it is the driest non-polar desert on Earth. But it's also famous for another reason - it's also a desert that blooms with flowers in the spring. Researchers call this phenomenon " desierto florido ."

Every few years, the desert is covered with flowers such as alstroemeria, coral flowers, and radiant flowers, covering an area of ​​15,000 square kilometers. According to statistics, there are more than 1,900 species of plants and animals living in the Atacama Desert, of which 1/3 are endemic to the Atacama Desert.

The Atacama Desert in spring can also weave a sea of ​​flowers｜MARIO RUIZ, EPA

However, this year, the desert has brought another surprise to the world. In July, during the winter in Chile, the Atacama Desert welcomed a sea of ​​flowers in winter after a long absence. The appearance of this sea of ​​flowers is related to El Nino. Affected by El Nino, the local area has experienced abnormal rainfall for many consecutive days . Under the nourishment of the rain, the purple flower of the stone violet, which the locals call "Pata de Guanaco", was awakened and bloomed early. This is also the first time since 2015 that the Atacama Desert has seen a sea of ​​flowers in winter early.

Author: Xiao Xiaoze

Edited by: Yellowtail Pollock