craig told you the good news: climate change is only one of the issues sally brown
Post on 19-Dec-2015
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TRANSCRIPT
• I went to the IUSS meeting in Brisbane, Australia this August and heard some really moving presentations.
• I’m going to show some of the images from the talk that made the biggest impression
Next 6 slides Will Steffen, Executive Director Australian National University Climate Change Institute
The Anthropocene EraNew geological era brought on by
impact of humans on earth processes
Aborigines arrive inAustralia
Beginningof agriculture
Great Europeancivilisations:Greek, Roman
Geological time-scale doesn’t register the Tea
Party
Source: GRIP ice core data (Greenland)And S. Oppenheimer, ”Out of Eden”, 2004
First migration of fully modern humans
out of Africa
Migrations offully modern humans
from South Asia to Europe
From Steffen et al. 2004
AnthropoceneStage 2
(1945 - 2010/2020)
The changing ’humanenterprise’, from 1750
to 2000.
Note the start of the’Great Acceleration’ around 1950, when
many activities beganor accelerated sharply.
From: Steffen et al. 2004
Responses of the biophysical Earth System to the accelerating ’human enterprise’.
The biophysical responsesof the Earth System showmany of the same featuresas the Great Accelerationin the human enterprise.
Estimate of quantitative evolution of control variables for seven planetary boundaries from pre-industrial levels to the present . The inner (green) shaded nonagon represents the safe operating space with proposed boundary levels at its outer contour. The extent of the wedges for each boundary shows the estimate of current position of the control variable. Points show the estimated time trajectory of each control variable from pre-industrial to the present.
• In addition to Dr. Steffen’s talk, I heard other talks about issues that we are facing in the upcoming decades. – Exhausting world P reserves– Food shortages– Potable water shortages– Depleted soils
Were some of the big ones
In the interim we will have to deal with:
• Water shortages • Dramatic changes in weather
patterns• Need to identify green energy
sourcesdepleted soils
• Increased urbanization• Increased demand for agricultural
production
The answers to these problems
• Will need to be multiple and varied• No silver bullet- aside from
massive/rapid population loss which we really don’t want
So how do you fit in?
• In an era of plentiful resources- WWTP primary mission to make disease free water regardless of energy required
• In the ‘Anthropocene’- time for a new perspective
Look at
• The different parts of Wastewater treatment
• How they fit in to a solution to the ‘Anthropocene’
Anaerobic Digestion
• Vector attraction reduction
• VS destruction• Pathogen
destructionOh, and by the way,
you can capture the methane….
Can be energy factory(oh and by the way you kill pathogens)
• WWTPs are the single largest user of electricity for a municipality
• Anaerobic digestion of standard influent can supply ≈ 50% of electric demand
• Co-digestion can supply ≥ 100% of demand and be net source of power
With the biosolids you have
• Fertilizer– 2-7% N, 1-3% P, and all other required
nutrients for plant growth– N is available in a slow release form– N and P availability from biosolids has
been extensively studied– And our results are showing that N2O
release is not an issue in some cases and can be reduced in others
With the biosolids you have
• Carbon for soils– Research by Kate Kurtz and Andrew
Trlica (and others) have shown persistence of biosolids added carbon to soils
– Terrestrial carbon sequestration is one of the best options we have
– Added benefit-• Adding carbon to soils improves soil water
holding capacity
Carbon Nitrogen Water
Mg ha % 1 bar
Control 17.33 0.08 0.09
Biosolids 25.6 0.13 0.1
% Change 148 163 111
BiosolidsChelan, WA
•17 Mg of C per hectare•0.44 Mg C per Mg biosolids
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GP17
Year
1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008
Gra
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, bu/
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80no fertilizer50 lb/ a inorganic f ertilizer3 dt/ a biosolids
Boulder ParkGrain yield 1996-2008- Cogger