Giuliana FAGGIO

The Non-Linearity of Cascades and Feedbacks Between The Biosphere and Society: Risk Ethics for a Climate Change Technofix

Publisher: Copernicus GmbH

Date: 15-05-2023

DOI: 10.5194/EGUSPHERE-EGU23-3746

Abstract: In light of the hysteresis and acceleration of the climate crisis, climate overshoot has only recently been acknowledged as inevitable. As the IPCC belatedly reports, current pledges are not even remotely on track to limit global warming to 1.5& #176 C above pre-industrial levels (Anderson 2015, IPCC 2018). Further, no amount of future emissions reductions can suffice to avert climate overshoot. Hence, this presentation critically analyses the proposition that a climate change technofix & #8211 namely Negative Emission Technologies (NETs) & #8211 is the only potentially efficacious means to avert runaway climate change (Carton 2020, Reynolds 2015).However, not only is the efficacy of NETs to reduce sufficient greenhouse gas concentrations highly dubious, but any such technofix requires gambling on a host of unknown unknowns & #8211 namely, the inexorable complexity of the Earth System, coupled with planetary-scale interventions in the crisis. Therein, this presentation explores the linkages between extreme climate and societal dynamics surrounding risk, offering a theoretical study from the fields of social sciences and humanities as to the non-linearity of cascades and feedbacks between the biosphere and society.To do so, I put forth a critique of how normative ethics remains anchored in rigid positions of anachronistic risk aversion, given how any attempted climate technofix entails unprecedented realms of risk and uncertainty. Using the frameworks of the Environmental Humanities, and Science & Technology Studies, I critically engage with the risk ethics of imminent climate overshoot, in relation to the interventionist gambles proposed by NETs through Synthetic Biology and Climate Engineering. Given the scale of the unknown unknowns unleashed by the Anthropocene, I present gambling as the most apt analogy for both the absurdity (and denied imminence) of the existential predicament, as well as the sheer improbability that any technofix can be invented in a sufficiently short time and implemented on a sufficiently large scale.Given the profound social, cultural and ethical dimensions that this entails, discussion will include an overview of outreach activities I have undertaken as a Chief Investigator at the Australian Research Council Centre for Excellence in Synthetic Biology, including the At Risk in the Climate Crisis symposium and podcast series that I co-produced in 2021-22. Overall, in the context of the rapidly diminishing prospect for any efficacious environmental action, the presentation contemplates the unthinkable questions that our current situation demands we ask, and perhaps even try to answer.

Taguchi optimized synthesis of graphene films by copper catalyzed ethanol decomposition

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Date: 2014

DOI: 10.1016/J.DIAMOND.2013.11.006

Rapid and highly efficient growth of graphene on copper by chemical vapor deposition of ethanol

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Date: 11-2014

DOI: 10.1016/J.TSF.2014.09.040

Drawing a Line in the Sand

Publisher: Equinox Publishing

Date: 12-2012

DOI: 10.1017/QRE.2022.14

Abstract: What conservation could possibly become commensurate with the rates of human-induced biophysical change unfolding at the advent to the Sixth Extinction Event? Any such conservation would require time-critical interventions into both ecosystems and evolution itself, for these interventions would also require domains of risk and ethics that shatter normative understandings of conservation. Yet a line appears to have been drawn in the sand against such experimental conservation. Holding the line will retain conservation practices that are null and void against the extinction debt facing multitudes of species. Crossing the line would invoke scales of bioengineering that appear abhorrent to normative morality. This article explores the question of whether this line in the sand could, and should, be crossed through a detailed case study of current and proposed conservation for endangered Chelonia mydas sea turtles on Raine Island, a small coral cay on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Chelonia mydas and Raine Island are presented as synecdoche for conservation across erse species across the world because turtles are among the most endangered of all reptiles and Raine Island is the largest and most important rookery in the world for this species. With such lines disappearing under the rising seas, the article contemplates the unthinkable questions that our current situation demands we ask, and perhaps even try to answer.

High-Temperature Growth of Graphene Films on Copper Foils by Ethanol Chemical Vapor Deposition

Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)

Date: 07-10-2013

DOI: 10.1021/JP407013Y

Shifting Baselines: Conveying Climate Change in Popular Music

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Date: 14-09-2017

DOI: 10.1080/17524032.2017.1371051

Restoring subtidal marine macrophytes in the Anthropocene: trajectories and future-proofing

Publisher: CSIRO Publishing

Date: 2019

DOI: 10.1071/MF18226

Abstract: Anthropogenic activities have caused profound changes globally in bio ersity, species interactions and ecosystem functions and services. In terrestrial systems, restoration has emerged as a useful approach to mitigate these changes, and is increasingly recognised as a tool to fortify ecosystems against future disturbances. In marine systems, restoration is also gaining traction as a management tool, but it is still comparatively scant and underdeveloped relative to terrestrial environments. Key coastal habitats, such as seaweed forests and seagrass meadows are showing widespread patterns of decline around the world. As these important ecosystems increasingly become the target of emerging marine restoration c aigns, it is important not only to address current environmental degradation issues, but also to focus on the future. Given the rate at which marine and other environments are changing, and given predicted increases in the frequency and magnitude of multiple stressors, we argue for an urgent need for subtidal marine macrophyte restoration efforts that explicitly incorporate future-proofing in their goals. Here we highlight emerging scientific techniques that can help achieve this, and discuss changes to managerial, political and public frameworks that are needed to support scientific innovation and restoration applications at scale.

Fast growth of polycrystalline graphene by chemical vapor deposition of ethanol on copper

Publisher: IEEE

Date: 10-2014

DOI: 10.1109/NMDC.2014.6997424

The Role of Graphene‐Based Derivative as Interfacial Layer in Graphene/n‐Si Schottky Barrier Solar Cells

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 21-12-2018

DOI: 10.1002/PSSA.201800555

Nitrogen-doped graphene films from chemical vapor deposition of pyridine: influence of process parameters on the electrical and optical properties

Publisher: Beilstein Institut

Date: 14-10-2015

DOI: 10.3762/BJNANO.6.206

Abstract: Graphene films were produced by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of pyridine on copper substrates. Pyridine-CVD is expected to lead to doped graphene by the insertion of nitrogen atoms in the growing sp 2 carbon lattice, possibly improving the properties of graphene as a transparent conductive film. We here report on the influence that the CVD parameters (i.e., temperature and gas flow) have on the morphology, transmittance, and electrical conductivity of the graphene films grown with pyridine. A temperature range between 930 and 1070 °C was explored and the results were compared to those of pristine graphene grown by ethanol-CVD under the same process conditions. The films were characterized by atomic force microscopy, Raman and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The optical transmittance and electrical conductivity of the films were measured to evaluate their performance as transparent conductive electrodes. Graphene films grown by pyridine reached an electrical conductivity of 14.3 × 10 5 S/m. Such a high conductivity seems to be associated with the electronic doping induced by substitutional nitrogen atoms. In particular, at 930 °C the nitrogen/carbon ratio of pyridine-grown graphene reaches 3%, and its electrical conductivity is 40% higher than that of pristine graphene grown from ethanol-CVD.

Recent Advancements on the CVD of Graphene on Copper from Ethanol Vapor

Publisher: MDPI AG

Date: 19-03-2020

DOI: 10.3390/C6010014

Abstract: Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on metal foils is regarded as the most effective method to produce large-area graphene with properties in line with the requirements of an extensive range of electronic and optical applications. For the CVD of graphene, ethanol is a versatile carbon source alternative to the widely used methane. In this review we report on the current progress in this field showing how the CVD parameters can be modulated to gain full microstructural control on graphene grown on Cu foils. Using ethanol vapor, graphene can be grown as a continuous film with mono- or multi-layer thickness, and also in the form of isolated crystals on pre-oxidized Cu substrates. Overall, ethanol-CVD allows a controllable degree of crystallinity and tunable electrical/optical characteristics in the grown s les. In turn, this control translates into a superior versatility for device design and related applications.

Carbon Dots Dispersed on Graphene/SiO₂/Si: A Morphological Study

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 07-01-2019

DOI: 10.1002/PSSA.201800559

Chemical Vapor Deposited Graphene-Based Derivative As High-Performance Hole Transport Material for Organic Photovoltaics

Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)

Date: 30-08-2016

DOI: 10.1021/ACSAMI.6B06749

Abstract: The development of efficient charge transport layers is a key requirement for the fabrication of efficient and stable organic solar cells. A graphene-based derivative with planar resistivity exceeding 10(5) Ω/□ and work function of 4.9 eV is here produced by finely tuning the parameters of the chemical vapor deposition process on copper. After the growth, the film is transferred to glass/indium tin oxide and used as hole transport layer in organic solar cells based on a PBDTTT-C-T:[70]PCBM blend. The cells attained a maximum power conversion efficiency of 5%, matching reference cells made with state-of-the-art PSS as the hole transport layer. Our results indicate that functionalized graphene could represent an effective alternative to PSS as hole transport/electron blocking layer in solution-processed organic photovoltaics.

UNSW Sydney

Location: Australia

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Australian National University

Location: Australia

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Università Degli Studi Mediterranea Di Reggio Calabria

Location: Italy

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Western Sydney University

Location: Australia

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University Of Sydney

Location: Australia

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Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP160102648

Start Date: 04-2016

End Date: 09-2019

Amount: $431,150.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

ARC Centres Of Excellence - Grant ID: CE200100029

Start Date: 11-2020

End Date: 11-2027

Amount: $35,000,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council