Tag Archives: carbon dioxide

Elevated Indoor Carbon Dioxide Impairs Decision-Making Performance

By Guest PostOctober 28, 2012Environmentberkeley lab, brain injury, building, carbon dioxide, CO2, cognitive function, concentration, decline, dimension, dysfunctional, economic consequence, economic impact, energy consumption, energy-efficient, human, indoor, mark mendell, new york, pharmaceutical, pollutant, ppm, primary source, rate, reduction, scenarios, sms, state university, suny, upstate medical university, usha satish, ventilation, william fisk

Berkeley Lab scientists surprised to find significant adverse effects of CO2 on human decision-making performance.

Overturning decades of conventional wisdom, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have found that moderately high indoor concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) can significantly impair people’s decision-making performance. The results were unexpected and may have particular implications for schools and other spaces with high occupant density.

“In our field we have always had a dogma that CO₂ itself, at the levels we find in buildings, is just not important and doesn’t have any direct impacts on people,” said Berkeley Lab scientist William Fisk, a co-author of the study, which was published in Environmental Health Perspectives online last month. “So these results, which were quite unambiguous, were surprising.” The study was conducted with researchers from State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University. (more…)

Small Organisms Could Dramatically Impact World’s Climate

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2012Environment21st century, atmospheric, carbon, carbon dioxide, christopher klausmeier, climate change, colin kremer, cycle, david garrison, diversity, element, elena litchman, equatorial water, evolutionary adaptation, food chain, global climate, impact, level, marine microorganism, michigan, mridul thomas, nitrogen, ocean, ocean floor, organism, phosphorous, photosynthesis, phytoplankton, population, science express, state university, temperature, tropical water, warmer

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Warmer oceans in the future could significantly alter populations of phytoplankton, tiny organisms that could have a major impact on climate change.

In the current issue of Science Express, Michigan State University researchers show that by the end of the 21st century, warmer oceans will cause populations of these marine microorganisms to thrive near the poles and may shrink in equatorial waters. Since phytoplankton play a key role in the food chain and the world’s cycles of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous and other elements, a drastic drop could have measurable consequences. (more…)

Speaking of Ethics

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2012Environmentatmosphere, baby albatross, bird, bottle caps, brown lab, carbon dioxide, climate change, climate crisis, delaware, distribution, earth, Environment, environmental ethics, environmental philosopher, ethical responsibility, extinction, gulf, history, human, human rights, joy, kathleen dean moore, life, Mexico, moral obligation, Nature, notion, ocean, oil companies, oil spill, oregon, organism, planet, plastic, principle, protect, relationship, species, spring creek project, state university, stomach, university, violation, world

Lecturer explores the imperatives of environmental ethics

Speaking to University of Delaware faculty and students and community members in Brown Lab on Monday night, Oct. 15, environmental philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore discussed how important it is for humans to realize their ethical responsibility to save the world from a climate crisis.

In a lecture titled “Why It’s Wrong to Wreck the World: Climate Change and the Moral Obligation to the Future,” Moore reflected on the relationship humans have with the environment and argued that once humans realize the impact of their actions, they will naturally feel a moral obligation to care for the planet. (more…)

Graphene Membranes May Lead To Enhanced Natural Gas Production, Less CO2 Pollution, Says CU Study

By Guest PostOctober 16, 2012Environment, Science2010, andre geim, argon, atomic crystal, atomic scale, carbon atom, carbon dioxide, chicken wire, colorado boulder, diameter, emission, energy-efficient, engineering faculty, England, exhaust pipe, gas molecule, graphene membrane, hexagonal, hydrogen, industrial scale, john pellegrino, konstantin novoselov, lattice, luda wang, manchester university, membrane, methane, molecular sieve, molecular size, nanometer, natural gas, nature nanotechnology, nitrogen, nobel prize, oxidative etching, pore, power plant, production, scott bunch, sieving, size selective, steven koenig, sulphur hexafluoride, ultraviolet light, university

Engineering faculty and students at the University of Colorado Boulder have produced the first experimental results showing that atomically thin graphene membranes with tiny pores can effectively and efficiently separate gas molecules through size-selective sieving.

The findings are a significant step toward the realization of more energy-efficient membranes for natural gas production and for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power plant exhaust pipes.

Mechanical engineering professors Scott Bunch and John Pellegrino co-authored a paper in Nature Nanotechnology with graduate students Steven Koenig and Luda Wang detailing the experiments. The paper was published Oct. 7 in the journal’s online edition. (more…)

Researchers Highlight Growing Problem of Ocean Acidification

By Guest PostSeptember 27, 2012Environmentatmosphere, carbon biogeochemistry, carbon dioxide, CO2, co2 conditions, co2 world, earth, emission, eucidaris tribuloides, faq, global issue, hole, institution, logarithmic, monterey, neutral, oa, ocb, ocean, ocean acidification, oceanographic, pencil urchins, ph, ph scale, ph unit, sarah cooley, tropical, web version, whoi, woods

An international group of scientists, including researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, are working to improve communication about ocean acidification to help the public better understand the pressing global issue.

The term “ocean acidification” (OA) describes the changes that occur in the ocean as a result of increased emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere. The rising acidic level in the ocean puts certain organisms at risk and threatens the overall health of the ocean. (more…)

CU-led Mountain Forest Study Shows Vulnerability to Climate Change

By Guest PostSeptember 16, 2012Environmentalpine, anne kelly, Arctic, atmosphere, boulder, carbon dioxide, change, climate change, colorado, data, dry, energy, ernesto trujillo, flux towers, forest greenness, ground measurement, high resolution, michael golden, mid elevation, moisture change, mountain ecosystem, mountain range, noah molotch, precipitation, radiometer, rising temperature, roger bales, satellite image, sensitivity, sierra nevada, snowmelt, tipping point, united states, university, water vapor, western, wet, year

A new University of Colorado Boulder-led study that ties forest “greenness” in the western United States to fluctuating year-to-year snowpack indicates mid-elevation mountain ecosystems are most sensitive to rising temperatures and changes in precipitation and snowmelt.

Led by CU-Boulder researcher Ernesto Trujillo and Assistant Professor Noah Molotch, the study team used the data — including satellite images and ground measurements — to identify the threshold where mid-level forests sustained primarily by moisture change to higher-elevation forests sustained primarily by sunlight and temperature. Being able to identify this “tipping point” is important because it is in the mid-level forests — at altitudes from roughly 6,500 to 8,000 feet — where many people live and play in the West and which are associated with increasing wildfires, beetle outbreaks and increased tree mortality, said Molotch. (more…)

NASA Observations Point to ‘Dry Ice’ Snowfall on Mars

By Guest PostSeptember 13, 2012Sciencecarbon dioxide, data, david kass, dry ice, frozen, ice, jpl, mars, mars climate sounder, martian air, martian atmosphere, NASA, particle, paul hayne, phoenix lander, polar caps, reconnaissance orbiter, red planet, residual cap, snow, snow cloud, snowfall, solar system, water

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter data have given scientists the clearest evidence yet of carbon-dioxide snowfalls on Mars. This reveals the only known example of carbon-dioxide snow falling anywhere in our solar system.

Frozen carbon dioxide, better known as “dry ice,” requires temperatures of about minus 193 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 125 Celsius), which is much colder than needed for freezing water. Carbon-dioxide snow reminds scientists that although some parts of Mars may look quite Earth-like, the Red Planet is very different. The report is being published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. (more…)

Wind Power’s Potential

By Guest PostSeptember 12, 2012Environment3d, atmospheric circulation, carbon dioxide, clean energy, climate impact, coastal ocean, cristina archer, delaware, Economy, energy demand, energy output, energy potential, Environment, environmental impact, fundamental barrier, future energy, gator gcmom, german, global, global scale, mark jacobson, physical model, saturation, stanford university, surface temperature, university, water vapor, wind, wind turbine

UD-Stanford team calculates maximum global energy potential from wind

Wind turbines could power half the world’s future energy demands with minimal environmental impact, according to new research published by University of Delaware and Stanford University scientists in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers arrived at the determination by calculating the maximum theoretical potential of wind power worldwide, taking into account the effects that numerous wind turbines would have on surface temperatures, water vapor, atmospheric circulations and other climatic considerations.

“Wind power is very safe from the climate point of view,” said Cristina Archer, associate professor of geography and physical ocean science and engineering at UD. (more…)