#Nitrous Oxide Market

[chemicalresearchupdates]

Innovations Driving the Quaternary Ammonium Compounds Market

Quaternary ammonium compounds, often referred to as quats, are a group of chemicals widely used in various industrial and consumer applications. These compounds are characterized by their positively charged nitrogen atoms and are typically used for their antimicrobial and surfactant properties. The quaternary ammonium compounds market has witnessed significant growth in recent years, driven by their diverse range of applications and increasing awareness about hygiene and cleanliness.

The market for quaternary ammonium compounds encompasses a wide array of products that find applications in various industries. These compounds are commonly used as disinfectants and sanitizers in the healthcare sector, where maintaining a sterile environment is crucial. Additionally, they are employed in the cleaning and sanitation of commercial and residential spaces, such as restaurants, hotels, and households.

One of the key drivers of quaternary ammonium compounds market growth is the growing emphasis on hygiene and infection control, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Quaternary ammonium compounds have proven effective against a wide range of pathogens, making them a preferred choice for disinfection and cleaning purposes. As a result, the demand for these compounds has surged across different industries, including healthcare, food processing, and hospitality.

The quaternary ammonium compounds market is characterized by a competitive landscape, with several established players and new entrants vying for market share. Companies in this sector are continuously innovating and developing new formulations to cater to the evolving needs of their customers. Additionally, regulatory agencies play a pivotal role in shaping the market, as they establish guidelines and standards for the safe and effective use of quaternary ammonium compounds.

Recent trends in the market include the development of eco-friendly quaternary ammonium compounds that are less harmful to the environment. Sustainability concerns are driving the adoption of greener alternatives in various industries, and manufacturers are responding with biodegradable and environmentally friendly options.

In conclusion, the quaternary ammonium compounds market is witnessing robust growth driven by their versatile applications and the increasing focus on cleanliness and hygiene. As industries continue to prioritize infection control and environmental sustainability, the market for quaternary ammonium compounds is expected to evolve and expand further, presenting new opportunities and challenges for industry participants.

[anghraine]

I wanted to say "all of the above" on that one poll about annoying Strong Female Character tropes ... except one of the tropes was femme fatales and I just couldn't. I know there's all kind of baggage but I love them.

[sakebytheriver]

Why are they giving whippits the vape makeover 😭😭😭

[batboyblog]

Things the Biden-Harris Administration Did This Week #28

July 19-26 2024

The EPA announced the award of $4.3 billion in Climate Pollution Reduction Grants. The grants support community-driven solutions to fight climate change, and accelerate America’s clean energy transition. The grants will go to 25 projects across 30 states, and one tribal community. When combined the projects will reduce greenhouse gas pollution by as much as 971 million metric tons of CO2, roughly the output of 5 million American homes over 25 years. Major projects include $396 million for Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection as it tries to curb greenhouse gas emissions from industrial production, and $500 million for transportation and freight decarbonization at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The Biden-Harris Administration announced a plan to phase out the federal government's use of single use plastics. The plan calls for the federal government to stop using single use plastics in food service operations, events, and packaging by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035. The US government is the single largest employer in the country and the world’s largest purchaser of goods and services. Its move away from plastics will redefine the global market.

The White House hosted a summit on super pollutants with the goals of better measuring them and dramatically reducing them. Roughly half of today's climate change is caused by so called super pollutants, methane, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and nitrous oxide (N2O). Public-private partnerships between NOAA and United Airlines, The State Department and NASA, and the non-profit Carbon Mapper Coalition will all help collect important data on these pollutants. While private firms announced with the White House plans that by early next year will reduce overall U.S. industrial emissions of nitrous oxide by over 50% from 2020 numbers. The summit also highlighted the EPA's new rule to reduce methane from oil and gas by 80%.

The EPA announced $325 million in grants for climate justice. The Community Change Grants Program, powered by President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act will ultimately bring $2 billion dollars to disadvantaged communities and help them combat climate change. Some of the projects funded in this first round of grant were: $20 million for Midwest Tribal Energy Resources Association, which will help weatherize and energy efficiency upgrade homes for 35 tribes in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, $14 million to install onsite wastewater treatment systems throughout 17 Black Belt counties in Alabama, and $14 million to urban forestry, expanding tree canopy in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

The Department of Interior approved 3 new solar projects on public land. The 3 projects, two in Nevada and one in Arizona, once finished could generate enough to power 2 million homes. This comes on top of DoI already having beaten its goal of 25 gigawatts of clean energy projects by the end of 2025, in April 2024. This is all part of President Biden’s goal of creating a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035. 

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pledged $667 million to global Pandemic Fund. The fund set up in 2022 seeks to support Pandemic prevention, and readiness in low income nations who can't do it on their own. At the G20 meeting Yellen pushed other nations of the 20 largest economies to double their pledges to the $2 billion dollar fund. Yellen highlighted the importance of the fund by saying "President Biden and I believe that a fully-resourced Pandemic Fund will enable us to better prevent, prepare for, and respond to pandemics – protecting Americans and people around the world from the devastating human and economic costs of infectious disease threats,"

The Departments of the Interior and Commerce today announced a $240 million investment in tribal fisheries in the Pacific Northwest. This is in line with an Executive Order President Biden signed in 2023 during the White House Tribal Nations Summit to mpower Tribal sovereignty and self-determination. An initial $54 million for hatchery maintenance and modernization will be made available for 27 tribes in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The rest will be invested in longer term fishery projects in the coming years.

The IRS announced that thanks to funding from President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, it'll be able to digitize much of its operations. This means tax payers will be able to retrieve all their tax related information from one source, including Wage & Income, Account, Record of Account, and Return transcripts, using on-line Individual Online Account.

The IRS also announced that New Jersey will be joining the direct file program in 2025. The direct file program ran as a pilot in 12 states in 2024, allowing tax-payers in those states to file simple tax returns using a free online filing tool directly with the IRS. In 2024 140,000 Americans were able to file this way, they collectively saved $5.6 million in tax preparation fees, claiming $90 million in returns. The average American spends $270 and 13 hours filing their taxes. More than a million people in New Jersey alone will qualify for direct file next year. Oregon opted to join last month. Republicans in Congress lead by Congressmen Adrian Smith of Nebraska and Chuck Edwards of North Carolina have put forward legislation to do away with direct file.

Bonus: American law enforcement arrested co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada. El Mayo co-founded the cartel in the 1980s along side Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. Since El Chapo's incarceration in the United States in 2019, El Mayo has been sole head of the Sinaloa Cartel. Authorities also arrested El Chapo's son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez. The Sinaloa Cartel has been a major player in the cross border drug trade, and has often used extreme violence to further their aims.

[seat-safety-switch]

Movies make nitrous oxide seem so much more exciting than it really is. Green exhaust flames, super blurry vision, cars that instantly do wheelies and jump drawbridges. Completely rad. If nitrous oxide was so cool, I ask Hollywood, then why does my dentist have a whole bunch of it? The truth of the matter is that nitrous oxide has one hell of a lot of marketing goodwill, built on the dreams of every broke-ass drag racer on the planet.

First, a primer: cars run on oxygen and fuel. As anyone who's run up a hill can tell you, there's only so much air in the air that you can breathe, and there is basically an infinity of Burger King Whoppers you can practically eat. It's not fair, so we have to make it more fair.

There's ways to compress the air, and cram more of it into the engine. Then we can eat more Whoppers – I mean fuel – and make more power. We've all heard of miraculous mechanical devices for adding air, such as turbos and superchargers, but those cost a lot of money and involve complex fabrication. Nitrous oxide, a gas that we get from whales or some shit, accomplishes the same goal just by being sprayed into the engine.

It's sort of like if you gave an asthma inhaler to a Tour de France bicycle dude. He'd go a lot faster for a few seconds until and unless his heart explodes. Or maybe not. Don't get medical advice from me. Treat your captive Tour de France bicycle dudes like you yourself would want to be treated (and for the love of Pete, get them spayed or neutered if you let them outside.)

Hollywood has largely failed to make the intricacies of nitrous, such as not being able to afford filling an entire bottle with today's prices, into a compelling narrative. The sequel to Two Lane Blacktop was never approved because the middle 40 minutes of the film consists of the two of them digging through a half-abandoned parts store looking for the exact AN fitting they need for the fuel system. That's not how you win even a soundtrack Oscar. So instead, they do this crazy movie shit, which in turn makes a lot of other people buy nitrous setups. They want to be like the famous movie star Mr. Bean.

I'm not asking for perfect realism, here, folks. All I want is the occasional admission that sometimes you forget to turn on your bottle heater before making a pass.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from DeSmog Blog:

In the chilled section of any major supermarket, from London to Lagos, you’re likely to find a taste of Ireland – a stick of premium butter wrapped in gold or green packaging, celebrating a superior product from grass-fed pastures. 

But the gleaming image of Ireland’s agri-produce hides a number of inconvenient truths, among them the damage the sector is wreaking on Ireland’s climate targets, as well as its waterways and soils.

Ahead of a general election due no later than March next year, DeSmog has launched a new interactive map revealing the power of the Irish agribusiness sector and its hundreds of connections spanning politics, marketing, academia and industry.

Dairy production in Ireland has boomed since 2011, as the EU started phasing out its cap on milk production, with a devastating impact on the climate. Latest figures show that instead of cutting its agricultural emissions, Ireland has increased them – by 10 percent over the period 2010-2023.

While profitable for dairy industry bosses, the expansion is highly detrimental to Ireland’s declared aim to cut agriculture emissions by 25 percent by 2030, as part of its legally binding commitment to achieve net zero emissions no later than 2050.

Intensive farming practices lead to excessive levels of nitrates in fertilisers and manure, harming the lush green pastures Ireland prides itself on. These nitrates lead to oxygen-sucking algae growth in lakes and rivers, and have contributed to 99 percent of Ireland’s ammonia air pollution. 

Despite a slight reduction in overall emissions last year, Ireland is still “well off track” in meeting its EU and national climate targets for 2030, according to its Environmental Protection Agency – in large part due to the methane from Ireland’s unchecked dairy production. The agriculture sector was responsible for over a third (37.8 percent) of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2023, the highest proportion in Europe. 

The intensive farming lobby appears to be in the driving seat. Major dairy processors in particular have been ramping up lobbying efforts around Ireland’s derogation from the EU Nitrates Directive, designed to tackle farming pollution. The country’s exemption allows certain farms to use larger amounts of manure as fertiliser, despite the fact it releases significant amounts of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is 265 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 100 year period.

[brightlotusmoon]

Though whippets have long been popular among hippie-ish subcultures, the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 breathed new life into the market for the barely-regulated chemical as it's gone viral on TikTok. As more and more people began to seek out the escape provided by a nitrous rush, however, chronic users are reporting all kinds of freaky side effects.

[lovelanguageisolate]

First Night in Bangkok

Christopher Hitchens once said that however hard you try to avoid cliché, visiting communist Czechoslovakia forces you to reference Kafka at some point.

Anyways, Bangkok really is a fucking trip, man. I feel like I died two days ago and reincarnated in a William Gibson novel. So very much.

Inhuman cybercapital futurity assembling itself in a thousand gleaming Hong Kong-domiciled gigabanks and digital nomad cafés and dancing girls as it chokes old Buddhist temples and shantytowns and struggling palms in a traumatically transcultural miasma of a myriad reactive nitrous oxide species coughed up by a million two-stroke motors.

After a brief nap in my luxury burbclave hotel, security guard and English-fluent beaming hotel staff staff at post, me trying to do battle against 15 timezone hours' worth of jetlag, I register for the first time that I've been dissociating. I'm hobbling around on the air cast I wear for my foot sprain and a collapsible Walgreens cane, of the kind I imagine two-bit hustlers using to beat drug dealers poaching on their turf. But I'm in my favorite mass-market synthetic ink tie dye shirt, made somewhere in Central America I don't recall off hand, my blue tourist shorts, and my Buddhist beaded mala, engraved with Sanskrit I cannot read, on plastic draw string, so hopefully everyone knows I'm a chill dude.

I am in an eight floor mega shopping mall. There are robots serving white frat boys and dutiful waiters in white masks who could be robots serving local Thai prep school kids in sky blue school uniforms 500 baht sirloin steak dinners.

There are as many languages spoken here it feels like as New York City. And hotels, restaurant, massage parlors, tailors, purpose built to pander to rich Arabs, rich Chinese, rich Americans.

There is a strange amodernity to all the floating signifiers. White spring break kids approximating Thai names and wai hand clasps. Chinese shirts with a Markov chain’s chants of floating English prestige nonsense. Transcontinental fake gold watch arbitrageurs. More virtual market makers than a Jersey City server farm somehow spun up and cast into human form.

Sub-orbital resort vacationers in one corner. The state messages of the network monarch on a giant billboard overlooking a four-story expressway overpass on another. Everyone communicating in signs, gestures, and humble Buddhist bows. Hindu, Christian, Mormon, Jew, Shiite, Sunni, and so many Buddhists, all sitting and eating and shopping and praying and coughing and sputtering and fucking and bowing to one another at the end of the world before the self-aware chatbots reconstitute all the anthropomass on the third rock from the nuclear furnace. And of course, on TV, a narcissistic reality TV star in orange bronzer and an oversized navy blue Brioni suit and red tie is inaugurated president of the United States for a second time.

And my $4 dinner, served by surgically masked waitstaff at the shopping mall of the omega point. The terminal object in the category of mass market commercialism. Another floating signifier: a featured photo on Wikipedia of beautiful Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where I've actually been, here mobilized as a metonym for the kind of steak restaurant this place is supposed to be. Of course, probably no one who works here has been to America. It reminds me of Gilles Deleuze’s characterization of capitalism as an inherently deterritorializing process—one that makes every place into every other place, until no one knows where they are.

And the strangest thing is that somehow, between the tourists trying to immerse themselves in the fakery, and the shop workers trying to perform, something genuine is created, even though the thing the performance refers to is fake—and everyone knows it.

Actually, maybe the craziest moment was when I was walking past the clothing hawkers. Of which there were just so unbelievably many. And they were selling wildly unlicensed branded merch for Luis Vuitton and Ralph Loren and Balenciaga and GUESS, etc. Some of them laughably implausible. But others effectively the real thing. The Asian tourists love those in particular. And I asked myself, “how did these knockoffs get so good?”

And then I remembered: Thailand is the place where all of this crap actually gets made! It’s all outsourced to here. They’re just cutting out the middle men seeking rent on the brand. And so I’m not really sure who’s the fraud here. Is it the unlicensed shirt hawker trying to take me for a ride and fudge their “tax” calculations? Or is it the Italian fashion house trying to charge me 20x what it costs the Thai sweatshop workers to make?

I see a case for each.

Obviously not JUST Thailand makes this. There’s also Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Honduras, Costa Rica, etc. All the groveling satellite states trying to scramble up the value-added ladder that capital and IP and telecom flows have turned into the 21st century's Manchester. All part of that big globalized textile mill.

Anyways, I got a pretty nice white dress shirt for like $15 and a truly label-less white bucket hat for $5. And I’m almost sure I got taken for a ride, but I was waaay too tired to haggle, and anyways, by any standard of justice as globalized as these clothing flows, I'm the one taking them for a ride.

I message my mother, half way around the world. It's 7:30 AM on the Eastern Seaboard of the US. It's 7:30 PM here in Bangkok. My mother says, "Keep your wits about you, man. You have to play the haggle game. It's in your Albanian blood. My grandmother would have taught you plenty, had she been there."

I can't help but think that they’d have been like, “no, please! Just take it! For free!! ” after 3 minutes of that. Those Bangkok street hagglers have never met an Albanian orphan.

Gonna go to a Buddhist temple tomorrow. First, tonight, a cocktail bar overlooking the city. In my $1000 black John Varvatos jacket with the Mandarin collar over the $15 off-brand shirt I just bought.

[chemicalresearchupdates]

Emerging Applications of Nitrous Oxide in the Healthcare Sector: Market Insights

Nitrous oxide, often referred to as laughing gas, is a colorless, non-flammable gas with various applications across different industries. It is primarily composed of nitrogen and oxygen, with the chemical formula N2O. This compound has gained significant attention due to its diverse uses, which range from medical and dental applications to its role as a potent greenhouse gas. In this market overview, we will delve into the definition, market growth, industry landscape, and emerging trends within the nitrous oxide market.

Definition of Nitrous Oxide

Nitrous oxide, commonly known as N2O or laughing gas, is a chemical compound consisting of two nitrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. It is an odorless and colorless gas that has found widespread use in various sectors. Its properties, including its anesthetic and analgesic effects, make it valuable in the medical and dental fields. Additionally, it plays a pivotal role in automotive and aerospace industries as a performance-enhancing oxidizer in rocket propulsion and as a power booster in internal combustion engines.

Market Overview

The global nitrous oxide market has witnessed steady growth over the years, driven by its versatile applications and increasing demand in both developed and developing regions. The market is characterized by the production, distribution, and utilization of nitrous oxide across various sectors, including healthcare, automotive, electronics, and food and beverages.

Market Growth

The nitrous oxide market has experienced consistent growth owing to several key factors. The medical and dental sectors have been major contributors to this growth, with nitrous oxide being used for pain management and sedation during procedures. Moreover, its role as an oxidizer in the automotive industry for improving engine performance and reducing emissions has driven demand. The market's expansion can also be attributed to the increasing use of nitrous oxide in the electronics industry for semiconductor manufacturing and as a component in airbags.

Market Industry

The nitrous oxide market industry is comprised of multiple players involved in the production, distribution, and sale of this gas. Major manufacturers produce nitrous oxide through the thermal decomposition of ammonium nitrate or by cryogenic distillation of air. Distribution channels include gas suppliers, medical equipment suppliers, and automotive performance shops, among others.

Trends in the Nitrous Oxide Market

Several trends have emerged in the nitrous oxide market, reflecting changing consumer preferences and industry dynamics. One prominent trend is the growing interest in nitrous oxide as an environmentally friendly alternative in the automotive sector. Nitrous oxide offers a means to enhance engine performance while reducing carbon emissions, aligning with global efforts to mitigate climate change.

Furthermore, advancements in medical technology have led to the development of more precise and controlled delivery systems for nitrous oxide in healthcare settings. This ensures better patient comfort and safety during medical and dental procedures.

In conclusion, the nitrous oxide market is multifaceted, with applications spanning various industries. Its consistent growth can be attributed to its versatility and evolving trends, such as its role in emission reduction and advancements in medical applications. As industries continue to adapt and innovate, the nitrous oxide market is likely to see further developments and expansion in the coming years.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Research team develops process for bio-based nylon

In T-shirts, stockings, shirts, and ropes—or as a component of parachutes and car tires—polyamides are used everywhere as synthetic fibers. At the end of the 1930s, the name Nylon was coined for such synthetic polyamides. Nylon-6 and Nylon-6.6 are two polyamides that account for around 95% of the global nylon market. Until now, they have been produced from fossil-based raw materials. However, this petrochemical process is harmful to the environment because it emits around 10% of the climate-damaging nitrous oxide (laughing gas) worldwide and requires a great deal of energy. "Our goal is to make the entire nylon production chain environmentally friendly. This is possible if we access bio-based waste as feedstock and make the synthesis process sustainable," says Dr. Falk Harnisch, head of the Electrobiotechnology working group at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ). The Leipzig researchers led by Falk Harnisch and Dr. Rohan Karande (University of Leipzig/Research and Transfer Center for bioactive Matter b-ACTmatter) have described how this can be achieved in an article published in Green Chemistry. For example, nylon consists of about 50% adipic acid, which has so far been industrially extracted from petroleum.

Read more.

[notwiselybuttoowell]

It can often feel like you need a PhD in material science just to understand the textiles that appear on garment care labels. While natural fibres including wool and cotton are pretty easy to identify, synthetics such as polyester and viscose can be harder to decode.

Generally speaking, human-made materials fall into one of two categories: those derived from fossil fuels and those derived from chemically processed cellulose (the building block of plants).

Fossil fuel-based fibres

Polyester

Polyester is the most common fibre on the planet, making up over half of the overall fibre market. It is a type of plastic called polyethylene terephthalate or PET which is moulded into yarn then woven into a fabric.

Dr Georgia McCorkill, a fashion lecturer at RMIT, says fossil fuels are the basis of the chemicals that make PET, so from an environmental and sustainability standpoint, their origins are already problematic. Since plastic does not so much biodegrade as split into smaller and smaller pieces (it was only invented last century, so we can’t really know how long it will hang around), polyester is also problematic when it is washed, as it can shed microplastics into waterways and at the end of a garment’s life.

“In an ideal world [polyester] would exist in a closed-loop system where it would be perpetually melted down and reformed into new fabrics,” says McCorkill. “However the design, production and waste recovery systems required to make this a reality don’t exist.”

Recently, there has been a push towards recycled polyester – which uses plastic bottles as an input – instead of virgin resources. While recycled polyester has a lower carbon footprint than conventional polyester, it is not a perfect solution. Turning plastic bottles into new plastic bottles is more efficient than recycling them into polyester, and it can be done on a loop. Current methods for turning plastic into polyester at scale do not result in a material that can be recycled again post-use.

McCorkill says polyester is an extremely strong material and can be necessary in activewear, sportswear or outdoor gear. But, she says, “polyester can get very smelly over time and become unwearable”. This is because it clings to odour and stains, making them impossible to remove.

Nylon

Like polyester, nylon is also a plastic derived from fossil fuels but it is more expensive to make and therefore used less frequently. It makes up about 11% of the clothing fibre market. Since nylon is stretchier and stronger than polyester, it is often found in swimwear and yoga gear.

Manufacturing nylon releases nitrous oxide into the atmosphere, contributing to global heating, and because nylon is a plastic it won’t biodegrade. The founder of Cloth & Co, Caroline Poiner, suggests looking for recycled alternatives such as Econyl that are made with recovered waste products, including fishing lines and other waste pulled from the ocean.

Unlike recycled polyester, recycled nylon can be regenerated into new nylon more than once, provided it has not been blended with other fibre types.

Elastane

The other fossil fuel-based fibre you’ll often encounter on a garment care label is elastane (also called spandex or Lycra). It is commonly blended with other fibres to provide added stretch (it can expand and recover up to five times its own length).

This elasticity makes it similar to rubber. But while natural rubber or elastic is derived from trees, elastane is derived from polyurethane and will not biodegrade. While elastane’s capacity for stretch and recovery makes it very useful in athletic gear and underwear, when exposed to heat or too much strain, its elasticity will degrade over time.

Man-made cellulosic fibres

Viscose rayon is the umbrella term for fibres manufactured from cellulose, but as many fibres fall into this broad category, it can be very confusing. The list includes rayon, viscose, modal, lyocell, acetate, bamboo and cupro. Aside from cupro, which is made from cotton waste, all of these materials are derived from wood pulp.

Poiner warns that although bamboo and the like are often marketed on their eco credentials, it can be “comparable to synthetic fibres in its impact on the environment and also the health and wellbeing of workers."

Sourcing viscose rayon has historically been linked to deforestation, and even now the environmental not-for-profit Canopy estimates that of the 200m trees cut down each year to make viscose, at least half come from ancient or endangered forests. If you want to be sure these fabrics have been sustainably sourced, look for FSC or PEFC certifications.

The process of turning wood or cotton waste into a fabric “requires highly toxic chemicals in its production”, says Poiner, who notes some manufacturers choose factory sites where they can avoid strict health and safety regulations.

Less harmful cellulose fabrics are manufactured using a closed-loop system, that recovers and reuses toxic solvents. EcoVero and Tencel are types of lyocell, trademarked by fabric giant Lenzing, which are made using best practice pulp-sourcing and chemical management during the production process.

There are also exciting innovations in this space, with new types of viscose rayon made using agricultural, food or clothing waste as a source material instead of trees, however these are not yet widely available.

[mariacallous]

Agriculture is a big source of emissions. In the US, about 10 percent of greenhouse gases come from livestock or crops—and for a long time, agriculture has lagged behind other sectors when it comes to cutting its carbon footprint. Since 1990, total emissions from agriculture have risen by 7 percent, while emissions from sectors like electricity generation and buildings have declined.

There’s a simple reason for this: Cutting emissions from agriculture is really hard. It’s not like the energy industry, which has readily available low-carbon electricity in the form of renewables. Reducing agriculture’s impact means making tough decisions about what gets farmed and how, and dealing with the notoriously tricky science of making sure carbon stays in the ground rather than being released into the atmosphere.

The US has started getting to grips with these tough decisions. President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act included $20 billion to help farmers tackle the climate crisis. And in February 2022 the US Department of Agriculture announced $3.1 billion in funding through a scheme called Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC). The money was intended to fund projects that help farmers adopt more environmentally friendly ways of farming and create a market for what the USDA calls “climate-smart” crops and livestock.

According to the USDA, its plan has the potential to sequester 60 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents—the same as removing 12 million gasoline-powered cars from roads for one year. But some scientists are worried that the PSCS approach is the wrong kind of climate intervention. The government could be channeling billions of dollars to projects that are of uncertain benefit in terms of emissions—or, worse, actually end up increasing overall levels of greenhouse gases.

If the goal is to reduce overall emissions from agriculture, a good place to start is by figuring out where all those emissions come from. It turns out that over half of all agricultural emissions come in the form of nitrous oxide—a potent greenhouse gas released when microbes in the soil break down nitrogen-based fertilizers. Overuse of fertilizer is a huge problem in agriculture, says Paul West, an ecologist at the climate nonprofit Project Drawdown. On top of being a huge source of emissions, excess nitrogen leaches into waterways, causing algal blooms.

Reducing the amount of fertilizer farmers use would be a big win. Remote sensors and machines can help farmers apply fertilizer only when and where it is needed, while smarter forms of fertilizers might reduce the amount of nitrogen that ends up digested by microbes. The crucial thing about these kinds of interventions is that they stop emissions being released in the first place, says Dan Blaustein-Rejto, director of food and agriculture at the Breakthrough Institute. If you never put fertilizer on the ground, it’s impossible for microbes to turn it into planet-warming nitrous oxide. Getting smarter with fertilizer use is one of the biggest changes that US agriculture could make to its emissions footprint.

But fertilizer management plays second fiddle to a different kind of climate project in the PCSC. Of the 60 finalized projects for which the USDA has published summaries, only 12 mention nutrient management or fertilizer application. A much higher number of projects focus on cover cropping—a technique that involves covering fields with crops between harvests in order to slow soil erosion, capture carbon, and keep nutrients in the fields. Since planting cover crops takes time and expense, and can lower the overall productivity of fields, only a relatively small number of farmers use the technique. If the PCSC is successful, however, the number of farmers planting cover crops should shoot up.

Cover crops absorb carbon from the atmosphere and turn it into plant material as they grow, explains Deepak Joshi, an assistant professor at Arkansas State University and the author of a recent paper about cover crops. When the cover crops are harvested or left to rot on the soil, a lot of that carbon gets released back into the atmosphere, but a small amount can remain behind in the soil. If that soil remains undisturbed, then that carbon can potentially remain underground for years. Joshi’s meta-analysis focused on cover crops grown in cornfields around the world and found that, on average, cover crops increased carbon stored in the soil by about 7 percent.

So far, so good. But once you dive down into the details of Joshi’s study, things get more complicated. The research found that the amount of carbon stored varied widely, depending on location, cover crop type, plowing, and the amount of plant growth. A different review, this time examining cover cropping on US farms, found that, in lots of cases, fields with cover crops didn’t gain extra soil carbon when compared to fields that hadn’t been cover cropped. “In terms of climate benefit, it isn’t all that great,” says West.

One of the big limitations to cover cropping is that carbon added to the soil might eventually make its way back into the atmosphere. “What we find is that even where there is a build-up of carbon, once you plow those areas again you lose a lot—or all—of the carbon that has been stored up over time,” says West. If money for cover crops runs out, farmers may start leaving fields bare during off-seasons and plowing them more, which would mean a lot of that sequestered carbon would end up back in the atmosphere. And if the cover crops reduce the overall productivity of fields, there’s also the danger that the practice might encourage more land to be converted to agriculture, which is bad news for overall emissions.

Blaustein-Rejto and West both worry that the PCSC prioritizes sequestering carbon rather than stopping emissions from being released in the first place. One way to think about this is the difference between switching to an electric car today or continuing to drive a gas-powered vehicle while also planting a forest to sequester the carbon you emit. In both cases the overall carbon accounting may net out the same, but sequestering always carries the risk that the carbon might later be released if—for instance—that forest is replaced by a cattle ranch.

Robert Bonnie, the under secretary for agriculture for farm production and conservation at the USDA, says that criticisms of the PCSC aren’t entirely fair. “These are pilots. We’re actually going to go out and try some things. We don’t have all the information we need,” he says. He points out that a number of the funded projects do focus on fertilizer use. “We’re not scared of the math; we’re really interested in getting the math right,” he says.

Bonnie says that the real challenge is to persuade farms to get on board with climate-smart farming. A big focus of the project is to create a market for climate-smart crops and livestock, encouraging buyers to pay a premium for goods made in an environmentally friendly manner. A top-down regulatory approach might discourage farmers from taking part, he says.

In lots of the PCSC projects, the USDA funding is supplemented by money from food companies that buy beef, corn, soy, or other agricultural commodities. One PCSC project run by the Iowa Soybean Association includes $62.1 million in corporate payments from companies including PepsiCo, Cargill, Target, JBS, and Coca-Cola. This is a relatively new form of carbon accounting called insetting, where companies pay for carbon offsets within their own supply chains.

Insetting is rising in popularity, but it has a lot of the same problems as offsets, says Sybrig Smit of the NewClimate Institute, a climate policy and global sustainability nonprofit based in Germany. It might be difficult to assess whether insets deliver their supposed benefits, and sequestering carbon is still less desirable than cutting emissions at their source, particularly when it helps sustain industries that are bigger emitters of carbon. Livestock is the second-biggest source of emissions in US agriculture, so reducing consumption of meat and dairy products is an obvious way to reduce emissions, says Smit. “As a society we’re really scared to touch on our consumption patterns,” she says.

The USDA scheme is stuck in an awkward place. It is supposed to reduce emissions but seeks to achieve that in a way that keeps farmers on board and doesn’t fundamentally change the goods they produce. “We’re going to have beef production and dairy production for a long time to come. And our job is to figure out how to work with those producers to reduce the greenhouse gas impacts to the maximum extent we can,” Bonnie says.

In practice, that means that much money from PCSC will go toward farming soy and corn—a large percentage of which will end up as livestock feed or as ethanol for biofuels. Cover cropping is good for soil health, but its potential to lead to long-lasting carbon storage is uncertain at best. At worst, it could see the US avoiding the kind of fundamental changes to food production that could really bring emissions down.

[eileentothestars]

Reblogging again bc I have now seen this film and while it's just kinda meh there are several Important Facts the GO fandom must know:

Sheen's character is indeed gayer than a treeful of monkeys on nitrous oxide (but this being the '30s it Doesn't End Great for him, just fyi)

David Tennant is also in this movie, though alas, he shares no scenes with Sheen (say that three times fast)

He does, however, have the absolute WORST haircut and mustache I have ever seen, and yes, I am including the demons dancing on a pin scene

Tennant's character does garbage magic tricks and gets himself in trouble dealing in the black market in WWII which is just. Amazing.

A wild Mark Gatiss appears

[seat-safety-switch]

There's a whole lot of towns out there that you'll never visit. Most of them are chock full of people you'll never meet. Tulsa, for example. Never been there, might never go there. And that makes me a little sad.

Sure, I only have enough time on this earth to visit so many towns. And when I'm there, I don't have enough time to interrogate every single one of the locals to see if, say, any of them have a set of Mopar F-body windshield wiper linkages sitting in the back of their garage. They'll just go to waste, damned to irrelevance by my lack of time. That's what the MBAs call a "market inefficiency."

The internet has helped, sure, but you can only demand what other people have supplied. Any quick browse on a model-specific forum is full of lonely folks crying out to the heavens for a specific piece of trim, or an entire automatic transmission, that they will never receive. And it's a lot of work to put that stuff up for sale. Who knows what's actually inside that weird pile of oil-stained gewgaws that Pawpaw left behind before he joined that alien cult and drank all that Flavor-Aid? His surviving next-of-kin sure don't know the difference between a 4.11 and a 3.90 rear end, nor are they willing to teach themselves that information in order to list it on eBay for twenty bucks.

Don't worry, though, I have a solution. That solution is that the Boston Dynamics warehouse is not secured very well. Their robots are powered by a two-stroke lawnmower engine: it's like they wanted me to show up with a turbine-generator-powered plasma cutter and chop right through the rebar holding the walls of their robot storage lockup together. After that, it was a quick couple of dozen trips to the local electronics store to get the right USB-to-serial cable, and I soon had my harem of semi-autonomous Parts-Seeking Drones® roving the backwoods of America.

So, if you see a lanky, creaking doglike shape lurking outside your yard tonight, smelling oddly of pre-mix and human arterial blood, let it in your garage. All it wants to do is scan your spare parts so I can find that goddamn last piece of dash trim for the cruise control lever on my Volare. Don't worry: I won't have the robots kill you if you decide not to sell it to me after all. It would be hypocritical of me to judge another hoarder. We'll have coffee when I come see your town for the first time! We can trade junk and be best friends and call each other on the phone afterward and talk about nitrous oxide. No promises on what the robots will do if they search your entire property and don't find any Plymouth Volare stuff, though. I forgot to program that part before I let them out of radio range.