Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall. 

Since the pandemic started, we’ve learned how to move our classes, meetings, and even parties online. It’s definitely convenient, but I’ve been wondering, how is all this extra time on the internet affecting our greenhouse gas emissions?

We had Harrison Katz and Ashley Junger from our Possibly team look into this question. Welcome, Harrison and Ashley!

Harrison Katz: Hi, Megan!

Ashley Junger: Hello! 

Megan Hall: So has the pandemic increased the amount of time that we’re online? 

Harrison Katz: Absolutely. In 2020, global internet use was up by about 25% compared to 2019.

Megan Hall: That’s actually not as high as I expected. 

Ashley Junger: Well, it depends on what kind of internet use you’re talking about. Check this out- the number of minutes we spent in zoom meetings went up by over 3,300%!

Harrison Katz: And online shopping in the United States increased by 50%.

Megan Hall: Ok, those are big jumps! Does all of this time online affect our greenhouse gas emissions? 

Harrison Katz: Well, researchers at MIT were wondering the same thing. In 2021, they conducted a study on the environmental impacts of using the internet. 

Megan Hall: And what did they find out? 

Ashley Junger: Our time online does have some real-world impacts. An hour-long zoom conference, for example, emits the equivalent of about a third of a pound of carbon dioxide.

Megan Hall: Is that a lot? 

Harrison Katz: Not really, even if you used Zoom for 3 hours every day for a year, that would only be responsible for about the same amount of carbon dioxide as burning 20 gallons of gasoline.

Megan Hall: Wow! So talking on Zoom is a lot better than doing everything in person? 

Ashley Junger: Exactly. Zoom may create some greenhouse gas emissions, but it’s not much compared to driving a car. 

Harrison Katz: Looking back at the start of lockdown, in March of 2020, global carbon emissions were down over 15%.

Ashley Junger: And if you consider 2020 as a whole, global carbon emissions were still down over 5% compared to 2019. All of that reduced commuting really made a difference!

Megan Hall: That’s great! Is there anything we can do to reduce our environmental impact when we’re online?

Ashley Junger: Yes. For video streaming, like Netflix, watching your movies and shows in standard definition instead of high definition reduces the environmental impact by over 80%. 

Harrison Katz: For zoom conferences, video consumes a lot more power than audio. Turning off your camera can cut your emissions by over 90%! Plus you don’t have to dress up!

Ashley Junger: And when you shop online, buy items less often and in bulk. Picking a slower delivery time can have an impact too.

Harrison Katz: But the responsibility for reducing emissions isn’t just on us. Companies like Netflix and Zoom can make a major difference by changing the way they use energy. 

Ashley Junger: This has already started to happen. In 2015, Netflix altered their code, which shrunk the file size of their movies and shows, resulting in 20% fewer emissions across the board.

Megan Hall: So, some simple changes can make a big impact?

Harrison Katz: Exactly!

Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Harrison and Ashley! 

That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. 

You can also follow us on facebook and twitter- at “ask possibly” 

Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.

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Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall. 

With the weather getting warmer, I’ve been thinking about air conditioning. I know that ACs are getting more efficient, but more people are using them too. So, are we using more or less energy on cooling our homes than we used to? 

We had Harrison Katz and Ashley Junger from our Possibly team look into this question. Welcome, Harrison and Ashley!

Harrison Katz: Hi, Megan!

Ashley Junger: Hello! 

Megan Hall: So, are we using more or less energy on air conditioning than we were in the past?

Harrison Katz: Good question! To find out, we have to pick a specific time in the past and compare it to today. 

Ashley Junger: Luckily, the United States Energy Information Administration conducts a lot of surveys on household energy use. 

Harrison Katz: The earliest survey that includes information on air conditioning and efficiency is from 1990, so we’ll start there.

Ashley Junger: And the most recent survey is from 2015, so we’ll compare those two years.

Megan Hall: So, that means we’re talking about a period of 25 years? 

Harrison Katz: Exactly. 

Megan Hall: Okay, let’s start with how many people have air conditioners. 

Ashley Junger: So, in 1990, about 70% of US households had some form of air conditioning system.

Harrison Katz: In 2015, that percentage was nearly 90%!

Megan Hall: So, about a 20% increase! And over that time, I’m assuming our population grew too? 

Harrison Katz: Yes. From 1990 to 2015, the population of the United States went up by nearly 30%, so that’s more people with more air conditioning units, on average.

Megan Hall: But, air conditioners are more efficient now, right? That has to count for something.

Ashley Junger: Right. The US Department of Energy has strict efficiency standards for electric appliances. 

Harrison Katz: Air conditioning units are rated based on something called a seasonal energy efficiency ratio, or SEER.

Ashley Junger: The SEER rating compares an air conditioning unit’s cooling abilities with the amount of electricity it uses per hour.

Megan Hall: And, have those ratings led to more efficient air conditioners? 

Harrison Katz: Yes. The average SEER rating doubled from 1990 to 2015, which means air conditioners became twice as efficient.

Megan Hall: So, we’ve got more air conditioners, but they use half as much energy? What’s the verdict? 

Harrison Katz: Well, there’s one more piece to the air conditioner equation we haven’t mentioned yet: how frequently we use them.

Ashley Junger: The average household in 2015 used their air conditioning system nearly twice as often as the average household in 1990. 

Harrison Katz: When you factor that in and crunch the numbers, that increase in usage really makes a difference. We use about 50% more energy on cooling our homes now than we did in the past. 

Megan Hall: 50% more! I would have thought the new standards would have saved us energy. 

Ashley Junger: Nope! And to put that number into context, home air conditioning systems use up about 6% of all electricity produced in the United States. 

Harrison Katz: And if you zoom out and look at air conditioning systems worldwide, they use up about 20% of all electricity produced on Earth.

Megan Hall: Ok, that’s a lot of energy! 

Harrison Katz: Right. So, even though our air conditioners are more efficient, we still have to be careful about how much we use them. For instance, only run them when you’re at home, and keep your windows closed if your AC is on. 

Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Harrison and Ashley! 

That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. 

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.

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Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall. 

Two years ago, we aired an episode responding to a question from a listener named Monica. She wanted to know if it was possible to convert her gas car into an electric one. We said it’s technically possible, but it’s not really worth it. 

Has that answer changed? 

To find out, we had Harrison Katz and Ashley Junger from our Possibly team look into this question again. Welcome Harrison and Ashley!

Harrison Katz: Hi, Megan!

Ashley Junger: Hello! 

Megan Hall: So, in our last episode on swapping engines, we said that trying to swap your car’s engine is complicated, expensive, and even dangerous. Why?

Harrison Katz: Well, There weren’t any clear, streamlined methods for this. If you wanted your car’s engine swapped, you’d really have to do it yourself.

Ashley Junger: In a gas powered car, the engine is also responsible for heating and cooling. So, it’s not as simple as just swapping motors, you’d have to rethink other parts of the car too. 

Harrison Katz: And those parts aren’t cheap. The whole process could cost more than $10,000 in parts alone.

Ashley Junger: Also, working with a car’s engine means exposing yourself to high voltages, which can be very dangerous.

Megan Hall: So what’s changed in the past 2 years?

Harrison Katz: To find out, we talked to Brian Silvestro, a staff writer for Road and Track magazine. A few months ago, he wrote an article on this topic. 

Brian Silvestro: I’d say it hasn’t changed much. But there’s a lot of stuff going on right now that suggests that it will change very soon.

Ashley Junger: Brian says that some companies, including Porsche, will perform this swap for you. 

Brian Silvestro: It’s already happening with old vintage cars. Essentially, if you have the money, it’s 100% possible. You could send your car to one of these companies right now and get your car electric swapped reliably easy, and it will work just as it did before.

Harrison Katz: Since an expert would be performing the swap for you, it’s a lot less complicated and it’s safer.

Ashley Junger: But it’s still very expensive. For someone like Monica, with a 2010 Toyota Camry, the swap would be more expensive than the car’s worth.

Megan Hall: Is that why engine swapping is mostly happening with old, vintage cars?

Harrison Katz: Yes, but Brian says it’s also because older vintage cars are a lot simpler.

Brian Silvestro: A Volkswagen Beetle is a perfect example. Because there’s no computers in the car, all you have to do is reverse, forward, and it has buttons inside. Whereas in a brand new 2020 BMW, there are so many electronics and computers that are intertwined that electric swapping would be essentially impossible without months of software work.” 

Ashley Junger: But, while some vehicles will never be good candidates for electric swapping, the overall process will get cheaper. 

Harrison Katz: Batteries and other electric vehicle parts are getting less expensive every year. And as electric swapping gets more popular, more mechanics may specialize in the process. 

Megan Hall: So, in the future, electric swapping might be worthwhile for a car like a 2010 Toyota Camry?

Ashley Junger: Maybe. But even then, it won’t be for everybody. For most people, it still makes sense to just buy a new or used electric vehicle.

Brian Silvestro: In 20 years, every car manufacturer is gonna have several electric only car offerings. I’m sure they’ll have a fit for everyone.

Megan Hall: So, what’s Brian’s advice to Monica?

Harrison Katz: She’s still probably better off just keeping her Camry until she’s ready to replace it. And then she can buy a decent used electric car for less than the cost of an engine swap. It may be becoming easier to swap your engine, but it’s probably not the best option for the average driver. 

Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Harrison and Ashley! 

That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. 

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.

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Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall. 

In recent episodes, we’ve talked a lot about electric cars, but we haven’t really spent time talking about what makes them work- the battery. What are these batteries made of, and can we rely on them to get us where we need to go? 

We had Harrison Katz and Ashley Junger from our Possibly team look into this question. Welcome Harrison and Ashley!

Harrison Katz: Hi, Megan!

Ashley Junger: Hello! 

Megan Hall: So, when I talk to people who are skeptical about electric cars, they often say something about the battery being a problem- either because of how it’s made or how far you can go on a charge. Are they right? 

Harrison Katz: Well, batteries in electric cars are definitely not perfect. 

Ashley Junger: For one. They’re expensive- if you look at the price of an electric car, a third of it goes to paying for the battery. 

Harrison Katz: Also, the greenhouse gases released from manufacturing a typical electric vehicle battery is equal to using a gas-powered car for 1-2 years.

Megan Hall: That’s a lot of money and a lot of pollution! Why are electric vehicle batteries so expensive??

Harrison Katz: To find out, we talked to Yue Qi, a Professor of Engineering at Brown University.

Ashley Junger: She says that current electric vehicle batteries are made from lithium, nickel, and cobalt. These metals are rare and hard to extract from the Earth, which contributes to both the cost and the greenhouse gas emissions. 

Yue Qi: If you look at the materials used, there’s some transition metals and oxides. The process to get them involves more resources.

Harrison Katz: Cobalt is the most expensive metal used in electric car batteries. It’s also used in cell phone batteries.

Ashley Junger: But it’s not just expensive- cobalt mines often use child labor and have extremely unsafe working conditions. 

Harrison Katz:: Because of that, electric car manufacturers are moving to use cobalt free batteries in their vehicles, and the United States Department of Energy has released a plan to eliminate Cobalt in batteries by 2030. 

Ashley Junger: That move alone would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, fight human rights violations, and make batteries cheaper.

Harrison Katz: Speaking of, electric vehicle batteries have already been getting cheaper. In the last 30 years the cost of an electric vehicle battery has dropped by 97%.

Ashley Junger: And Yue Qi says, over that same period of time, the amount of energy that electric vehicle batteries can store has tripled. 

Yue Qi: The first commercialized lithium battery started in 1991 by Sony with two materials. The energy density was close to 100 Watt hour per kilogram. Our current batteries with the same materials can be more than 200 Watt hour per kilogram, probably reached about 300.

Megan Hall: What is a Watt hour per kilogram?

Ashley Junger: It’s a way of measuring how much electricity the battery can store. The higher the Watt hours per kilogram, the better the battery.

Harrison Katz: And the better the battery, the longer you can go without charging it. 

Megan Hall: So, an electric vehicle today, compared to one in 1991, can go about three times as far without stopping to charge?

Ashley Junger: Exactly! An electric vehicle in 1991 could only travel about 80 miles before needing a recharge. Today, that number is above 250 miles.

Harrison Katz: And based on recent battery breakthroughs, the amount of energy an electric battery can hold will keep improving. Researchers are now working to develop batteries with an energy density of over 500 Watt hours per kilogram. 

Megan Hall: Wow! That would be a massive improvement!

Harrison Katz: And things are changing so fast with this technology that you should expect some more updates from the Possibly Team soon. 

Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Harrison and Ashley! 

That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. 

Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.

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Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall. 

When I was a kid, acid rain was a hot topic. Now, I never hear about it. So we wondered, why doesn’t acid rain make the headlines anymore?

We had Harrison Katz and Ashley Junger from our Possibly Team look into this. Welcome, Harrison and Ashley!

Harrison Katz: Hi, Megan!

Ashley Junger: Hello! 

Megan Hall: So, what exactly happened to acid rain?

Harrison Katz: Well, before we dive into the history of acid rain, it’s helpful to know what it actually is!

Ashley Junger: To find out, we talked to Meredith Hastings, the Deputy Director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society.

Harrison Katz: She says, acid rain is created when sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide are released into the atmosphere.

Meredith Hastings: Nitrogen oxides are released from cars, fossil fuel combustion, forest fires, and so on. And those nitrogen oxides can become nitric acid in the atmosphere. Similarly, sulfur dioxide, which is primarily released through coal burning, gets turned into sulfuric acid.

Harrison Katz: Nitric acid and Sulfuric acid, as the names suggest, are very acidic. When they mix with water in the atmosphere, they create acid rain.

Ashley Junger: And while it may not seem like a few acid molecules would change much, acid rain is actually more than ten times as acidic as normal rain.

Megan Hall: That can’t be good! What impact does that have on the environment?

Harrison Katz: One of the largest victims? Forests. Acid rain drains important nutrients like magnesium and calcium out of the soil, which makes it harder for trees and other plants to grow.

Ashley Junger: Acid rain also frees up aluminum in the ground, and aluminum in high enough doses is toxic to plants and animals.

Harrison Katz: To make things worse, on their own, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides can cause a lot of respiratory diseases in humans, including asthma, pneumonia, and lung damage. 

Megan Hall: So, why don’t we talk about acid rain anymore? 

Ashley Junger: Meredith Hastings says it’s mostly because it’s not a problem anymore, thanks to the Clean Air Act.

Meredith Hastings: In the United States, Acid Rain became a big problem in the 1980s. As a result, they passed the Clean Air Act. Acid Rain has dramatically decreased, particularly in the northeast United States, because of the Clean Air Act reducing emissions from coal combustion and vehicles. 

Megan Hall: So, acid rain doesn’t exist anymore? 

Harrison Katz: Well, The Clean Air Act led to the creation of over a hundred rain monitoring stations around the US. 

Ashley Junger: And according to data from those stations, acid rain does still happen, just not nearly as much. 

Meredith Hastings: The maps are really dramatic if you look at how much the rain has gotten more basic, and less acidic. It’s largely a success story. Has the problem completely gone away? No. But it’s really dramatically decreased. 

Harrison Katz: Other data suggests that most of the remaining acid rain is caused by nitrates used in fertilizer for farming.

Ashley Junger: While we haven’t completely fixed the problem, the Clean Air Act has really helped. In fact, it’s saved money. A report from 2011 says the Act is responsible for 22 trillion dollars in health care savings. 

Harrison Katz: That makes it one of the most cost effective pieces of legislation in history.  

Megan Hall: So it pays to clean up pollution? 

Harrison Katz: It usually does!  

Megan Hall: Thanks, Harrison and Ashley! 

That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter

Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.

“Thanks to the EPA this isn’t acid rain” by Adam Fagen licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. The original image was slightly cropped.

“Acid Rain Kills” by John Flannery licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

“Acid Rain not chocolate” by Bosumu.Images licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

“stop acid rain 1989” by Time’s Up Environmental Organization licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

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