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Where Does Charcoal, or Black Carbon, in Soils Go?

By Guest PostMay 2, 2013Environmentbiochar technology, black carbon, bonanza creek, carbon cycle, carbon sequestration, charcoal, climate change, ecology, environmental factors, environmental fate, everglades, fate of charcoal, florida international university, georgia coastal ecosystems, german, Germany, global carbon budget, global scale, hubbard brook, konza prairie, marine geochemistry, max planck society, national science foundation, organic carbon, rudolf jaffe, saran twombly, soils, thorsten dittmar, university oldenburg, yan ding

Scientists find surprising new answers in wetlands such as the Everglades

Scientists have uncovered one of nature’s long-kept secrets–the true fate of charcoal in the world’s soils.

The ability to determine the fate of charcoal is critical to knowledge of the global carbon budget, which in turn can help understand and mitigate climate change.

However, until now, researchers only had scientific guesses about what happens to charcoal once it’s incorporated into soil. They believed it stayed there.

Surprisingly, most of these researchers were wrong. (more…)

Cutting Specific Atmospheric Pollutants Would Slow Sea Level Rise

By Guest PostApril 25, 2013Environmentaixue hu, amsterdam, anjuli bamzai, atmospheric pollutants, black carbon, boulder, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide emissions, claudia tebaldi, climate central, climate change, computer model, effect, geochemistry, greenhouse gases, heat trapping pollutants, hydrofluorocarbons, important factor, melting ice, methane, miami, mumbai, NASA, national science foundation, ncar, new york, noaa, rising oceans, san diego, scientist, sea-level rise, sio, soot in exhaust, this century, tokyo, tropospheric ozone, us epa, veerabhadran ramanathan, yangyang x

Decreasing emissions of black carbon, methane and other pollutants makes a difference

With coastal areas bracing for rising sea levels, new research indicates that cutting emissions of certain pollutants can greatly slow sea level rise this century.

Scientists found that reductions in four pollutants that cycle comparatively quickly through the atmosphere could temporarily forestall the rate of sea level rise by roughly 25 to 50 percent.

The researchers focused on emissions of four heat-trapping pollutants: methane, tropospheric ozone, hydrofluorocarbons and black carbon. (more…)

Changes in Cloud Distribution Explain Some Weather Patterns

By Guest PostMarch 4, 2013Environmentability to reflect, atmospheric sciences, black carbon, change in clouds, changes in cloud, climate change, cloud cover, cloud features, cloud properties, cumuliform clouds, distribution, global warming, heavy pollution, homogeneous, horizontal clouds, impact on temperature, jet stream, light, mid latitude, monsoons in india, northern india, rainfall, regional cloud changes, russia, ryan eastman, scientist, stephen warren, storm track, study clouds, thickness, tropics, university of washington, volume of data, weather patterns, weather stations

Regional cloud changes, such as those that result in less rain during monsoons in India and those that indicate a widening of the tropics, may be as important to watch as the overall amount of cloud cover, new University of Washington research indicates.

Authors of the paper, led by Ryan Eastman, a UW research scientist in atmospheric sciences, set out to examine observations collected from weather stations around the world as a way to study the distribution of clouds. The research was recently published in the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate. (more…)

Despite Efforts for Change, Bangladeshi Women Prefer to Use Pollution-Causing Cookstoves

By Guest PostJuly 2, 2012Environment, Generalanimal dung, bangladeshi district, bangladeshi household, bangladeshi women, biomass, black carbon, cooking, cookstove, environmental impact, flooding, greenhouse gas, hatiya, health risk, jamlpur, mushfiq mobarak, pollution causing, puneet dwivedi, robert bailis, rural bangladesh, traditional stove, women, yale study, yale university

Women in rural Bangladesh prefer inexpensive, traditional stoves for cooking over modern ones — despite significant health risks, according to a Yale study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A large majority of respondents (94%) believed that indoor smoke from the traditional stoves is harmful. Still, Bangladeshi women opted for traditional cookstove technology so they could afford basic needs.

“Non-traditional cookstoves might be more successful if they were designed with features valued more highly by users, such as reducing operating costs even if they might not reduce environmental impact,” said Mushfiq Mobarak, a co-author and associate professor of economics at the Yale School of Management. (more…)

Measuring the “Other” Greenhouse Gases: Higher Than Expected Levels of Methane in California

By Guest PostJune 16, 2012Environmentanthropogenic, atmospheric lifetime, berkeley lab, black carbon, california, carb, carbon dioxide, central valley, ch4 emissions, climate pollutant, CO2, coal mines, decomposition, environment policy, fossil fuel, fraction, global warming, greenhouse gas, halocarbon gases, landfills, livestock ranches, man made source, map, marc l fischer, methane, methane emissions, methane signals, natural sources, nitrous oxide, noaa, organic matter, refrigerants, sacramento, seongeun jeong, soot, sound energy, spatial, temporal resolution, united states, walnut grove

Berkeley Lab scientists develop new method for evaluating short-lived pollutants.

New research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has found that levels of methane—a potent greenhouse gas emitted from many man-made sources, such as coal mines, landfills and livestock ranches—are at least one-and-a-half times higher in California than previously estimated.

Working with scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Berkeley Lab scientists Marc L. Fischer and Seongeun Jeong combined highly accurate methane measurements from a tower with model predictions of expected methane signals to revise estimated methane emissions from central California. They found that annually averaged methane emissions in California were 1.5 to 1.8 times greater than previous estimates, depending on the spatial distribution of the methane emissions. (more…)

Diesel Technologies Drastically Cut Emissions in Real-World Conditions

By Guest PostApril 23, 2012Environmentblack carbon, catalytic reduction, chris frey, climate change, diesel engine, emission, emissions, environmental consequence, environmental impact, fuel, gurdas sandhu, human health, low level ozone, measurement system, nitrogen oxides, nox, nox emission, particulate matter, per gallon, pm, pollutant, tractor trailer trucks

New research from North Carolina State University shows that federal requirements governing diesel engines of new tractor trailer trucks have resulted in major cuts in emissions of particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) – pollutants that have significant human health and environmental impacts.

“These requirements for new emission control technologies have increased costs for truck owners and operators, and we wanted to know whether there was any real benefit,” says Dr. Chris Frey, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research. “We found that there is a huge reduction in both PM and NOx emissions.” (more…)

Scientists Unlock Record of Ecosystem Changes Frozen in World’s Glaciers

By Guest PostFebruary 22, 2012Environmentalaska, andrew vermilyea, aquatic food web, aron stubbins, atmosphere, biomass, black carbon, dissolved organic matter, dom, earth, eran hood, fossil fuel, glacial ice, glacier biogeochemistry, glacier environment, glacier ice, glaciers, global emission, greenland, gulf of alaska, ice of glaciers, industrial pollution, industrial revolution, juneau, marine system, matt kane, mendenhall glacier, microorganisms, organic material, patagonia, peatlands, peter raymond, remote ecosystem, robert spencer, skidaway institute of oceanography, soot

*History of influence of industrial revolution hidden in glacial ice*

New clues about how Earth’s remote ecosystems have been influenced by the industrial revolution have been uncovered. Until now they were locked away, frozen in the ice of glaciers.

So say scientist Aron Stubbins of the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography and colleagues. (more…)

Climate Change From Black Carbon Depends on Altitude

By Guest PostApril 14, 2011Environmentairborne particles, atmospheric stability, ban weiss, black carbon, carbon, climate dynamics, climate effect of black carbon, Environment, global warming, human health, ken caldeira, long cao, upper atmosphere

Palo Alto, CA — Scientists have known for decades that black carbon aerosols add to global warming. These airborne particles made of sooty carbon are believed to be among the largest man-made contributors to global warming because they absorb solar radiation and heat the atmosphere. New research from Carnegie’s Long Cao and Ken Caldeira, along with colleagues George Ban-Weiss and Govindasamy Bala, quantifies how black carbon’s impact on climate depends on its altitude in the atmosphere. Their work, published online by the journal Climate Dynamics, could have important implications for combating global climate change. (more…)

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