Carbon // Current

Times Square getting its first 'green' billboard

This winter, New Year's Eve revelers will have a close-up view of Times Square's first environmentally friendly... more

Moopak
added this

Vandana Shiva speaks of new visions for responding to climate change and food crisis

A food/climate manifesto presents new visions for responding to climate change. Turin, Italy -- I've just come out of the... more

JanforGore
added this

China lays out its demands for climate change negotiations

The leader for climate change in China, Gao Guangsheng declared Tuesday that China wants rich countries to commit 1 percent of... more

sustainablejohn
added this

Alaskan Glacier Grew this year, thanks to cloder weather

Two hundred years of glacial shrinkage in Alaska, and then came the winter and summer of 2007-2008. Unusually large amounts of... more

JamieGray
added this

Turning carbon dioxide into fuel

You might have thought that recycling is limited to paper, plastics and glass. Well, think again. A Californian company is... more

jcmoisan
added this

Parody on Carbon Offsetting

http://cheatneutral.com/ is a clever satirical project intended to challenge the ridiculousness of carbon offsetting by creating... more

littlesparrow
added this

Herbivores eat away at climate-change predictions

New Scientist reports that large herbivores are likely to have a bigger influence on the fate of our planet than we thought. It... more

purplefox
added this

China's Changsha city plans to trade dust and CO2

The city of Changsha, the capital of Hunan province in south-central China, is preparing to launch an emissions trading scheme,... more

sustainablejohn
added this

Destruction of Wetlands Could Unleash Carbon Bomb

The worlds wetlands, threatened by development, dehydration and climate change, could release a plant warming "carbon... more

iamforchange
added this

Fertilizing ocean may slow climate change

A seasonal bloom of ocean plankton fertilised by the Amazon river pulls much more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere than researchers had previously supposed.

The unexpected bloom may, in fact, be enough to turn the tropical Atlantic Ocean from a net source of atmospheric carbon into a net sink.

Ajit Subramaniam, an oceanographer at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York, and his colleagues sampled phytoplankton in the plume of water extending from the mouth of the Amazon into the Atlantic.

To their surprise, they found that for much of the year the offshore waters support a thriving plankton population that converts atmospheric nitrogen into biologically usable forms.

This nitrogen fixation allows the plankton to escape the restrictions of the nitrogen-poor Amazon and thrive on its other nutrients, especially phosphorus and silicon.

The result is a rapid uptake of carbon dioxide by the photosynthetic plankton.
'Major shift'

Moreover, much of this carbon ends up in long-term storage instead of being recycled quickly like most carbon in the ocean. That's because the main photosynthesisers are diatoms, single-celled algae that build a heavy silica shell around their bodies.

This glassy shell makes diatoms sink rapidly after they die, removing 20 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere each year, the researchers estimate.

That's not much compared to the amount emitted by human activity each year but it represents a major shift in our knowledge of the oceans' carbon balance, says Subramanian. And although the Amazon is the largest of the world's rivers, other major tropical rivers such as the Congo and the Orinoco may have similar effects, he says – a conjecture he is now aiming to test.

"I think the value of this work is not so much in figuring out how we can use it to humankind's advantage, but in figuring out that the major rivers of the world may be helping to balance the CO2 inventory of the planet in ways we haven't realised before," says David Karl, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii.

Even so, the Amazon's major contribution suggests that proposals to artificially fertilise the ocean to enhance carbon uptake may pay off surprisingly well in tropical waters, says Subramaniam.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0710279105)A seasonal bloom of ocean plankton fertilised by the Amazon river pulls much more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere than... more

sheamus
added this

13 responses

4 months ago

H2O - John Todd and The Eco-Restorer vs. Chlorine Chem. Dump 'waste'-water treatment facilities

The common chlorine chem. dump waste-treatment facilities are becoming a thing of the past.. Industry 'standards'... more

onepeacefullight
added this

0 responses

4 months ago

'Gulf dead zone bigger than ever' & ~A Pollution Solution~

Problem: "A "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas-Louisiana coast this year is likely to be the... more

onepeacefullight
added this

2 responses

4 months ago

John Todd Wins Buckminster Fuller Challenge!

Permaculture, Paul Stamets, and John Todd have the tools to thrust us in a more sustainable direction. They enable... more

onepeacefullight
added this

1 response

4 months ago

Wetlands could unleash "carbon bomb"

In other words...respect mother nature!!! WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The world's wetlands, threatened by development,... more

jh64487
added this

5 responses

4 months ago

Walking to the shops ‘damages planet more than going by car’

Walking does more than driving to cause global warming, a leading environmentalist has calculated. Food production is now so... more

Sons_Of_Liberty
added this

15 responses

4 months ago

White House Accused of Cover UP

"This cover-up is being directed from the White House and the office of the vice president," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

The EPA released in a report last December that "greenhouse gases may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public welfare," according to Jason Burnett, the agency's former associate deputy administrator.Such a finding would be an early step toward government regulation aimed at protecting public health.

Burnett, who resigned on June 9, told Boxer's committee the White House tried pressuring him to retract an e-mail on which he detailed the finding. Burnett said he refused.

Boxer said that unless EPA documents were released, it was likely that within the next two weeks her committee would try to subpoena the material. She did not know whether Republicans on the panel would block the effort.
{source}http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN08301097

A CDC official who testified on the condition of Anonymity said that documents were altered by the White House. “It was eviscerated,” said a CDC official, familiar with both versions."

The official said that while it is customary for testimony to be changed in a White House review, these changes were particularly “heavy-handed,” with the document cut from its original 14 pages to four. It was six pages as presented to the Senate committee.

A new letter from former EPA administration official Jason Burnett, however, reveals that the White House was lying. The White House, at the urging of Cheney’s office, “requested that I work with CDC to remove from the testimony any discussion of the human health consequences of climate change,” wrote Burnett.

“CEQ [Council on Environmental Quality] contacted me to argue that I could best keep options open for the (EPA) administrator (on regulating carbon dioxide) if I would convince CDC to delete particular sections of their testimony,” Burnett said in the letter to Boxer.

{source}http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/08/burnett-cheney/

"This cover-up is being directed from the White House and the office of the vice president," said Sen. Barbara Boxer,... more

Psychedelic
added this

0 responses

4 months ago

Most voters prefer NDP plan over Liberals: poll

When it comes to paying for carbon emissions, the NDP tackle the problem at its source -- business -- and people overwhelming... more

urlspotter
added this

0 responses

5 months ago

UK plans big wind power expansion

Thousands of new wind turbines could be built across the UK over the coming decade as part of a £100bn plan to boost... more

merasyad
added this

0 responses

5 months ago

Obama addresses US mayors in Miami

Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama was the keynote speaker at the luncheon for the US Conference of Mayors June 21st in Miami, FL. While the Mayors' issues and Obama's address were the issues and highlight of the day, there was a special group in attendance by invitation for whom the Senator's messages truly hit home. In the back of the luncheon hall was a gathering of high school students from Miami's Young Women's Preparatory Academy, the first single sex public school in the County.

While the Mayors listened intently to Obama's proposals to help their cities and towns with problems ranging from high energy costs brought on by Washington catering to Big Oil, to the effects of unchecked immigration, this attentive and polite group of young women focused on his comments related to issues they felt had a direct impact on them. Specifically, they were impressed with his dedication to education and commitment to expanding wireless access for all.

Isis Gottlieb-Guidance Counselor to the girls encouraged them to speak about what Obama's proposals meant to them. The girls said that his plans for helping schools and teachers suffering from budget shortfalls would have a direct impact on them. When schools are forced to reduce the number of textbooks to keep their buses on the road, education suffers. They also were most impressed with the Senator's focus on the Internet and wireless access. Many politicians today aren't of the "Tech Generation" and perhaps don't realize the potential of opportunities for learning and growth when wireless is more accessible. Senator Obama said that "surely the country that invented the Internet should be able to make access more widely available." He envisioned a time when all cities and towns would be able to offer wireless access to all schools and libraries as well as their communities.

Some highlights of Barack's speech included observations on how Washington has failed cities and towns when it comes to disaster relief, immigration problems, the effects of high energy costs on services and education and said that "neglect is not a policy. Communities should not be succeeding despite Washington but with a helping hand from Washington."

Obama added that while he respected and admired his opponent's service to his country, he would not be the partner to communities that is necessary going forward. He said McCain has different priorities than the average American. For example, he said, "McCain wants to give $2-trillion in tax breaks to big corporations and wealthy individuals at the same time that he opposes expanding funding to the COPS program and community development programs. That's just more of the same in Washington," he said.

More pictures of the event can be found here: http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t277/barkway/Obama/
Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama was the keynote speaker at the luncheon for the US Conference of Mayors June 21st in... more