Craig told you the good news:Climate change is only one of

the issuesSally Brown

• I went to the IUSS meeting in Brisbane, Australia this August and heard some really moving presentations.

• I’m going to show some of the images from the talk that made the biggest impression

Next 6 slides Will Steffen, Executive Director Australian National University Climate Change Institute

The Anthropocene EraNew geological era brought on by

impact of humans on earth processes

Aborigines arrive inAustralia

Beginningof agriculture

Great Europeancivilisations:Greek, Roman

Geological time-scale doesn’t register the Tea

Party

Source: GRIP ice core data (Greenland)And S. Oppenheimer, ”Out of Eden”, 2004

First migration of fully modern humans

out of Africa

Migrations offully modern humans

from South Asia to Europe

Another way to look at Geological timeAnd this is a log scale picture

From Steffen et al. 2004

AnthropoceneStage 2

(1945 - 2010/2020)

The changing ’humanenterprise’, from 1750

to 2000.

Note the start of the’Great Acceleration’ around 1950, when

many activities beganor accelerated sharply.

From: Steffen et al. 2004

Responses of the biophysical Earth System to the accelerating ’human enterprise’.

The biophysical responsesof the Earth System showmany of the same featuresas the Great Accelerationin the human enterprise.

Estimate of quantitative evolution of control variables for seven planetary boundaries from pre-industrial levels to the present . The inner (green) shaded nonagon represents the safe operating space with proposed boundary levels at its outer contour. The extent of the wedges for each boundary shows the estimate of current position of the control variable. Points show the estimated time trajectory of each control variable from pre-industrial to the present.

• In addition to Dr. Steffen’s talk, I heard other talks about issues that we are facing in the upcoming decades. – Exhausting world P reserves– Food shortages– Potable water shortages– Depleted soils

Were some of the big ones

For all of this:The real problem

The real solution

Population growth is expected to start

decreasing- but this will take generations

In the interim we will have to deal with:

• Water shortages • Dramatic changes in weather

patterns• Need to identify green energy

sourcesdepleted soils

• Increased urbanization• Increased demand for agricultural

production

The answers to these problems• Will need to be multiple and varied• No silver bullet- aside from

massive/rapid population loss which we really don’t want

So how do you fit in?

• In an era of plentiful resources- WWTP primary mission to make disease free water regardless of energy required

• In the ‘Anthropocene’- time for a new perspective

Look at• The different parts of Wastewater

treatment• How they fit in to a solution to the

‘Anthropocene’

Anaerobic Digestion• Vector attraction

reduction• VS destruction• Pathogen destructionOh, and by the way,

you can capture the methane….

Can be energy factory(oh and by the way you kill pathogens)

• WWTPs are the single largest user of electricity for a municipality

• Anaerobic digestion of standard influent can supply ≈ 50% of electric demand

• Co-digestion can supply ≥ 100% of demand and be net source of power

Waco, TX

You can be a reliable, regulated water source

And then you have the biosolids

With the biosolids you have• Fertilizer

– 2-7% N, 1-3% P, and all other required nutrients for plant growth

– N is available in a slow release form– N and P availability from biosolids has

been extensively studied– And our results are showing that N2O

release is not an issue in some cases and can be reduced in others

With the biosolids you have• Carbon for soils

– Research by Kate Kurtz and Andrew Trlica (and others) have shown persistence of biosolids added carbon to soils

– Terrestrial carbon sequestration is one of the best options we have

– Added benefit-• Adding carbon to soils improves soil water

holding capacity

  Carbon Nitrogen Water  Mg ha % 1 bar

Control 17.33 0.08 0.09Biosolids 25.6 0.13 0.1

% Change 148 163 111

BiosolidsChelan, WA

•17 Mg of C per hectare•0.44 Mg C per Mg biosolids

a

ba

ba

ns

a

a

ac

bc

b

b

bb

GP17

Year1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008

Grain

Yiel

d, b

u/a

20

30

40

50

60

70

80 no f ertilizer50 lb/ a inorganic f ertilizer3 dt/ a biosolids

Boulder ParkGrain yield 1996-2008- Cogger

Wastewater treatment• Is already and can be an even more

effective part of the solution• So please, don’t let anyone convince

you that you are part of the problem