What to do if your computer is too hot? Use it to heat the swimming pool! | Environmental Speaker

Hello everyone, this is the 5th issue of the Environmental Trumpet column. In this column, you can see different topics such as climate, pollution, energy, agriculture, etc., and learn about the recent changes in our environment and what good and bad news there are.

In this issue, we have collected the following environmental research and news worth reading:

1) Polar bears, forced to stay on land, began eating bird carcasses

2) Alternatives to plastic: seaweed

3) Carbon dioxide + discarded batteries = fuel?

4) Waste heat utilization: using computers to heat swimming pools

5) European Tree of the Year 2024

Tie cameras to 20 polar bears.

See what they eat

Climate change has already left polar bears without food. Polar bears used to use floating ice as a platform to hunt seals, but because of global warming, the Arctic Ocean is covered with ice for shorter periods of time, forcing them to stay on land longer .

However, it is not so easy to find these high-calorie foods on land. How do polar bears cope with life? To find out the answer, scientists tied cameras to 20 polar bears in Hudson Bay, Canada. The results of this study were also recently published in Nature Communications.

The cameras recorded a total of 115 hours of footage, providing a first-hand glimpse into the lives of polar bears.

A Big Nose | USGS/Washington State University

Scientists previously predicted that if they couldn't fill their stomachs, polar bears might lie down to save energy, or eat seabirds and plants to cope with life on land . As it turned out, this was indeed the case. Scientists found that some polar bears just lay down, while others actively foraged for food and ate everything.

For example, eating dead birds.

USGS/Washington State University

Chew on the antlers.

USGS/Washington State University

Eat berries and eat grass.

USGS/Washington State University

Neither strategy was very successful — 19 of the 20 bears lost weight, with one losing 80 pounds (36 kilograms). Some bears also took long swims in a desperate search for food.

They also fight in the water｜USGS/Washington State University

Researchers estimate that the number of polar bears in Canada's Hudson Bay has dropped by 30% since 1987. With global warming in the future, the situation will get worse. Now we are still lucky enough to glimpse their lives through the eyes of polar bears, but in the future we may be able to see less and less...

Plastic alternative: seaweed

It is difficult for people to imagine life without plastic packaging. Considering that many people are unwilling to give up the convenience of "disposable", some companies are trying to find alternative materials for plastic. This time, a company called Notpla from the UK has set its sights on seaweed.

Notpla CEO Pierre Paslier said seaweed has many advantages as an alternative to plastic: it grows quickly, with some species able to grow up to one meter a day; it does not require fresh water, land or fertilizer during its growth process ; and it can absorb carbon dioxide and reduce the acidity of surrounding waters.

In a marathon, Notpla introduced small water bags to replace plastic water bottles. Athletes can directly throw the small water bags into their mouths, chew and swallow them, without generating waste . Paslier said that after the race, the marathon course that used plastic containers was littered with plastic bottles, while the course with Notpla's edible containers was completely free of such garbage.

Although edible containers can perfectly reduce waste, they are risky to eat once they are contaminated｜Notpla

After 9 months of verification, Notpla's seaweed packaging is currently the only plastic-free material recognized by EU countries . Currently, Notpla products include film packaging for condiments, water and other foods. The packaging can be eaten directly and can be completely degraded even if it is discarded.

Eat French fries with ketchup and eat the ketchup packaging｜Notpla

Notpla's next target is takeaway containers. In order to hold food, paper boxes will add an oil-proof and waterproof plastic film on the side that contacts the food . Notpla plans to work with the courier company Just Eat to replace the plastic film in the takeaway box with seaweed.

Notpla's hamburger box｜Notpla

Carbon dioxide + discarded batteries = fuel?

Carbon dioxide, as a greenhouse gas, causes global warming. Used batteries contain heavy metals such as lead and zinc, which will harm the environment if they are discarded at will. These two "environmental destroyers" can actually become fuel when they meet . Thanks to the efforts of researchers from China and New Zealand, the research results were recently published in Nature.

Under the action of catalysts, carbon dioxide can be converted into some chemicals. Among the many products converted from carbon dioxide, formic acid is an important liquid chemical raw material, which is widely used in the fields of chemical industry, energy, agriculture, etc. If high-purity formic acid can be produced efficiently and stably, it can not only consume carbon dioxide, but also alleviate the energy crisis.

Since formic acid is contained in the secretions of ants, bees and other Hymenoptera insects, early people used ants to distill it, so its alias is more commonly known as formic acid.

The research team got inspiration from the lead-acid batteries of used electric vehicles and prepared a carbon dioxide reduction electrocatalyst. In previous experiments, if carbon dioxide electrolysis was carried out in a highly acidic solution, the catalyst would usually face serious hydrogen evolution, which would also aggravate the corrosion of the material and prevent stable output. The new catalyst can significantly inhibit the hydrogen evolution phenomenon, with a conversion efficiency of more than 90%. In tests, this method can effectively convert carbon dioxide for more than 5,000 hours.

Waste heat utilization: Using computers to heat swimming pools

Computers generate heat when they are working, and fans and radiators are needed to dissipate the heat. In a data center with thousands of computers, this heat is even more considerable. In order to keep the programs running well, the data center also relies on cooling towers to dissipate the excess heat. Cooling also requires electricity, and a lot of it, accounting for almost 50% of the total power consumption of the data center .

With the development of technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud services, there will be more and more data centers in the future. According to the International Energy Agency, in 2022, the global data center electricity consumption will be about 240 to 340 terawatt hours, while the total energy consumption of the entire UK in the same year will be about 275 terawatt hours.

Utilizing the heat of data centers | TuChong Creative

Can you make use of the heat energy of a data center? British technology company Deep Green chose to build a data center directly under a swimming pool. In Exmouth, Devon, they built a small data center under a swimming pool . The waste heat generated by the data center can heat the pool water, so the data center does not need to spend extra money to dissipate heat. This move reduced the heating costs of the swimming pool by 60% .

Now, the pilot is being expanded, and in the future 150 public swimming pools will try to use data centers for heating.

European Tree of the Year 2024

The world is noisy, but we can still sit down and appreciate some things, like trees.

The Czech Republic launched the "European Tree of the Year" selection event in 2011 to promote the relationship between trees and the local community environment . People can quietly appreciate the trees, learn about the history of the trees and the community, and understand the plight of the trees.

The current top vote-getter in this year's European Tree of the Year competition is "The Heart of the Garden" from Poland. The tree has a thick trunk and is estimated to be about 200 years old.

Heart of the Garden｜Bożka Piotrowska and Zielona Bombonierka

The second place went to The Weeping Beech of Bayeux, a 160-year-old tree with a canopy span of about 40 meters that requires an artificial support structure to keep it standing.

Beech｜Emmanuel Boitier

The third place goes to the Thousand-year-old Olive Tree of Luras from Italy. This tree has stood in the small town of Luras for 3,000 to 4,000 years . Four thousand years ago, humans were still in the Bronze Age!

Millennium olive trees in the small town of Luras, Sardinia | Valerio Atzori Corpo

The European Tree of the Year competition is not about the biggest, most beautiful trees, but about those with an interesting story.

In 2017, the European Tree of the Year was a 650-year-old oak from Poland, which served as a shelter for a Jewish family during World War II; in 2020, a 350-year-old pine tree from the Czech Republic won the award. The tree is associated with the flooded village of Chudobín. Later, a reservoir was built here and the village no longer exists. The tree is not only a landmark, but also a powerful testimony to the resistance to climate change and human impact.

The tree is currently in the reservoir protection area | Marek Olbrzymek

Author: Austenite

Editor: Little Towel, Mai Mai

This article comes from GuokrNature (ID: GuokrNature)