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War, Plague No Match for Deforestation in Driving CO2 Buildup

By Guest PostJanuary 22, 2011Environmentagriculture, Antarctica, atmosphere, black death, black death in europe, burning of coal and oil, carbon dioxide, China, conquest of the americas, deforestation, demand for gasoline, earth, Environment, fall of the ming dynasty, forests, genghis khan, global carbon budget, global carbon cycle, greenland, human impact on climate, industrial era, julia pongratz, ken caldeira, mongol hordes, mongol invasions in asia, vegetation cover

Stanford, CA — Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes had an impact on the global carbon cycle as big as today’s annual demand for gasoline. The Black Death, on the other hand, came and went too quickly for it to cause much of a blip in the global carbon budget. Dwarfing both of these events, however, has been the historical trend towards increasing deforestation, which over centuries has released vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, as crop and pasture lands expanded to feed growing human populations. Even Genghis Kahn couldn’t stop it for long. (more…)

Broken Glass Yields Clues to Climate Change

By Guest PostDecember 31, 2010Environmentatmosphere, brittle objects, carbon dioxide, clay particles, climate, climate models, clouds, drinking glass, dust, dust particles, future climate, human hair, jasper kok, marine ecosystems, microscopic particles, northern africa, precipitation, sarah ruth, solar energy, Space, temperature, to model, united states, weather forecasting

*Ordinary drinking glasses and atmospheric dust particles break apart in similar patterns*

Clues to future climate may be found in the way an ordinary drinking glass shatters.

Results of a study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences find that microscopic particles of dust can break apart in patterns that are similar to the fragment patterns of broken glass and other brittle objects. (more…)

Ocean Acidification Changes Nitrogen Cycling in World Seas

By Guest PostDecember 22, 20101 commentEnvironmentacidity, ammonia oxidizers, blue whales, carbon dioxide, cheryl emiliane chow, cycle, david garrison, marine ecosystems, michael beman, microbes, nitrification, nitrogen, nitrous oxide, nutrients, ocean acidification, oceanic nitrification, oceans, organisms, proteins, sea water

*New results indicate potential to reduce certain greenhouse gas emissions from oceans to atmosphere*

Increasing acidity in the sea’s waters may fundamentally change how nitrogen is cycled in them, say marine scientists who published their findings in this week’s issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Nitrogen is one of the most important nutrients in the oceans. All organisms, from tiny microbes to blue whales, use nitrogen to make proteins and other important compounds. (more…)

‘Undersea Methane Could be Contributor to Increased Ocean Acidity’

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2010Environmentacidity, algae, bacteria, bottom of the ocean, carbon dioxide, chris osburn, CO2, cold seeps, degradation, dissolved organic carbon, doc, fluids, marine science, methane, methane-derived doc, microbial processing, ocean, ocean acidification, oceanic microorganisms, pacific ocean, phytoplankton, seawater, sediments, undersea, undersea ecosystems

A North Carolina State University researcher is part of a team which has found that methane from “cold seeps” – undersea areas where fluids bubble up through sediments at the bottom of the ocean – could be contributing to the oceans’ increasing acidity and stressing already delicate undersea ecosystems.

Oceanic microorganisms and bacteria survive by consuming dissolved organic carbon, or DOC. A byproduct of this consumption is CO2 – carbon dioxide – which, in large enough concentrations, makes seawater more acidic. (more…)

Rewarding Eco-Friendly Farmers Can Help Combat Climate Change

By Guest PostDecember 2, 2010Environmentatmosphere, carbon dioxide, chesapeake bay, cier, climate change, combat, eco-friendly, ecosystem markets, farmers, fertilizer, fertilizer run-off, greenhouse gas, management practices, maryland, maryland farmers, matthias ruth, nitrogen, nutrient trading market, phosphorous, techniques, total maximum daily load, trading market

*UMD Study Advises State on Creation of ‘Nutrient Trading Market’*

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Financially rewarding farmers for using the best fertilizer management practices can simultaneously benefit water quality and help combat climate change, finds a new study by the University of Maryland’s Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CIER). (more…)

Berkeley Lab Part of California Team to Receive up to $122 million for Energy Innovation Hub to Develop Method to Produce Fuels from Sunlight

By Guest PostJuly 24, 20101 commentEnvironment, Scienceartificial, berkeley lab, breakthrough innovations, cal tech, california, carbon dioxide, daniel poneman, energy, fuels, george l. argyros, innovation hub, jcap, joint center for artificial photosynthesis, nathan s. lewis, paul alivisatos, peidong yang, photosynthesis, senator boxer, sunlight, sunlight energy

Washington, D.C. – As part of a broad effort to achieve breakthrough innovations in energy production, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman announced, on July 22, an award of up to $122 million over five years to a multidisciplinary team of top scientists to establish an Energy Innovation Hub aimed at developing revolutionary methods to generate fuels directly from sunlight.

(more…)

Global Model Confirms: Cool Roofs Can Offset Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Mitigate Global Warming

By Guest PostJuly 20, 20101 commentEnvironment, Scienceberkeley lab, carbon dioxide, carbon emissions, climate change, cool roof, cool the world, curb, doe, emissions, evaporation, goddard space flight center, hashem akbari, keith oleson, light-colored rooftops, model, NASA, ncar, radiation, steven chu, surabi menon, Technology, temperature, topography, urban heat

Can light-colored rooftops and roads really curb carbon emissions and combat global climate change?

The idea has been around for years, but now, a new study by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that is the first to use a global model to study the question has found that implementing cool roofs and cool pavements in cities around the world can not only help cities stay cooler, they can also cool the world, with the potential of canceling the heating effect of up to two years of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions.

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‘Arctic Climate May be More Sensitive to Warming than Thought’

By Guest PostJuly 6, 2010Environmentanthropogenic greenhouse, Arctic, ashley ballantyne, atmospheric, beaver pond site, british columbia, canada, carbon dioxide, dara finney, ecosystem, ellesmere island, geology, natalia rybczynski, permineralization, pliocene, strathcona fiord, vancouver

A new study shows the Arctic climate system may be more sensitive to greenhouse warming than previously thought, and that current levels of Earth’s atmospheric carbon dioxide may be high enough to bring about significant, irreversible shifts in Arctic ecosystems.

(more…)

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