Tag Archives: greenhouse gas

IBM Teams With ESB to Develop an Electric Vehicle Smart Charging IT System in Ireland

By Guest PostOctober 1, 2012Technologyaction plan, allan schurr, billing cost, charge points, charging, cloud computing, co2 emission, electric vehicle, electricity provider, energy policy, esb ecars, esb network, European Union, ev driver, financial insight, for, green energy, greenhouse gas, ibm, industry participants, ireland, it system, jobs, legislation, pat odoherty, pollution level, public, reduction, renewable energy, richard bruton, scalable level

ARMONK, N.Y. and DUBLIN – 01 Oct 2012: IBM today announced that it has teamed with ESB ecars to implement a fully integrated smarter charging IT system that will help manage electric vehicle public charge points, which are being rolled out across Ireland by ESB ecars. Together the companies will add a layer of intelligence and convenience to the charging process, allowing EV drivers to access, charge and pay, using an identification card. Additionally, this project will provide utilities with access to energy usage data that can help improve smart grid operations, reduce power strain during peak charging times, and ensure reliable energy distribution to customers.

With approximately 1,000 public charging-points currently available, ESB Networks is on track to deliver one of the largest integrated and operational electric vehicle infrastructures in Europe. ESB Networks will use IBM’s Intelligent Electric Vehicle Enablement Platform to provide the services needed to operate and manage the charge-points installed throughout Ireland. (more…)

Climate Change to Cripple Southwestern Forests

By Guest PostOctober 1, 2012Environmentancient, arizona, atmospheric evaporative, chandana gangodagamage, climate change, climate data, climate record, climate scenario, climate trend, climatological variable, colorado, computer model, craig allen, cultural center, daniel griffin, distribution, drought tolerant, fire, forest, forest drought, future, geological survey, greenhouse gas, growth record, las conchas, marcia mcnutt, megadrought, mesa verde, michael cai, nate mcdowell, new mexico, park williams, pinon pines, prediction, projection, pueblo indians, puebloan, regional climate, regional ecosystem, scientist, southwestern, southwestern forest, species, stress index, thomas swetnam, tree killing, tree mortality, tree ring, trees, united states, university, US, usgs, wildfire, winter precipitation

Trees Face Rising Drought Stress and Mortality as Climate Warms

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — Combine the tree-ring growth record with historical information, climate records, and computer-model projections of future climate trends, and you get a grim picture for the future of trees in the southwestern United States. That’s the word from a team of scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Arizona, and other partner organizations.

The research, published in Nature Climate Change this week, concluded that if the Southwest is warmer and drier in the near future, widespread tree mortality likely will cause substantial changes in forest and species distributions. (more…)

Blanket Bogs Need Protection from Climate Change

By Guest PostSeptember 7, 2012Environmentalaska, amphibians, angela gallego sala, archaeological material, birds, blanket bogs, Britain, british countryside, canada, climate change, coastal area, devon, ecosystem, emission, exeter, flooding, future temperature, greenhouse gas, habitat, high latitude, norway, outer hebrides, plants, rainfall, reptiles, risk, russia, shetland, small mammals, sssi, uk, university, vegetation, wildlife

Blanket bogs, which provide vital habitats for a unique range of plants, birds, small mammals, reptiles and amphibians, are at risk of declining as a result of climate change.

Research by the Universities of Exeter and Bristol in the UK and Macquarie University in Australia, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, shows for the first time how rising temperatures will threaten these sensitive ecosystems.

The study highlights the urgency of developing a plan to protect these important habitats.

Found in wet, coastal areas of high latitude regions, blanket bogs cover around 700,000 hectares of land in the UK, much of it designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Blanket bogs are found in the north and west of the UK, extending from Devon in the south to Shetland in the north, and it has been estimated that 10 to15 per cent of the world’s blanket bog occurs in Britain. As well as being crucial in supporting wildlife, blanket bogs also capture and store large amounts of carbon, helping to mitigate against climate change, and reduce the risk of flooding, by slowing down water flow. With some blanket peat being over 9,000 years old, they also hold historically-significant archaeological material. (more…)

Dinosaur Die Out Might Have Been Second of Two Closely Timed Extinctions

By Guest PostSeptember 6, 2012Scienceaerosols, ammonite, antarctic peninsula, antarctic sediment, Argentina, asteroid, asteroid impact, carbon dioxide, deccan plateau, dinosaurs, earth, eduardo olivero, environmental effect, eric steig, fossil, free swimming, greenhouse gas, hell creek formation, history, India, isaac hilburn, james ross island, joseph kirschvink, magnetic field, magnetostratigraphy, mass extinction, matthew diamond, Mexico, montana, ocean floor, particles, peter ward, planet, ross mitchell, second event, sediment deposit, seymour island, species, thomas tobin, timothy raub, university, volcanic eruption, Washington, yale university, yucatan peninsula

The most-studied mass extinction in Earth history happened 65 million years ago and is widely thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs. New University of Washington research indicates that a separate extinction came shortly before that, triggered by volcanic eruptions that warmed the planet and killed life on the ocean floor.

The well-known second event is believed to have been triggered by an asteroid at least 6 miles in diameter slamming into Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. But new evidence shows that by the time of the asteroid impact, life on the seafloor – mostly species of clams and snails – was already perishing because of the effects of huge volcanic eruptions on the Deccan Plateau in what is now India. (more…)

Yale Researchers Find New Cause of Climate Change: Trees

By Guest PostAugust 10, 2012Environmentangelita williams, cause, climate change, connecticut, diseased trees, emissions, fungus, global warming, greenhouse gas, groundbreaking, methane concentration, methane gas, methanogens, natural gas, organisms, rotting trees, trees, upland forest, yale, yale myers forest

Researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies have discovered that diseased trees may be a significant cause of global warming. The university’s researchers tested the trees at the Yale Myers Forest near their campus in Connecticut and discovered that rotting trees release a significant amount of methane gas, a highly flammable type of natural gas that can cause climate change in large quantities. The trees at the Yale Myers Forest produce emissions that are equivalent to burning 40 gallons of gas per acre of forest per year.

In their academic report on this matter, “Elevated Methane Concentrations in Trees of an Upland Forest,” the Yale University research team noted that trees that release methane gas look just like ordinary trees on the outside. However, on the inside, they’re being eaten alive by fungus. And the fungus that rots these trees helps fuel methane production because it makes the trees a hospitable breeding ground for methanogens, tiny organisms that create methane. (more…)

China Olympics Traffic Measures Cut Carbon Emissions

By Guest PostJuly 31, 2012Environment2008 summer olympics, Beijing, bike, carbon emission, china olympic, climate change, emission, greenhouse gas, helen worden, lex ivey, london olympics, mopitt, motor vehicle, NASA, ncar, pollution control, threat, traffic, traffic restriction, university of toronto, university of tsinghua

A new NASA-funded study of the impacts of China’s traffic restrictions for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing shows how widespread changes in transportation patterns could greatly reduce the threat of climate change.

New research by an international team of scientists led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, Colo., indicates that China’s restrictions on motor vehicles designed to improve air quality during the games had the side benefit of dramatically cutting emissions of carbon dioxide by between 26,500 and 106,000 U.S. tons (24,000 and 96,000 metric tons) during the event. (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…)