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RSID: <<2023-09-07T23:31Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>


Welcome to program 321 of Shortwave Radiogram.

I'm Kim Andrew Elliott in Arlington, Virginia USA.

Here is the lineup for today's program, in MFSK modes as noted:

  1:43 MFSK32: Program preview (now)
  2:51 MFSK32: France calls for minimum price on flights
  5:08 MFSK64: Electrifying heavy-duty vehicles in urban areas*
13:52 MFSK64: This week's images*
28:33 MFSK32: Closing announcements

* with image(s)


Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

We're on Twitter now: @SWRadiogram




From TechXplore:

France calls for minimum price on European flights

AFP
August 30, 2023

France's transport minister called Wednesday for a minimum price
for plane flights in Europe to battle climate change.

Transport Minister Clement Beaune said in an interview with the
weekly L'Obs that he would submit such a proposal to his EU
counterparts in the coming days.

"Plane tickets for 10 euros when we're in the midst of the
ecological transition, that's no longer possible," Beaune told
the magazine.

"That doesn't reflect the price for the planet," he added.

Low-cost airlines made major inroads in Europe by offering
rock-bottom fares on some routes, with Ryanair becoming the
region's largest airline.

But the low fares sometimes don't cover costs, and flying emits
more greenhouse gases than traveling by train.

"I openly call for taxing polluting activities to invest in the
ecological transition," said Beaune, adding that the government
plans to increase the tax on flights departing France to fund
rail investments.

Increased levies on companies managing France's highways and on
airline tickets are likely figure in the 2024 budget due to be
unveiled at the end of September.

Low-cost airlines have also been a source of controversy in
France over their wages and labor practices.

https://techxplore.com/news/2023-08-france-minimum-price-european-flights.html
 

Shortwave Radiogram now changes to MFSK64 ...
 

RSID: <<2023-09-07T23:35Z MFSK-64 @ 9265000+1500>>
 

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From Northwestern University:

Electrifying heavy-duty vehicles could reduce environmental
inequalities

New study examines air quality, health implications at
equity-relevant geographic scales

By Amanda Morris
September 5, 2023

If the region surrounding Chicago -- North America's largest
freight hub -- shifted just 30% of its current on-road heavy-duty
vehicles to electric versions, it would substantially reduce
pollution and save hundreds of lives per year, with the benefits
largely concentrated in disadvantaged communities, according to a
new Northwestern University-led study.

The study authors highlight that neighborhoods with predominantly
Black, Hispanic and Latinx residents would benefit the most --
potentially reducing disproportionate pollution and health
burdens in historically marginalized areas.

Although the study specifically focuses on the lower Great Lakes
region (including Chicago, Milwaukee and Grand Rapids, Michigan),
these findings hint that electrifying heavy-duty vehicles across
the nation could help reduce long-standing environmental
injustices related to pollutant impact disparities in major
metropolitan areas.

The study was published in the journal Nature Sustainability.

"Heavy-duty vehicles only constitute a small portion of the total
on-road vehicle fleet -- about 6% -- but they disproportionately
contribute to the emission and/or creation of health-harming air
pollutants and greenhouse gases," said Northwestern's Sara
Camilleri, who led the study. "In fact, the heavy-duty vehicle
sector is the largest contributor to on-road nitrogen oxides and
second largest source of on-road carbon dioxide emissions.
Targeting this small portion of vehicles could have outsized
implications for emission reductions."

"When designing policies, optimizing beneficial impacts is
ideal," added Northwestern's Daniel Horton, the study's senior
author. "Of course, incentivizing the electrification of
passenger vehicles is important given their sheer numbers. But,
from an impact perspective, our study suggests that it also makes
sense to incentivize transitioning fossil fuel-powered heavy-duty
vehicles to electric vehicles because they have such negative
consequences for the climate and for human health, particularly
in disadvantaged communities."

Horton is an assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences
at Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, where he
directs the Climate Change Research Group. Camilleri is a
postdoctoral scholar in Horton's laboratory.
Tracking pollution region-by-region

To conduct the study, the researchers looked to a high-resolution
air quality model previously developed in Horton's lab. The model
simulates and quantifies pollution levels by neighborhood,
tracking hour-by-hour levels of nitrogen dioxide, ozone and
particulate matter across areas as small as one kilometer.

The simulations provide neighborhood-scale estimates of air
quality over the region by combining high-resolution emissions
data with simulated meteorology to show how air pollutants
chemically interact and accumulate -- across time and space --
throughout Chicago and surrounding areas. Not only does this
approach show where different pollutants form, it also shows how
pollutants spread, interact with other gases and sunlight in the
air and change according to seasons.

In the new research, Horton's group first ran the air quality
model -- without making any adjustments -- to establish a
baseline of pollution levels throughout the region. To
characterize the residents within each census tract, Camilleri,
Horton and their team used American Community Survey information
for population and demographic data and incorporated mortality
rates derived from health data by Industrial Economics, Inc.

Then, Camilleri ran the simulation again. But, this time, she
removed 30% of tailpipe, refueling and extended idling emissions
from heavy-duty vehicles -- a class that includes municipal
buses, school buses, refuse trucks, short- and long-haul trucks
and motor homes. She also estimated increases in emissions at
power plants due to the increase in electricity demand needed for
charging the vehicles' batteries.

The results were striking.

If 30% of heavy-duty vehicles were converted to electric-powered
versions -- and the power required to charge their batteries came
from the 2016 energy-generation infrastructure -- reductions in
on-road emissions would far outweigh increases at power plants.
Pollution concentrations would decrease throughout the region,
with the exception of increases in ground-level ozone in urban
areas.

Even though the experiments presented in this study assume
reliance on the 2016 electric grid, which includes a substantial
fraction of fossil fuel-based electricity generation, net carbon
dioxide emissions would still decrease by about 2.5 million
tonnes (or 2.76 million tons) per year.

Across the region, reduction of traffic-related pollution would
result in a decrease of about 590 premature deaths per year due
to reduced nitrogen dioxide concentrations and a decrease of
about 70 premature deaths per year from particulate matter
reductions. Premature deaths from ozone, however, would increase
by about 50 deaths per year.

"The health benefits from reductions in nitrogen dioxide are
still so high -- irrespective of the increase in ozone -- that
the overall benefits are substantial," Camilleri said. "The
chemistry that controls ozone pollution is complicated, and
additional measures to regulate volatile organic compounds may be
needed."

According to the results presented in this study, predominantly
Black, Hispanic and Latinx populations would experience the
largest health benefits. Traffic-related pollution can trigger a
variety of health problems, including asthma, emphysema, chronic
bronchitis, heart disease and ultimately premature death. Air
pollution from heavy-duty vehicles is higher in urban settings,
in areas close to interstate highways and along truck routes.
Most people living within 300 feet of major road networks in the
United States are people of color.

"When we estimate health benefits, we do not solely look at where
the concentrations of pollutants decrease," Camilleri said. "We
also look at the susceptibility of the population. These
populations might have higher occurrences of underlying health
conditions, like asthma and respiratory disease. They might not
have access to regular health care or the financial stability to
seek treatments for these underlying conditions."

"Many of the largest benefits we see occur in disinvested
communities," Horton added. "Systemic disadvantages and barriers
within these communities can increase residents' susceptibility
to poor air quality. Improvements in air quality in these areas
can therefore have outsized positive effects."

The researchers assigned dollar values to the avoided health and
climate damages by applying the social cost of carbon and value
of statistical life metrics to their results. These commonly used
policy tools attach a price tag to long-term health and
environmental damages.

With the current power grid, the researchers estimate $5.7
billion and $0.6 billion in avoided annual health costs related
to nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter reductions,
respectively. But the slight increase in ozone levels would cause
an additional cost of $0.5 billion annually.

The avoided carbon dioxide-related damages would save $456
million per year. This result highlights the higher financial
savings from health co-benefits, which are often overlooked in
climate mitigation policies.

The number of lives and dollars saved would increase drastically
if the power grid shifted to incorporate more emissions-free
electricity sources (like wind and solar). For example, if the
additional electricity required to power 30% adoption of electric
heavy-duty vehicles came from renewable sources, the region would
save $1.4 billion per year due to lesser carbon dioxide
emissions, compared to the $456 million saved with the current
grid composition.

"Electric heavy-duty vehicle adoption not only reduces the
greenhouse gas emissions that drive human-caused climate change,
it also saves lives and helps tackle historical inequities in
pollutant exposure," Horton said. "While electric-vehicle
adoption won't solve all of our collective climate, air quality
and environmental justice problems, it does offer a number of
benefits relative to our current fossil-fuel intensive
transportation system."

The study, "Air quality, health and equity implications of
electrifying heavy-duty vehicles," was conducted in collaboration
with researchers from George Washington University, the
University of Notre Dame and the Lake Michigan Air Directors
Consortium and was supported by the National Science Foundation,
the Environmental Defense Fund, the McCormick Center for
Engineering Sustainability and Resilience and the Ubben Program
for Carbon and Climate Science at the Paula M. Trienens Institute
for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern.

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2023/09/electrifying-heavy-duty-vehicles-could-reduce-environmental-inequalities/
 

Image: An Electric Refuse Vehicle (garbage truck) in Chicago,
designed by Motiv Power Systems ...

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This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net
 

This week's images ...


Doughnut Teapot (1938) manufactured by Hall China Company of East
Liverpool, Ohio. https://tinyurl.com/26p7dh4z ...

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A rare glistening-green tanager (Chlorochrysa phoenicotis) in the
Mashpi Amagusa reserve, Ecuador. https://tinyurl.com/23prwlrj ...

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The neon sign of Tai Tung, Seattle's oldest chinese restaurant.
https://tinyurl.com/249cnk8e and taitungrestaurant.com ...

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A waning gibbous moon rises behind the Empire State Building, lit
in red, white, and blue to mark Labor Day weekend in New York
City, as seen from Hoboken, New Jersey.
https://tinyurl.com/2d6oc3kc ...

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A winter morning in Victoria, Australia (where it is still
winter). https://tinyurl.com/2akn27q2 ...

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Television transmitting towers at sunset in Northwest Washington
DC. https://tinyurl.com/246we5xt ...

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The meteor visible in the eastern USA, caught while photographing
sunflowers at night, September 3. https://tinyurl.com/24z6639c
...

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The first fall colors are appearing in Kandiyohi County,
Minnesota. https://tinyurl.com/2benjgcr ...

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Our painting of the week is a detail of "Father and Daughter"
(2023) by Christopher Griffin (Canadian).
https://tinyurl.com/2376lzq9 ...

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Shortwave Radiogram returns to MFSK32 ...

 

RSID: <<2023-09-07T23:58Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>