Tag Archives: carbon

We have known about climate change for 75 years

by y0afvun Posted on April 29, 2013

We have known about climate change for 75 years

By John Upton

University of East Anglia Archive

Guy Stewart Callendar, who predicted climate change in 1938.

Carbon dioxide emissions have been altering the climate since the Industrial Revolution, some 200 years ago, though it took us a while to figure that out. NASA scientist James Hansen first warned Congress about the dangers of greenhouse gases in 1988.

But an earlier climate warning came five decades previous, way back in 1938. That’s when Guy Stewart Callendar, an engineer specializing in steam and power generation, published a paper that theorized that carbon dioxide emissions from industrial activity could have a greenhouse effect. His prescient paper appeared in the quarterly journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Some scientists this month are commemorating Callendar’s little-noticed discovery. From the BBC:

Prof Phil Jones, from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, … said the steam engineer’s work was “groundbreaking”.

Callendar, born in Montreal, Canada in 1898, made all his calculations by hand in his spare time, decades before the effects of global warming became widely debated.

The son of English physicist Hugh Longbourne Callendar, who studied thermodynamics, Callendar worked from his home in West Sussex. …

“He collected world temperature measurements and suggested that this warming was related to carbon dioxide emissions.”

This became known for a time as the “Callendar Effect”.

Memo to congressional Republicans: It’s the Callendar Effect, stupids, and we’ve known about it since before you were born. Well, before some of you were born.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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We have known about climate change for 75 years

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Renewable Fuel and the Earth

by Posted on April 22, 2013

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Renewable Fuel and the Earth

Posted 22 April 2013 in

National

Our world is getting hotter. Our lands are being destroyed. Our water is being polluted. On Earth Day, it’s time to reflect on what the problems are and what solutions exist.

From climate change to oil sands development to MTBE in the groundwater, oil is contributing to just about all of these critical issues. How do we deal with this? Use less oil, replacing it with a cleaner, more environmentally-friendly fuel.

Renewable fuel is homegrown and will help mitigate these environmental threats. Here are some of its environmental benefits.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

There is a mounting body of evidence regarding greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and renewable fuel—academics (to name just two, Purdue University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have put out reports recently) and government researchers (for example, Argonne National Laboratory and the Department of Agriculture) agree that using corn ethanol can reduce life-cycle GHGs relative to gasoline. Estimates range from 17%-59% savings.

Furthermore, a study released last month looked at soil samples over the past decade to better understand how much carbon corn sequesters (takes out of the air and deposits in the ground) while it grows. The results? A much larger amount of carbon is being sequestered by corn plants than previously estimated. So you can expect future lifecycle assessments of corn ethanol GHGs to show even stronger gains versus gasoline, with this data in hand.

Advanced renewable fuel offers even greater GHG savings when compared to a gallon of gasoline, with DOE estimating savings of 86% and other sources estimating savings of over 90%.

Land Use

The amount of agricultural land required to produce 15 billion gallons of grain ethanol in the U.S. by 2015, the target set forth by the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), is likely to be less than 1% of total world cropland. And the land that is being used is being used better each year. A recent report on the topic demonstrated we are moving in the right direction in major categories: land use is down, production is up, water use is down, energy efficiency is up, and soil erosion is down.

This process of more efficient production with fewer resources is a necessity, as feedstocks used to make fuel for the RFS can only be sourced from land that was actively engaged in agricultural production in 2007, when the RFS was most recently updated. Without good stewardship of the land, and increasing efficiency, renewable fuel would not be able succeed in the way that it has in recent years.

This sustainable approach stands in stark contrast to the destruction that the oil industry is bringing to our land through their methods of drilling and oil sands extraction, part of which has resulted in 13 oil spills in the past 30 days.

Drinking Water

Because ethanol is made of naturally occurring materials, it is biodegradable. This is critical when considering ground water safety. The Governors’ Ethanol Coalition released this report, detailing the process and impact, writing that “products of ethanol biodegradation likely pose little to no health threat.”

If gasoline containing ethanol spills, the ethanol will biodegrade, while other components will not. Some gasoline contains an additive, MTBE, which ethanol replaces. This additive was the root of a recent lawsuit, where one oil company was ordered to pay $237 million because MTBE contaminated the groundwater, making the water from over 5,500 wells in New Hampshire unfit to drink.

Conclusion

Big oil is polluting our air, destroying our land, and messing with our ground water. Renewable fuel is reducing emissions, improving land stewardship and protecting fresh water. This Earth Day, as we take a moment to reflect on threats to our planet and the solutions at hand, we cannot avoid the simple fact that oil is an enemy to our environment, and renewable fuel can help us protect it.

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Our statement on the release of President Barack Obama’s energy blueprint

by Posted on March 15, 2013

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Our statement on the release of President Barack Obama’s energy blueprint

Posted 15 March 2013 in

National

We commend President Obama’s commitment to move America toward oil alternatives – the best way to reduce pain at the pump and address climate change.

The Energy Security Trust Fund is a major step in this direction, and cost-effective, homegrown renewable fuel will play a central role. The initiative could not come at a better time, as gas prices and global temperatures are on the rise, and the oil industry is redoubling its efforts to block alternatives.

In 2012, 13 billion gallons of domestic, renewable fuel were blended into the American fuel supply, not only contributing to the reduction of carbon emissions by 13% nationally, but also employing over 380,000 Americans. Further innovation and growth of renewable fuel will continue to lower gas prices, reduce harmful emissions and protect us from volatile oil markets.

Renewable fuel is a key facet in President Obama’s energy strategy and the renewable fuel industry is united and ready to contribute to those aims.

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Carbon Dioxide Generator LP

by 0c4g78x Posted on March 15, 2013

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Volcanoes are keeping the planet from boiling over — for now

by LeannqOsborn Posted on March 5, 2013

Volcanoes are keeping the planet from boiling over — for now

By John Upton

ShutterstockSmoke from volcanoes helps cool the planet.

While we’ve been pumping the atmosphere full of heat-trapping gases, Mother Earth has been belching sulfur pollution through volcanoes and slowing down global warming.

That’s the conclusion of a new study that’s helping to explain why the globe warmed less during the first 10 years of this century than climate models suggest it should have. If volcanic activity calms down and sulfur pollution levels fall away again, runaway global warming could ensue.

Scientists believe that elevated levels of aerosols in the stratosphere, particularly sulfuric acid and water particles formed from sulfur dioxide pollution, have been shielding the ground from solar radiation. That has helped offset the warming effects of a spike in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. It was previously thought that the aerosols were perhaps being pumped into the atmosphere by industrial activity. But the new research, published in Geophysical Research Letters, suggests that the aerosols have come from a natural source. From Science NOW:

[B]y using a computer model that includes processes due to global atmospheric circulation and atmospheric chemistry, [CU-Boulder atmospheric scientist Ryan] Neely and his colleagues show that the human contribution of aerosols to the stratosphere was minimal between 2000 and 2010. In one set of simulations, the researchers estimated the effects of all known volcanic eruptions, including the quantity of aerosols produced and the heights to which they wafted, on the month-to-month variations in particulate concentrations.

The pattern of stratospheric particulate variations during the past decade “shows the fingerprint of volcanoes, with the right episodes showing up at the right time,” says William Randel, an atmospheric scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. “This is very convincing to me.”

So please keep those volcanic burps coming, Mother Earth. We could use all the help we can get.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

tweets

, posts articles to

Facebook

, and

blogs about ecology

. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants:

johnupton@gmail.com

.

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Volcanoes are keeping the planet from boiling over — for now

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Study questions eco-benefit of vegetarian diet; we question study

by rikkiqlyons Posted on February 13, 2013

Study questions eco-benefit of vegetarian diet; we question study

By Susie Cagle

I feel like the world is constantly conspiring to get me to eat bacon. That was my first thought when I saw this new study from France claiming that a plant-based diet is not actually the planet-saver we all thought. (My second thought was: WTF, I don’t want to eat bacon.)

The study followed nearly 2,000 diners who self-reported their meals to scientists at the National Research Institute of Agronomy in Marseille; the researchers then tried to determine how much greenhouse gas was emitted in production of the most commonly consumed foods. Let the fuzzy math ensue! Reuters reports:

Overall, about 1,600 grams of carbon dioxide were emitted for every 100 grams of meat produced. That’s more than 14 times the amount of greenhouse gas emitted during the production of fruit, vegetables and starches. It’s also about 2.5 times as much greenhouse gas as that generated by fish, pork, poultry and eggs.

That gap narrowed, however, when the researchers looked at how many grams of carbon dioxide were emitted per 100 kilocalories (kcal) — a measure of energy in food.

The most greenhouse gas — 857 grams — was still emitted to produce 100 kcal of meat, but it was only about three times the emissions from a comparable amount of energy from fruit and vegetables.

Wait wait, hold on, Reuters — the lede of your article says that a plant-based diet “might not be the greenest in its environmental impact.” Now you’re telling me it’s only three times better? Oh, wait, and now you’re telling me it’s no better at all?

And when [senior author Nicole] Darmon and her colleagues looked at what people actually ate to get a certain amount of energy from food every day, they found that the “highest-quality” diets in health terms — those high in fruit, vegetables and fish — were linked to about as much, if not more, greenhouse gas emissions as low-quality diets that were high in sweets and salts. …

Darmon said that’s because people who eat a plant-based diet need to eat more produce to get the amount of energy they’d have in a piece of meat.

Roni Neff of Johns Hopkins, who studies food’s contributions to climate change, expressed skepticism about the new research. “[S]he points out that according to the study’s calculations, people would need to eat about nine pounds of fruit and vegetables to make up for a smaller serving of meat, and that may be unrealistic.”  Uhhh, may be! 

For a very different take on the planet-saving benefits of not eating bacon, check out Shrink That Footprint’s recent math comparing the impact of five kinds of American diets.

Shrink That Footprint

No, you’re not carbon neutral even if you’re a fruitarian, but there are definitely food choices that can make a difference — and they don’t require a gut-busting nine pounds of produce per meal.

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CO2 emissions from energy production drop to 1994 levels in the U.S.

by Larissaiyb Posted on February 1, 2013

CO2 emissions from energy production drop to 1994 levels in the U.S.

By Philip Bump

The headline at The Guardian says almost everything you need to know: U.S. carbon emissions fall to lowest levels since 1994.

Carbon dioxide emissions fell by 13% in the past five years, because of new energy-saving technologies and a doubling in the take-up of renewable energy, the report compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance for the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) [PDF] said.

The reduction in climate pollution — even as Congress failed to act on climate change — brings America more than halfway towards Barack Obama’s target of cutting emissions by 17% from 2005 levels over the next decade, the Bloomberg analysts said.

By the end of last year, America’s emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions had fallen 10.7% from the 2005 baselines.

The caveat:  The carbon emissions discussed are those related to energy production. Energy production isn’t all CO2 emission, but it’s a lot of it.

So here’s what that reduction looks like. Since 1974, levels of energy-related carbon emissions have seen two peaks. As indicated above, we’re on a downward trend, something David Roberts explained last year.

BCSE

Click to embiggen.

Over the past few years, individual energy sources have played a fluctuating role in the reduction. In 2009, the collapsing economy meant lower emissions from all sources. That coal figure in 2012 is remarkable.

BCSE

Click to embiggen.

This morning, the U.S. Energy Information Administration released state-by-state data on CO2 emissions through 2010. We put together this map showing net increase or reducton in CO2 emissions by state between 1994 and 2010. The darker brown a state is, the more its emissions rose; the darker green, the more emissions fell. Most states went up. But go Delaware!

The reduction — particularly the shift to renewables — is good news. Tempered with two caveats: This is only the United States. And the rate of decline is still far too low.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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Adorable little Michigan town has big plans for cutting carbon emissions

by Myrna Posted on December 18, 2012

Adorable little Michigan town has big plans for cutting carbon emissions

By Philip Bump

Ann Arbor is a small town in Michigan that, like so many small towns across the Midwest, has been hard-hit as industry has increasingly moved away or overseas. A pleasant place with small hills and tree-lined streets, Ann Arbor has never had any distinguishing characteristic: no classic architecture, no famous music hall, no museums of note. Just a standard small town with a little main street, like so many other thousands littering the region.

But now, at last, Ann Arbor has done something to help it stand out, something of which — after so many years! — it might rightly be proud.

mike_miley

This is the town’s train station! Adorbs.

From AnnArbor.com (it doesn’t even have a real newspaper!):

The Ann Arbor City Council took action Monday night to adopt a Climate Action Plan, a 188-page document that outlines dozens of ways to reduce the community’s carbon footprint.

Building on previous environmental goals set by the City Council, the new plan recommends three targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades.

That includes a goal of reducing the entire community’s emissions by 8 percent by 2015, by 25 percent by 2025, and by 90 percent by 2050 — all relative to 2000 baseline levels.

I mean, first of all it’s cute that such an insignificant town has a city council! Just goes to show you that democracy can take root in even the driest soil.

But, second, this is a good idea. The city’s plan includes improved energy efficiency, transitioning to renewable energy production (right now, I believe they use an old coal furnace out back of Doc Bridge’s), increasing food labeling so that residents know how much carbon dioxide was produced for each item, and reducing recycling and garbage pickup. Interesting steps that could probably only fly in such a small backwater.

The city has already seen a drop since 2000 in the amount of carbon dioxide produced in its commercial and industrial sectors — a success that it hopes to increase across the board.

“This is one more step in a long history of action that we’re taking and recognizing that a global problem like climate change is more than we can handle on our own,” [Council Member Chuck] Warpehoski said.

I mean, how great is that? It’s like when they have a big pledge drive on TV and a little kid sends in a quarter from her piggy bank because she wants to help. Ann Arbor, you are the cutest little thing. Let’s hope that this, if nothing else, gives you something to be proud of.

P.S.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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Bringing back chestnut trees could fight climate change and give us tasty treats

by RubinkJoseph Posted on December 18, 2012

Bringing back chestnut trees could fight climate change and give us tasty treats

By Susie Cagle

When Nat King Cole first recorded “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” in 1946, American giant chestnut trees had been nearly wiped out by a foreign fungus. Billions of native trees were felled by the disease. If you want to roast those sweet babies over an open fire this holiday season, they’ll likely be of the imported-from-China variety.

cookingontheweekends

A hundred years ago, it was a very different scene, NPR reports:

The American chestnut was king of the forest. One of every four hardwoods in the eastern woodlands was a chestnut. They grew so tall — up to 100 feet — they were called the redwoods of the east.

By the mid-20th century they were “pretty much obliterated,” and now the only seasonal street-food treats are those crusty sugared peanuts. An American tragedy.

Efforts to revitalize the country’s chestnut stock have been ongoing for decades, but they’re not just aimed at holiday treats (because researchers have other crazy priorities).

Why is it so important to bring back the chestnut tree? Advocates say the trees were critical to the economy of rural communities and the ecology of the forests. Some even say chestnuts can help with global warming.

“Some” being scientists, like the ones who penned a 2009 Purdue University study on new hybrid chestnut trees and their carbon-fighting superpowers.

“Maintaining or increasing forest cover has been identified as an important way to slow climate change,” said [associate professor of forestry Douglass] Jacobs, whose paper was published in the June issue of the journal Forest Ecology and Management. “The American chestnut is an incredibly fast-growing tree. Generally the faster a tree grows, the more carbon it is able to sequester. And when these trees are harvested and processed, the carbon can be stored in the hardwood products for decades, maybe longer.”

Over the last several years, we’ve been importing more foreign chestnuts, but we’re also growing more of them at home. American growers have been planting and cultivating a variety of chestnut trees, from European-Japanese hybrids to blight-resistant Chinese varieties. They’re creating new stock and marketing it with new products aimed at the health-conscious. From NPR’s The Salt blog:

Many growers hand harvest to serve a niche, regional market, but they hope to modernize with grabbing tools called nut wizards and vacuum and all-in-one self-propelling harvesting systems. On the processing side, anti-microbial treatments help improve chestnut’s short shelf life. “It’s like an apple, if you leave them on a table they’ll go crummy,” says Dan Guyer, an engineer at [Michigan State University] who’s experimenting with X-ray chestnut sorting technology.

And then there are new marketing strategies. Chestnut flour is aimed at the gluten free crowd, but there’s also chestnut honey and beer. MSU helped develop peeled-frozen chestnut packs, hoping to appeal to the shopper on the go.

In Missouri, [University of Missouri forestry professor Michael] Gold likens it to selling a novel exotic fruit in U.S. markets for the first time: “We see our role as the catalyst in developing what we call the ‘new’ chestnut, as a new crop for American palates.”

Who needs an open fire when you can warm up with chestnut brew?

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

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Natural gas is eating coal’s lunch in the Southeast

by Myrna Posted on December 6, 2012

Natural gas is eating coal’s lunch in the Southeast

By Philip Bump

The natural gas revolution will not be televised, because it’s not fun to watch. But it might provide the power for your television, if that counts — and if you live in the Southeast, the odds that it does are climbing.

States in the Southeast use a lot of coal. On this map, the darker states produced the most coal power in 2011. The Southeast is pretty dark, though less so than Texas and the Rust Belt.

But that percentage is dropping, year-over-year, as the U.S. Energy Information Agency noted today.

The electric power industry in the southeastern United States has undergone substantial changes over the past three years. While coal-fired power plants continue to generate more than half of electricity in the region, coal-fired generation has declined since 2010, and production from natural gas-fired plants has increased. This change can be primarily attributed to changes in the relative prices of natural gas and coal, which altered the dispatch order of power plants in the region.

This is the same story, over and over again. Natural gas is cheaper, so people use less coal. The EIA provided the two following charts as well, showing generation as a function of cost for various facilities in the Southeast. The more expensive the type of fuel, the less likely it was to be used.

Here’s what the curve looked like in 2010. Note the yellow dots: Those are natural gas facilities, which came online as demand increased over the summer. Petroleum production (the red dots) is very expensive, so only when demand increased enough was it used. Coal took precedence over then-more-expensive natural gas.

Click to embiggen.

And here’s this year. Natural gas was used alongside coal, because it is much more affordable.

Click to embiggen.

Note that the Southeast is still not the region most in need of transition. Here are two more maps: The first shows coal as a percentage of each state’s total production, with darker states being more coal-reliant. The second shows natural gas as a percentage of each state’s production.

The increase in use of natural gas has helped drop our carbon dioxide emissions — but there’s a lot of work to be done.

There is only one factor that is prompting the switch from pollution-heavy coal to pollution-(relatively)-light natural gas: economics. Electricity providers are not switching from coal because they love Mother Earth. In other words, the natural gas revolution isn’t even a revolution. It’s just power companies using a coupon.

The coupon-using will not be shown on your natural-gas-powered television. Catchy.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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