Carbon Dioxide // Current

Japan CO2 Emissions Hit Record High

Japan is the world's 5th largest producer of carbon dioxide, and it's emissions increased 2.3% last year to hit record... more

islek
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Theory Suggests Carbon Dioxide Levels are Too High Today

"(PhysOrg.com) -- If climate disasters are to be averted, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) must be reduced below the levels... more

ultravphunter
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Scientists say a rock can soak up carbon dioxide

"A rock found mostly in Oman can be harnessed to soak up the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide at a rate that could help... more

DeliaTheArtist
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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
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Climate Deal May Be Too Late To Save Coral Reefs, Scientists Warn

reefs including the Great Barrier Reef off Australia could begin to break up within a few decades, research suggests.... more

wlwatkins
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B.C. glaciers could melt in 150 years, expert says

Climate experts are warning that if carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions aren't reduced, most of B.C's glaciers will be melted... more

urlspotter
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Seas turn to acid as they soak up CO2

The Bay of Naples is renowned for its breathtaking beauty and glittering clear waters. For centuries, tourists have flocked to the region to experience its glories.

But beneath the waves, scientists have uncovered an alarming secret. They have found streams of gas bubbling up from the seabed around the island of Ischia. 'The waters are like a Jacuzzi - there is so much carbon dioxide fizzing up from the seabed,' said Dr Jason Hall-Spencer, of Plymouth University. 'Millions of litres of gas bubble up every day.'

The gas streams have turned Ischia's waters into acid, and this has had a major impact on sea life and aquatic plants. Now marine biologists fear that the world's seas could follow suit.

'Every day the oceans absorb more than 25m tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,' said Hall-Spencer. 'If it were not for the oceans, levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would be far higher than they are today and the impact of climate change would be far worse. However, there is a downside: it is called ocean acidification.'

Scientists calculate that the seas are absorbing so much carbon dioxide that they are 30 per cent more acidic than they were at the start of the Industrial Revolution. The change is three times greater and has happened 100 times faster than at any other time during the past 20 million years.

Tomorrow hundreds of scientists will gather in Monaco for the 'Second International Symposium on the Ocean in a High CO2 World'. One focus of debate is likely to be the Plymouth study. The seas off Ischia - which are affected by carbon dioxide from volcanic activity - offer a first-class opportunity to investigate what might happen in the next few decades.

Scientists found that in Ischia's highly acidic water:

• Biodiversity of plants and fish has dropped by 30 per cent

• Algae vital for binding coral reefs have been wiped out

• Invasive 'alien' species, such as sea-grasses, are thriving

• Coral and sea urchins have been destroyed, while mussels and clams are failing to grow shells.

The conference will also tackle the dangers posed to fish larvae, which are sensitive to high levels of acid, as well as the threat to commercial fish stocks.

'Many developing countries have seafood as their prime source of food,' said Dr Carol Turley, of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory. 'If they lose that, the result could be famine.'The Bay of Naples is renowned for its breathtaking beauty and glittering clear waters. For centuries, tourists have flocked to the... more

goldenways
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40 responses

1 month ago

Phase out coal plants if we want to affect climate change

To better understand how emissions might change in the future, Pushker Kharecha and James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute... more

MeganMcKenzie
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7 responses

2 months ago

Atmospheric Concentrations Carbon Dioxide Animation

by Andy Jacobson, postdoctoral research staff member in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program at Princeton University.

stephenthomson
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1 response

3 months ago

EPA warns Bush: Adaptation to climate change may not be possible.

The EPA has issued its "Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.6; Analyses of Effects of Global Climate Change on Welfare and... more

stephenthomson
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3 months ago

It could be earlier than 2013, say some scientists

4 paragraphs:

1. Fuck! 2013 for an ice-free Arctic may even be too conservatively estimated.
2. Holy Shit! Estimates of those estimates might even be too conservative (having not taken into account 2005 and 2007)
3. This is why, goddamit: they didnt look at the 'ice-albedo feedback effect', which occurs when water is heated by solar radiation, leading to more warming and melting
4. HOLD UP: 2030 may still be a more level-headed estimate. Chill, bro. But still, no ice in our lifetimes.... bummer.

The passage of time has not been kind to the Arctic's fortunes: Where scientists once predicted the Arctic would be ice-free by the end of the century, they revised their estimates in recent months to 2030 and now - stunningly - to 2013. Presenting the findings of his modeling studies at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, Wieslaw Maslowski, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School, explained that earlier projections had low-balled the real values by not accounting for some of the processes driving the ice loss.

Even worse, he conceded that his own estimates may be on the optimistic side, explaining that the models he had run - using data from 1979 to 2004 - did not take into account the ice cover minima reached in 2005 and 2007. "Our projection of 2013 for the removal of ice in summer is not accounting for the last two minima, in 2005 and 2007. So given that fact, you can argue that may be our projection of 2013 is already too conservative." said Maslowski.

Maslow believes earlier estimates missed out on some key melting processes; those issues could be partially resolved if future models incorporated more realistic representations of warm water movement into the Arctic from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University remarked that past models did not sufficiently take into account the ice-albedo feedback effect, which occurs when water is heated by solar radiation, leading to more warming and melting.

Mark Serreze, a scientist with the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), still believes 2030 is a reasonable estimate, deeming Wieslaw's projections as "a little aggressive . . . simply because the luck of the draw means natural variability can kick in to give you a few years in which the ice loss is a little less than you've had in previous years." Either way, the melting of the Arctic ice cap within our lifetimes now seems inevitable.4 paragraphs: 1. Fuck! 2013 for an ice-free Arctic may even be too conservatively estimated. 2. Holy Shit! Estimates... more

stephenthomson
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1 response

3 months ago

The Tipping Point - is it here?

This is a fascinating and dynamic article concerning the state of global warming and the number everyone must know and encourage:... more

stephenthomson
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0 responses

3 months ago

Environmentalists Target Snack Food Makers Over Palm Oil Use

What do Oreo cookies made by Nabisco (KFT, Fortune 500), Cheez-It crackers from Kellogg's (K, Fortune 500) or General... more

jefftego
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2 responses

3 months ago

Coal fired power plants rated worldwide - lots of useful info

repost this link with more creativity if you wish.

stephenthomson
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1 response

3 months ago

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
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1 response

3 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
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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
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1 response

4 months ago

Adding lime to seawater may cut carbon dioxide levels back to pre-industrial levels

Scientists say they have found a workable way of reducing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere by adding lime to seawater. And they think it has the potential to dramatically reverse CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere, reports Cath O'Driscoll in SCI's Chemistry & Industry magazine.

Shell is so impressed with the new approach that it is funding an investigation into its economic feasibility. 'We think it's a promising idea,' says Shell's Gilles Bertherin, a coordinator on the project. 'There are potentially huge environmental benefits from addressing climate change -- and adding calcium hydroxide to seawater will also mitigate the effects of ocean acidification, so it should have a positive impact on the marine environment.'

Adding lime to seawater increases alkalinity, boosting seawater's ability to absorb CO2 from air and reducing the tendency to release it back again.

However, the idea, which has been bandied about for years, was thought unworkable because of the expense of obtaining lime from limestone and the amount of CO2 released in the process.

Tim Kruger, a management consultant at London firm Corven is the brains behind the plan to resurrect the lime process. He argues that it could be made workable by locating it in regions that have a combination of low-cost 'stranded' energy considered too remote to be economically viable to exploit -- like flared natural gas or solar energy in deserts -- and that are rich in limestone, making it feasible for calcination to take place on site.

Kruger says: 'There are many such places -- for example, Australia's Nullarbor Plain would be a prime location for this process, as it has 10 000km3 of limestone and soaks up roughly 20MJ/m2 of solar irradiation every day.'

The process of making lime generates CO2, but adding the lime to seawater absorbs almost twice as much CO2. The overall process is therefore 'carbon negative'.

'This process has the potential to reverse the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere. It would be possible to reduce CO2 to pre-industrial levels,' Kruger says.

And Professor Klaus Lackner, a researcher in the field from Columbia University, says: 'The theoretical CO2 balance is roughly right...it is certainly worth thinking through carefully.'

The oceans are already the world's largest carbon sink, absorbing 2bn tonnes of carbon every year. Increasing absorption ability by just a few percent could dramatically increase CO2 uptake from the atmosphere.Scientists say they have found a workable way of reducing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere by adding lime to seawater. And... more