Equilibrium/Sustainability — Ocean viruses and the climate fight

Virus species living deep underwater may help pull carbon dioxide from the ocean and store it permanently in the ocean floor, a new study has found. 

The study in Science raises the possibility of “tuning” such viruses on a massive scale to pull carbon from the atmosphere. 

“As humans put more carbon into the atmosphere, we’re dependent on the massive buffering capacity of the ocean to slow climate change,” lead author Matthew Sullivan, of Ohio State University, said in a statement. 

The scientists envision such changes at the spatial scale of an ocean and across centuries.

“We’d be interested in viruses that could tune toward a more digestible carbon, which allows the system to grow, produce bigger and bigger cells, and sink,” Sullivan said. 

Doing so on a sufficient scale could potentially give society “another few hundred or a thousand years from the worst effects of climate change,” he added. 

While this solution is in no sense a cure-all — experts say the fastest way to reduce levels of carbon in the atmosphere is to stop burning fossil fuels — it could be part of a broader series of strategies to slow global warming.

Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. We’re Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin. Send us tips and feedback. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.

Today we’ll look at two big electric vehicle stories then take a tour through the world of sustainable materials — including in fashion.

Coast-to-coast EV charging

U.S. highways will get a standardized system of electric vehicle chargers under a new rule proposed on Thursday by the Federal Highway Administration, our colleague Zack Budryk reported. 

“We’re tackling range anxiety and vehicle charging deserts by making sure that charging stations are easily and equally accessible, allowing every American [to] get coast to coast in an electric vehicle,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement. 

By the numbers: The Biden administration wants to see 500,000 chargers rolled out and paid for by last year’s bipartisan infrastructure bill, according to the White House. 

Service stations: The rule would require a network charging stations roughly every 50 miles by 2030, according to a statement from the Department of Transportation on Thursday.

Each station would host at least four 150-kilowatt DC charging ports, the statement added.

How fast will 150 kilowatts charge an EV? It varies wildly, depending on car type, battery size and how fast a specific model can safely accept charge. 

In theory, a fast charger provides about 3 to 20 miles of range per minute, according to Forbes. 

That means they can fill many EV batteries to 80 percent capacity in an average of half an hour, according to charger manufacturers FreeWire Technologies. 

But some cars can’t accept power at that rate and will charge more slowly. 

Universal experience: The administration wants drivers to have the same charging experience — from user interface, to payment to charging speed — wherever they are in the country, according to the statement.

TECH RACES TO MATCH CONSUMER NEEDS

The need for a nationwide network stems from the fact that American EVs are finally long-range enough to take on a long distance road trip, Daniel Bowermaster of the Electric Power Research Institute told Equilibrium. 

Unlike a decade ago, when electric cars only got about 100 miles of range per charge, “people are using them like normal cars,” which requires a network that is as accessible as gas stations, Bowermaster said. 

Just one piece of the puzzle: Despite concerns about EV range, 3 out of 4 drivers intend to charge their cars like their smartphones: at home and overnight, automotive researcher Ryan Robinson of Deloitte Consulting told Equilibrium. 

“Building out a publicly accessible charging network is only half the equation,” he said. 

Future proof: Another challenge facing the administration is the rapidly evolving world of battery chemistry, such as attempts to get cobalt out of the battery supply chain, as The Hill reported on Thursday. 

“It’s a big challenge to try to marry the charging technology with the pace of the battery technology that’s going into vehicles and will be going into vehicles over the next five years,” Robinson told Equilibrium. 

Setting standards: The biggest problems the government will have to solve concern how to merge the new national network with the existing profusion of charging companies and 2.5 million electric vehicles — many of which operate with their own software, hardware and user interfaces, Bowermaster said. 

Consider the ATM: He stressed this was a common feature of mainstreaming new technologies. “Remember when ATMs started?” he asked. “They were all on different networks, and you had to find the right one that worked with your card.”  

“Fast forward to 30 years later, you pay a different fee on a different network, but otherwise invisible,” he added. “That’s the way EV charging is headed.”

US up against China in EV battery race

As battery-powered electric vehicles become a mainstay on the nation’s highways, and a key piece of President Biden’s environmental policy, the U.S. is facing a formidable challenge in its efforts to compete in the global battery race.

Playing catch-up: “The problem is, we’re just pretty far behind here,” Ethan Elkind, director of the climate program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, told Equilibrium.   

“We should have been planning for this a decade ago,” he added. “But I think we can get things moving, now that there’s bipartisan support for it.” 

Bipartisan support: Some of that support was evident in November’s passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which allocated $7.5 billion toward a national network of EV chargers.  

The bill’s passage also followed the Biden administration’s August declaration that half of new cars sold in the U.S. would be zero-emission by 2030.  

Boosting funds: Just last month, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that it would be allocating $3.16 billion in funding from the infrastructure bill to produce more batteries and associated components in America, while bolstering related supply chains. 

Precision planning: To compete with China, the world’s leading player, the U.S. needs to determine precisely where its dollars will be most effective, then streamline the permit process for mining and manufacturing facilities. 

Leapfrogging ahead: Although the lithium-ion battery technology was invented in the U.S. in the 1970s, China has been able to control the supply chain thus far. 

“The Chinese Communist Party for over 30 years has been thinking very strategically about, as we shift from a fossil fuel-based economy to a minerals, clean energy-based economy, how can they leapfrog ahead of the rest of the world,” said Abigail Wulf, of the think tank Securing America’s Energy. 

To read the full story, please click here.

Major fashion brands join carbon battle

Several leading fashion brands — including Lululemon and H&M — are contributing to a $250 million fund aimed at decarbonizing the fashion industry’s supply chain, the Apparel Impact Institute announced on Wednesday. 

A need for collective action: The institute, a nonprofit that focuses on accelerating sustainability solutions in fashion, will work with its lead partners “to drive collective action to tackle fashion’s supply chain emissions,” according to the announcement.  

Corporate and philanthropic partnership: In addition to corporate partners Lululemon and the H&M Group, the Fashion Climate Fund’s leading participants also include philanthropic entities such as the H&M Foundation and The Schmidt Family Foundation, a news release from the institute said.  

Unlocking more funds: The partners estimated that by leveraging this collaborative funding model between corporate and philanthropic organizations, the Fashion Climate Fund “could unlock an estimated $2 billion in blended capital.” 

This sum would span a variety of assets and include debt and equity, with a goal of meeting the industry’s goal of halving carbon emissions by 2030, according to the institute.   

From pilot to proven solutions: Philanthropic funds will provide the start-up capital necessary to accelerate the development of pilot fashion innovations, while industry support will help scale proven solutions, the institute explained.   

“By aligning industry leaders and climate-focused philanthropists behind scalable solutions, the Fashion Climate Fund opens a pathway for greater collaboration and cross-pollination of solutions,” Lewis Perkins, president of the institute, said in a statement. 

Toward climate justice: Perkins expressed optimism that this initiative will facilitate “greater investment and stronger collective action,” while achieving “climate justice for the citizens and communities where our fashion is made.”

SPECIAL FEATURE

This week The Hill is exploring what’s next for electric and autonomous vehicles in the series “Driving Into the Future.“ Articles from Hill reporters and opinion contributors will be posted throughout the week here.

Two bright spots in push for sustainable plastics

Every step of the plastic production lifestyle — from extracting fossil fuels, to distilling them into plastic precursors to disposing of them — takes a toll on the environment. 

But two studies published on Thursday suggested more sustainable pathways for both making plastics and breaking them down. 

Plant-based production: A team from Northwestern University used a light-and-water based process inspired by photosynthesis to distill ethylene, a key plastic component of plastic — publishing their findings in Nature Chemistry on Thursday.  

This approach could be particularly important to industry, as it replaces the need for energy and heat-intensive methods and expensive materials, according to the authors. 

Feed it to the worms: A study in Microbial Genetics found that a type of worm fed on plastic waste not only survived but also put on weight, suggesting that their gut bacteria were able to break down and release energy from the plastic. 

Scaling up:  Those gut bacteria could someday be the source of enzymes that can break down plastic waste “to a level required for an entire recycling plant,” coauthor Jiarui Sun of Queensland University said in a statement.

NOT EXTINCT AFTER ALL

A tortoise from a Galápagos species that scientists had long deemed extinct has now been found to be alive. 

The tortoise, named Fernanda, is the first of her species identified in more than a century, according to a group of Princeton and Yale University researchers, who published their discovery in Communications Biology on Thursday.  

Fernanda is a member of the Fernandina Island Galápagos giant tortoise species, also known as a “fantastic giant tortoise” — a species known only from a single male specimen collected in 1906, the scientists explained. To read more about the tortoise, please click here.

Thursday Threats

A dangerous heat wave looms for the U.S. Southwest, and climate change exacerbates well water contamination and makes ocean predators hungrier.

Dangerous heat to scourge Southwest this weekend 

• Millions of Americans in the Southwest — across Arizona, California and Nevada — will face scorching and potentially record-breaking temperatures this weekend, The Hill reported. 

Climate-fueled flooding exacerbates risk of well water contamination 

• While some 53 million U.S. residents depend on private wells — often exposed to greater health risks due to lack of regulation — such threats become elevated when heavy rainfall ushers in feces, dirt and other pollutants, The Associated Press reported. 

Hotter oceans leave hungry predators in charge 

• As oceans become hotter due to climate change, predators are becoming hungrier due to increases in metabolism, according to a new study in Science.

Please visit The Hill’s Sustainability section online for the web version of this newsletter and more stories. We’ll see you tomorrow.


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