Clever Terms
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Table of Contents
Gigaton
Welcome to our šCāLāEāVāEāRš TāEāRāMāSš series!
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First up, GIGATON! šÆ
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Gigaton is a unit of weight! We hardly see it because there are few things that weigh so much that we actually have the need to talk about!
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Gigaton is a clever term to know because when it comes to annual carbon emissions globally, human activity results in approximately 40 gigatons of CO2 released into the atmosphere. The earth absorbs about half of the emissions, the rest remains and accumulates in the atmosphere.
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Lifecycle Analysis
š”Consider an apple š!
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š® We typically see an apple at the store or farmers market, but so much happened before that for the apple to be produced, and after we consume it, the “lifecycle” of an apple will continue! Keep reading for more!
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š To get an apple, we need to grow, harvest, store, transport, consume, and dispose – it’s a long process to get to the end “product”, we know it! Each step uses energy in the form of fuel and electricity. In the case of fertilizer use, there are also emissions of another greenhouse gas called nitrous oxide. See the post for more details on each step!
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š A lifecycle analysis analyzes the carbon emissions released at each step of the lifecycle of the “product”. In the case of an apple, the average total carbon emissions throughout all the stages of the lifecycle of the apple totals to 35g!
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š„§ Aside from carbon emissions, water usage, waste production, and emissions of other greenhouse gasses (methane, nitrous oxide, etc) are other metrics that can be measured. LCA’s can be applied to anything – from food, to products, to services!
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š§ What would an LCA of a smartphone, socks, or serving of chicken, look like? What about the difference between different brands of the same category? Where are areas they could be similar or different?
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š£ An LCA is also the foundation for a carbon label. What’s a carbon label? Similar to the way a nutrition label explains the nutrition details and breakdown to the consumer, a carbon label describes the related carbon emissions for the different processes in a products lifecycle. Kudos to brands like @pantys @justsalad @nisoloshoes that perform LCAs and share the data through carbon labels!
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Want to learn more? Check out our carbon labelling guide! https://go.clevercarbon.io/label
Albedo Effect
Most of us haven’t heard of the term albedo but it’s pretty straight forward.
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āļø šļø Surfaces on earth that are effective at reflecting sunlight āļø have high ā¬ļø albedo. Ice, snow, etc, are examples. These surfaces help keep our planet cool.
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š³š Surfaces on earth that are poor at reflecting sunlight, and even absorb sunlight, have low ā¬ļø albedo. Trees and oceans are examples. These surfaces absorb heat and can contribute to rising temperatures.
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Many of earth’s high albedo surfaces are disappearing (snow, ice) due to warming global temperatures.
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Biomass
Biomass is a relatively simple term but we don’t tend to use it a lot in our daily conversations. We have a feeling however that the term will become much more common! Earth biomass, especially ocean biomass, will play a key role in removing excess carbon dioxide.
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ppm
š” Parts per million (ppm) is how we express the concentration of gasses. In the context of greenhouse gasses (GHGs), ppm represents the number of molecules of GHG (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, etc) in a million particles of air.
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šHistorical CO2 concentrations:
1920: 296 ppm
2022: 420 ppm
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š Experts say that surpassing 450 ppm of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will lead to a global temperature increase of 1.5 C.
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šŖ To stabilize global temperatures, experts say the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere needs to be at to 350 ppm.
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Scalable (gigaton) carbon removal solutions will be key to reducing carbon dioxide concentrations.
Anthropocene
Welcome to our 
C
LEVER TERMS series!
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Newest term, Anthropocene! 
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Swipe to learn more!
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