The Future of Sustainable Tech
Science World After Dark 2024 - Sources and Resources
In 2024 I gave a talk on the topic of "The Future of Sustainable Tech" to an audience at Science World in Vancouver, BC. These are the slides from the talk, as well as some links and resources to more information for attendees who would like to learn more! If you'd like to use the images in your own presentation, you can find the transparent pngs in a zip folder for download here (41MB).
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Hi, I'm jam, and I created this presentation hilighting exciting sustainable technologies. But first, let's get the bad news out of the way...
I'm afraid that there isn't a miracle technology on the horizon that is going to get us out of the serious situation we're in with regards to climate. Fusion is a long ways off. Geoengineering Projects are a dangerous gamble. Direct Air Carbon Capture technologies are very interesting and worth pursuing... but won't remove carbon fast enough on their own. We need to act now to divest from oil and reduce our carbon emissions. But the good news is... we don't have to wait for some miracle tech to come bail us out.
I believe that we already have all the technology we need, and innovation is no longer the bottleneck... and I'm not alone! Technology will keep getting better but we cannot and should not wait!
It's time to shift our focus from innovation to implementation and adoption.
This means that we are coming to save us! Yes, even you! Your job is a climate job! Whatever it is that you do, we need you.
Let's look at the problem: where is the carbon coming from? In Canada, the majority of our emissions is from oil and gas production. The way the Paris agreement works, we don't have to account for the greenhouse gases that result when these oil and gas products are consumed. Here you can take a closer look at the carbon breakdown from the United States, or worldwide.
Let's start with transportation. There are lots of sustainable ways that we can meet our transportation needs! Culturally, this represents a shift in thinking about how we get around. We need to make it easier to get our needs met as close to our homes as possible, avoid travelling when possible, and for the rest of the time provide easy, safe and efficient carbon-free transportation systems that are accessible to all.
Until we can achieve this, we'll need to continue to rely on the private vehicle - and that means bringing more electric cars to the road. The main technology we use is the Lithium-ion battery. Scientists and engineers are working hard all the time to make Lithium-ion batteries safer, cheaper, and easier to recycle. But there are alternative chemistries! One such technology is the Sodium-ion battery.
And vehicles powered by sodium-ion batteries are on sale now! But don't let this chemistry question distract you from the real conversation we need to stay focused on, and that's the fact that the most carbon efficient vehicle is a bus.
And also that buses can be awesome! This is a prototype bus stop they have in Singapore. Buses everywhere could be this awesome if we fund them appropriately and provide comfortable infrastructure and dedicated lanes! We should settle for nothing less.
Hydrogen Fuel Cells are a technology we can use when we need a vehicle that needs to go longer distance or carry a heavier weight than would be practical for a battery-electric vehicle.
How it works: hydrogen and oxygen are most commonly found in nature together as water. If you separate them with a special type of membrane, the hydrogen will only be able to pass through if it releases its electron. These electrons are collected to power whatever we want! The hydrogen and oxygen then reunite and become the fuel cell's only emissions - deonized water and heat.
Hydrogen fuel cells are a great fit in applications where we would traditionally find diesel. Buses and trucks, trains (2), stationary power (such as you might need at a data center), boats and ferries, and even planes!
Industry's role in carbon emissions - Globally, on average, we produce and consume more than we need to. We can fight back using consumer-led movements such as open-source and right-to-repair. Carbon Taxes such as the cap-and-trade system can also have a significant impact on emissions. These initiatives can drive all sorts of industrial innovations that can reduce our impact while still providing a healthy prosperous life for our population!
Where do we get our electricity? In BC most of our energy comes from hydroelectricity. (Photo source: The Revelstoke Dam from Jen Walker-Larson / Revelstoke Mountaineer). Another option is solar, such as can be found at the Tŝilhqot’in Solar Farm. The cost of solar has declined 80% since 2010. Australia can now meet 17% of its electricity needs using solar. Wind is another technology that has great potential in BC. In Europe, 14% of their energy comes from wind. In Germany that's gotten as high as 30%, and in Denmark where they pioneered offshore wind technology, half of their power comes from wind. The cost of wind has also declined significantly in the last ten years, and at this point per-kilowatt-hour it's cheaper to use solar or wind than it is to generate electricity from coal.
Wind Farm - photo source. Many renewable power sources like solar and wind are intermittent, so we need to consider options for energy storage.
One way we can store energy is as hydrogen, using electrolysis. They are even exploring ways to achieve this using seawater!
This solar concentrator in Nevada stores energy as molten salt.
The Polar Night system in Finland stores energy as heat in a giant sand battery.
The Centrio district cooling system they have in Chicago runs on ice batteries.
On the other side of the thermal coin is storing things at the desired temperature. Innovative materials such as aerogel, vacuum insulated panels and phase change materials can help us achieve this. But today, they're all still pretty expensive.
Hemp insulation is another intresting material we can explore in the meantime. They make this in Quebec, in the same town that used to make asbestos.
But it gets even better, because Hemp is a cover crop! Cover cropping is a type of regenerative agriculture.
Regenerative agriculture is one of the technologies where we can learn a lot from Indigenous Science. By supporting our indigenous communities in the restoration of their food systems we will be restoring our own role as humans for being protectors of the ecosystem.
Vertical gardening (photo source) is another exciting technology we can explore. We can grow food anywhere, away from the shocks of the environment as our climate changes. It requires more energy and labour, but actually requires less water than traditional farming.
And it can be scaled down to a point where almost anyone can grow some of their own food! I grew the microgreens in the photo on the left using the techniques I learned from Mike Vanduzee, whose channel I highly recommend. On the right is an example of what you can create using low-cost technologies such as raspberry pi, arduino or, in this case, an ESP32.
Let's summarize by imagining a day in the life of our sustainable future - You wake up cool and comfortable thanks to the district cooling system. It's nice and quiet because there are far fewer vehicles on the road. You're surrounded by nature, even in the city.
You're normally an event planner, but today you decide to go help the Flood Guild. You are working together to prevent catastrophic flooding by building rain gardens and swales. (These can have a huge impact!)
After a few hours of this, you go meet your friend who is working their monthly shift at the community cafeteria. There's one of these on almost every block, it's a small vertical garden and everyone works together to make sure the food is used as efficiently as possible. Since food there is free, you decide to get lunch in the nearby plaza. You run into another friend who managed to repair a projector using an open-source design that they created in the neighborhood fabrication shop.
Let's go to the library for a wild time! You borrow a telescope and then take the (electric) skytrain to the (hydogen fuel cell) seabus.
On the other side of the inlet you run into the refurb fair! Sadly, this is not a real thing... but it could be! It's loosely based on the white elephant sale in Oakland.
Enjoying the stars. Restoring indigenous forest management practices helped to reduce catastrophic wildfires. And yes, even aerogel jackets are now a thing. Nothing in this vision is out of reach with the technologies we have today. If you enjoyed this little story, solarpunk might be for you!
Thanks for reading! If you'd like to support this work, you can sign up for my patreon or sign up for Postcards from Better Future :)