Insights and Innovations is a column featuring brief essays, Q&As, op-eds, and expert commentary on energy and environmental topics. Contributors include faculty, graduate students, and researchers from across Penn State.

Technician spraying foam insulation

Hydrofluorocarbons saved the ozone layer but are warming the earth

Switching to hydrofluorocarbons led to ozone recovery, but there are drawbacks to hydrofluorocarbons, specifically global warming. Some in the building industry have taken notice of this issue and switched to a different chemical to apply insulation.

Cover Image, Source - Transportation Sector. Quilt completed May 23, 2021, and measures 25 inches wide by 25 inches tall, in the snowball star pattern.

Communicating climate solutions at the intersections of science and art

Scientists are continually looking to expand how they communicate their science. Laura Guertin found that through art—specifically, quilting—she is able to share her science and engage in conversations around climate change.

lodgepole pines after forest fire

Wildfires: The new normal is now

In 2011, we published a paper that predicted continued warming could transform the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem by mid-Century. I had no idea that just ten years later, I would bring my children to see this magical place, only to have it shrouded in wildfire smoke.

Annual Mean Temperature Change

Why are the new climate normals abnormal?

Each decade the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) releases a new set of U.S. Climate Normals, providing thirty-year temperature and precipitation averages that contain insight about both current weather and patterns in the near future. In early May, NOAA released the Climate Normals for 1991-2020, revealing the warmest recorded period to date.

two masked women looking at their smartphones, socially distanced

Social media use and perceptions of community resiliency during the COVID-19 pandemic

The concept of resilience originated from biophysics to describe the ability of a system to rebound after disturbances. Resilience at the community level is defined by social scientists in disaster management as the capacity of a community to withstand and recover from disturbing events. Though individual agency plays an important role in constructing community resilience, a group of resilient individuals does not form a resilient community. Community resilience is greater than the summation of its individual members’ resilience. 

forest with sunlight shining though

How many trees are needed to take up the carbon dioxide I release every day?

Breathe in, and you consume oxygen. Breathe out, and you release carbon dioxide into the air. We know that burning fuels releases carbon dioxide, and our own “fuel,” or the food we eat, is no different. We capture the energy from the food we eat and then release the carbon from that food into the environment. On average, we eat about 2,000 calories a day and release about 2 pounds of carbon dioxide a day. Plants and trees use the energy in sunlight to take up carbon dioxide through their leaves and grow more biomass.