Environment

Graduate student Will Parker joins USA Today’s The Excerpt host Dana Taylor to discuss his research on the impact of climate change on space satellites. “We're seeing a cooling effect in the upper atmosphere where most of our satellites are operating, and because of that cooling effect, we're seeing that the entire atmosphere is contracting, so it's retreating away from low Earth orbit where we rely on that atmosphere for drag on our satellites,” explains Parker. “The effect of that retreat, that shrinking of the atmosphere, is that it's not doing as good a job at cleaning out low Earth orbit, and again, we rely on that cleaning force because we have no other way to remove most of this debris.” 

Anantha Chandrakasan, MIT’s chief innovation and strategy officer and dean of MIT’s School of Engineering, speaks with Boston Globe reporter Jon Chesto about the new MIT-GE Vernova Energy and Climate Alliance. “A great amount of innovation happens in academia. We have a longer view into the future,” says Chandrakasan. He adds that while companies like GE Vernova have “the ability to get products out quickly to scale up, to manufacture, we have the ability to think past the short-term. ... It’s super smart of them to surround themselves with this incredible talent in academia. That will allow us to make the kind of breakthroughs that will keep U.S. competitiveness at its peak.”

E&E News reporter Christa Marshall writes that the new MIT-GE Vernova Energy and Climate Alliance will “scale sustainable energy systems across the globe” and advance breakthrough low-carbon technologies.

MIT engineers have developed a new system that helps pesticides adhere more effectively to plant leaves, allowing farmers to use fewer chemicals without sacrificing crop protection, reports Michigan Farm News. The new technology “adds a thin coating around droplets as they are being sprayed onto a field, increasing the stickiness of pesticides by as much as a hundredfold.”

“A breakthrough from MIT researchers and AgZen, a spinoff company, is making agricultural spraying more efficient—cutting pesticide waste, lowering costs, and reducing environmental impact,” reports Rural Radio Network. “The technology works with existing sprayers, eliminating the need for costly equipment changes. In field tests, it doubled product retention on crops like soybeans and kale. AgZen’s spray-monitoring system, RealCoverage, has already helped farmers reduce pesticide use by 30 to 50 percent, and the new coating could improve efficiency even further.” 

Researchers at MIT have discovered how “greenhouse gases are impacting Earth’s upper atmosphere and, in turn, the objects orbiting within it,” reports Grace Snelling for Fast Company. “If we don’t take action to be more responsible for operating our satellites, the impact is that there are going to be entire regions of low Earth orbit that could become uninhabitable for a satellite,” says graduate student William Parker.

MIT researchers have discovered that increased greenhouse gas emissions in the Earth’s upper atmosphere can “potentially cause catastrophic satellite collision in low-Earth orbit,” reports Bruce Dorminey for Forbes. “When the thermosphere contracts, the decreasing density reduces atmospheric drag — a force that pulls old satellites and other debris down to altitudes where they will encounter air molecules and burn up,” Dorminey explains. “Less drag therefore means extended lifetimes for space junk, which will litter sought-after regions for decades and increase the potential for collisions in orbit.”  

MIT researchers have found that high levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere may increase the risk of satellite collisions, reports Sachi Kitajima Mulkey for Grist. “The environment is very cluttered already. Satellites are constantly dodging right and left,” says graduate student William Parker. “As long as we are emitting greenhouse gases, we are increasing the probability that we see more collision events between objects in space.” 

Associated Press reporter Seth Borenstein writes that MIT scientists have found that climate change could “reduce the available space for satellites in low Earth orbit by anywhere from one-third to 82% by the end of the century, depending on how much carbon pollution is spewed.” Graduate student William Parker explains: “We rely on the atmosphere to clean up our debris. There’s no other way to remove debris. It’s trash. It’s garbage. And there are millions of pieces of it.”

A new study by MIT researchers finds that “climate change could threaten the future use of satellites and significantly reduce the number of spacecraft that can safety orbit Earth,” reports Julia Jacobo for ABC News. The researchers found “global warming is causing space debris to linger above the planet for longer periods of time, leaving less space for functioning satellites and posing a growing problem for the long-term use of Earth’s orbital space,” Jacobo explains. “Reducing greenhouse gas emissions doesn't just help us on Earth, it also has the potential to protect us from long-term sustainability issues in space,” explains graduate student William Parker. 

A study by MIT scientists has found that increased greenhouse gas emissions will shrink the Earth’s upper atmosphere causing a “drop in the satellite-carrying capacity of low Earth orbit,” repots Passant Rabie for Gizmodo. “Without an atmosphere, most space debris would remain in orbit indefinitely,” Parker said. “As the atmosphere thins, debris lingers longer, increasing the risk to active satellites. With the growing consequences of space debris, we can accommodate fewer debris-generating events.”

Researchers at MIT have found that climate change could raise the risk of satellite collisions, reports Justine Calma for The Verge. “We’ve really reached the end of that era of ‘space is big,’ and I think we should stop saying that,” says graduate student, William Parker. “People don’t realize that the space sustainability issue is really an issue that impacts them directly.”

Forbes reporter Tom Teicholz spotlights the artistic work of alumna Lauren Bon. “Over the last two decades, as part of her art practice, Bon has undertaken projects that involve an exploration of urban natural resources in ways that have a positive environmental and societal impact,” writes Teicholz. 

Joe Higgins, MIT’s vice president for campus services and stewardship, speaks with Boston Globe reporter Sabrina Shankman about the Consortium for Climate Solutions, a new effort led by MIT, Harvard and Mass General Brigham to enable the development of large-scale renewable energy projects. “The science is telling us that we need to triple the amount of renewable energy on the power grids by 2030 and it’s not happening fast enough,” says Higgins. “It really came down to, we need new models … and how do we come together to do that with much greater impact, at a much greater speed?”

The Consortium for Climate Solutions, which is led by MIT, Harvard and Mass General Brigham, is enabling the development of a solar farm in Texas and a wind farm in North Dakota, which should generate enough renewable energy annually to power 130,000 homes, reports Martha Bebinger for WBUR. The effort is intended to “cut annual carbon dioxide emissions by 950,000 tons, about the equivalent of the carbon that trees covering 600,000 acres of forest would absorb in a year.”