Translator: Michele Gianella Reviewer: Cecilia Bernabeni
Hello everyone.
I wanted to start this quick presentation -
one of a series
that contribute, precisely, to raise the awareness
and get us more and more involved in fighting climate change -
by showing you this little terrarium that my daughter builds.
In this jar, which contains a little piece of nature,
you can see all the strength and fragility
that nature itself and our entire planet has.
We can see here inside
a small ecosystem where everything works correctly.
Waste,
which are sometimes oxygen, sometimes CO2,
are completely recycled.
Even the water itself,
which is evaporated by the soil and transpired by the plants,
then re-precipitates and simulates the pattern of our climate.
To this force, which shows us how capable nature is
of operating autonomously,
also corresponds a weakness, however,
one that the owners of a terrarium know very well.
In a sense,
building a terrarium is notoriously hard.
Many who have tried to do so, inadvertently killed it.
Plus, many have also exposed the terrarium, perhaps,
to either too much, or too little light.
And this has, in general, caused a kind of death.
This terrarium simulates, then, a little bit of what our planet is.
But does it fully simulate it?
Well, maybe not.
What we've been noticing recently
is that because of anthropogenic activities
many of the actions that require, and support human activities,
have somehow altered the balance of our planet,
so that the terrarium - which could be our Earth -
no longer works as before.
Specifically, what we have altered
is precisely our planet's energy balance.
And from this point of view, I wanted to show you this graph
which expresses the trend of energy within our planet.
See here in this large graph,
the amount and flow of energy coming from the Sun.
That right square represents
the amount of solar energy that powers the climate system.
From a certain point of view,
currents, rivers, rain, the evaporation of water,
the movement of winds
and the movement of the air, atmosphere and sea currents
are all generated by this energy coming from the sun.
But those who look carefully
see a small square in the upper right corner.
That little square there are the other energy flows:
only 0.2%,
if we make 100 percent the net energy coming from the Sun.
In this 0.2%, if we expand this square,
we find other flows:
the energetic flows, for example, arising from the magnetism of the Moon -
from the gravity of the Moon, sorry;
and the fluxes resulting from photosynthesis,
in that big green rectangle green that you see there.
Next to these,
there are also the flows that man will generate:
the energy that man produces through his activities.
You see, it is only a very small fraction
of the total energy flowing around the Earth.
But to produce that little energy,
we have been able to generate a series of alterations
that are mainly related, precisely, to the greenhouse effect,
the radioactive forcing -
that is, the increase of greenhouse gases on the planet
that cause a progressive increase of the Sun's energy,
which is retained on the Earth;
and so that has impacts, obviously, on our climate.
What can we conclude from this graph?
Well, two things:
the first thing refers to the left square, the yellow one.
There is a huge amount of renewable energy
that we can use.
Solar energy, solar panels, wind power alone
are definitely gaining steam, momentum,
all across the planet.
The other thing we must see, and can see from this graph,
is this imbalance
between the energy we need,
that we need to produce,
and the energy that we cause and we use or produce
as an alteration within the climate system.
To reduce this impact, then,
not only we must become more sustainable,
consume less energy per capita
and emit fewer greenhouse gases;
but it is also necessary
to repair all the damage
that have already been caused up to now,
i.e. we remedy the increase of greenhouse gases,
that we have actually increased since the pre-industrial age.
We know, and you know -
You have it, it's already been repeated in so many presentations -
that the concentration of carbon dioxide
as the main greenhouse gas
has increased in the last 30, 40 years from 280 parts per million to over 400.
What needs to be done, then, to reduce greenhouse gases?
Four different types of intervention have been proposed.
The first is, let's say, a very technological one,
and it's about building artificial trees
that use solar energy to store carbon dioxide,
to turn carbon dioxide in a liquid, or even solid form,
which can then be stored,
warehoused in reserves that are no longer "mobile",
within the oil wells or in the depths of the ocean.
The second type
is that of afforestation and reforestation:
trees, through photosynthesis,
much like in our terrarium,
actually use the sun's energy to take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
and turn it into terrestrial biomass.
The third technology has a strange name.
It's called BECCS: Bio Energy Carbon Capture Sequestration:
i.e. energy with storage and carbon sequestration.
It essentially consists
of using biomass produced through photosynthesis,
and producing a certain amount of energy:
but simultaneously,
to capture emissions that are in the form of carbon dioxide
and store them within the greenhouse gases also.
What I wanted to propose instead today
is something that is very similar to BECCS,
but it is something that we can do at home.
We can do simply - or at least,
each of us can contribute without having a large facility.
And it's actually based on this thing I'll show you here,
being able to produce coal in a simple way,
and also with an electrical appliance
which in many households has now become commonplace.
We learned to do this not a short time ago:
is an experience that comes to us from our work in Africa,
where we built the stove that you see here,
a burner that you see here in operation.
It runs on biomasses, the ones that you see here:
e.g. waste,
palm oil processing waste;
coffee waste
or other vegetal waste
to produce this fire.
It is a very interesting fire
because, as you can see, it doesn't produce any smoke at all:
is very clean.
And this burner is, also, very efficient
from the point of view of energy conduction.
This same stove that you see here, this very pyrolytic plant,
can also be used and applied
within traditional household appliances -
that is, inside real stoves
that can be storage heaters
or similar to pellet stoves
that already entered our homes.
What is the difference between this stove and a traditional pellet one?
Well, at the end of the pyrolytic process,
which is what produces this gas,
that you see burning with this yellow flame here in the stove -
no ash, but coal, remains inside the stove.
In this case, here you see some pieces of coal
that have been produced inside stoves
made either in Africa or in Europe.
We can therefore imagine using agricultural waste,
or agro-industrial waste,
to simultaneously produce heat and also pieces of coal.
This coal, which we can produce inside our stove,
is basically the carbon dioxide that used to be in the atmosphere.
which has become plant biomass - and therefore no longer a greenhouse gas -
which then became coal.
A coal that is obviously a very stubborn substance,
that is hard to decompose
and get spit as carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.
And that's what makes it
a very effective method of storing carbon.
This coal has another distinctive feature:
inside many soils,
can contribute to increase their fertility.
Certainly, in African soils this effect has already been proven:
but also in our soils, or in the soils of the home garden
can be a very effective element to improve the structure of the soil.
So, what's the idea?
The idea that each of us can use biomass,
ones that are not derived
from the destruction of plantations and forests:
those could remain where they are
doing their carbon accumulation job.
But they use biomass that would otherwise decompose,
like straw, like corn scraps, like olive pomace.
Which, once turned into pellets,
can be used inside these stoves -
no high quality pellets are required -
and therefore can contribute to generate coal,
which represents, once put in the garden,
our small system of carbon storage sequestration
with which we can contribute mitigate the greenhouse effect.
To wrap up this speech of mine:
perhaps some of you have glimpsed, in this description of mine,
the possibility of building a value supply chain,
of pellet production, production of new stoves,
of coal recovery or coal reuse as a soil conditioner,
or even as activated carbon to filter air and water.
But that was not my intent.
My intent was
to effectively compel all the people
to take immediate action regarding this issue.
It's something that we can't put off any longer,
it is something that we don't necessarily delegate
to large corporations and large institutions.
I'm not saying, though,
I want to leave this responsibility to individuals, that's clear;
And I take the chance to make an appeal
also to those who have the possibility to steer society in that direction.
Obviously, a political intervention
that in some way promotes these types of activities,
that creates a consensus around these types of activities,
is essential to be able to then implement
an effective mitigation response.
Thank you.