Carbon Footprint
New carbon accounting method to reduce nitrogen fertilizer use
July 18, 2012 7:27 pm | News | CommentsIn 2011, corn was planted on more than 92 million acres in the U.S. Because corn is a nitrogen-loving plant, farmers must use synthetic nitrogen fertilizer to their fields every year to achieve their crop target. However, nitrogen is hard to contain and can negatively affect the environment. Researchers have come up with a solution, however, and it’s tied to the relationship between nitrates and nitrous oxide emissions.
Seagrasses can store as much carbon as forests
May 22, 2012 12:45 pm | News | CommentsThe first global analysis of carbon stored in seagrasses has revealed a surprising figure. While a typical terrestrial forest stores about 30,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer, most of which is in the form of wood, coastal seagrasses can account for 83,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer. Their global impact is significant as well.
Commercial building owners can save big with energy controls
April 20, 2012 7:58 am | News | CommentsAccording to a recent report from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, U.S. commercial building owners could save an average of 38% on their heating and cooling bills if they installed a handful of energy efficiency controls that make their heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems more energy efficient.
Monitoring system clarifies murky atmospheric carbon questions
April 19, 2012 2:14 pm | News | CommentsA University of Colorado Boulder-led team has developed a new monitoring system to analyze and compare emissions from man-made fossil fuels and trace gases in the atmosphere, a technique that likely could be used to monitor the effectiveness of measures regulating greenhouse gases.
Report: Diesel technologies drastically cut emissions
April 18, 2012 5:34 am | News | CommentsNew research from North Carolina State University shows that federal requirements governing diesel engines of new tractor trailer trucks have resulted in major cuts in emissions of particulate matter and nitrogen oxides—pollutants that have significant human health and environmental impacts.
Greenhouse gas can find a home underground
March 20, 2012 4:19 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsA new study by researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows that there is enough capacity in deep saline aquifers in the United States to store at least a century's worth of carbon dioxide emissions from the nation's coal-fired power plants. Though questions remain about the economics of systems to capture and store such gases, this study addresses a major issue that has overshadowed such proposals.
Lab partners with Native American carbon researchers
February 22, 2012 7:04 am | News | CommentsResearchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a team of American Indian scientists and engineers have partnered to study the possible use of Black Earth technology, or Cpryo, to help mitigate the uptake of radiocesium in locally grown foods in the Marshall Islands.
Carbon dioxide is 'driving fish crazy'
January 20, 2012 12:29 pm | News | CommentsAn international scientific team has found that rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous system of sea fishes. This unusual conclusion was brought about by the first evidence obtained that high carbon dioxide levels in sea water disrupts a key brain receptor in fish, caused detrimental changes in behavior.
UN: Concentrations of greenhouse gases hit record
November 22, 2011 5:30 am | News | CommentsCarbon dioxide levels for 2010 have recently been release by the World Meteorological Organization. They show that CO 2 levels are now at 389 parts per million, up from about 280 parts per million 250 years ago. Also, levels are up 2.3 parts per million from 2009.
Midwest has potential to store hundreds of years of carbon dioxide emissions
November 17, 2011 8:54 am | News | CommentsGeologic capacity exists to permanently store hundreds of years of regional carbon dioxide emissions in nine states stretching from Indiana to New Jersey, according to injection field tests conducted by the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP).
DOE captures fugitives to reduce its carbon emissions
November 16, 2011 10:00 am | News | CommentsIn terms of emissions, just one pound of sulfur hexafluoride, a nontoxic gas used in electric insulation, is equivalent to about 11 tons of carbon dioxide. Energy Department experts are hunting down this and other fugitive carbon emissions and have already prevented the release of 600,000 metric tons of carbon equivalent.
Scientists tackle the carbon conundrum
November 16, 2011 8:40 am | News | CommentsU.S. scientists have developed a new, integrated, ten-year science plan to better understand the details of Earth's carbon cycle and people's role in it. Understanding the carbon cycle is central for mitigating climate change and developing a sustainable future.
New project will study 'deep carbon'
November 15, 2011 9:57 am | News | CommentsCommercially crude oil occupies a region 5 to 10 miles beneath the Earth’s surface, but there is increasing interest in "abiogenic" hydrocarbons from much deeper in the Earth, which might make their way to the surface in some places. A new project to understand this "deep carbon" could affect both our thinking about energy supplies and the global movement of carbon.
Biggest jump ever seen in global warming gases
November 3, 2011 11:53 am | by Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsThe world pumped about 564 million more tons of carbon into the air in 2010 than it did in 2009. This represents an increase of 6%, and is more carbon emissions than the worst scenario figures offered by climatologists four years ago.
Researchers nurture innovative biofuel crops to reduce carbon footprint
October 26, 2011 10:38 am | News | CommentsFears of global warming and its impact on our environment have left scientists scrambling to decrease levels of atmospheric carbon we humans produce. Now, Tel Aviv University researchers are doing their part to reduce humanity's carbon footprint by successfully growing forests in the most unlikely place—deep in Israel's Aravah Desert.
California adopts extensive 'cap-and-trade' plan
October 21, 2011 8:13 am | by Jason Dearen, Associated Press | News | CommentsOn Thursday, California formally adopted the nation's most comprehensive so-called "cap-and-trade" system. The system will be an experiment by the world's eighth-largest economy to provide financial incentives for polluters to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Some businesses claim it will hurt job growth and increase electricity costs; proponents say it will do the opposite.
Physicists consider their own carbon footprint
September 30, 2011 11:31 am | News | CommentsAn astrophysicist at the University of Oxford calls on physicists to pull their weight when it comes to climate change, drawing on his own research showing that astronomers average 23,000 air miles per year flying to observatories, conferences, and meetings, and use 130 KWh more energy per day than the average U.S. citizen.
Report: EPA cut corners on climate finding
September 28, 2011 1:36 pm | by Dina Cappiello, Associated Press | News | CommentsAccording to an internal government watchdog, the Obama administration cut corners before concluding that climate-change pollution can endanger human health. This key finding underpins costly new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The American 'allergy' to global warming: Why?
September 26, 2011 5:41 am | by Charles J. Hanley, AP Special Correspondent | News | CommentsThe term first appeared in a 1975 report in the journal Science . Since then, disbelief in global warming trends have grown, even as a body of evidence grows that shows the climate is changing. In the U.S., this denial is especially steadfast.
Carbon dioxide sponge is carbon-neutral and edible
September 23, 2011 12:04 pm | by Megan Fellman | News | CommentsA year ago Northwestern University chemists published their recipe for a new class of nanostructures made of sugar, salt and alcohol. Now, the same team has discovered the edible compounds can efficiently detect, capture and store carbon dioxide.
Cold-region research shows decline in methane, ethane
August 16, 2011 6:24 am | News | CommentsAccording to researchers, fossil-fuel emissions in the form of both methane and ethane, two of the most abundant hydrocarbons in the atmosphere, declined at the end of the 20th century. The finding suggests that a change in human activities may played a leveling role in the shift.
Study: Emissions must be curbed to reach goals for atmosphere
August 5, 2011 6:35 am | by Mary Beckman | News | CommentsA new computer-based study from the Joint Global Change Research Institute, using a model developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, shows that by 2100, if society wants to limit carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to less than 40% higher than it is today, the lowest-cost option is to aggressively adopt nuclear, renewable energy, and electricity solutions.
Carbon Flux Explorers to trace the ocean’s carbon cycle
August 4, 2011 5:01 am | by Paul Preuss | News | CommentsSince the early 2000s a dozen experimental floating test platforms called Carbon Explorers have produced detailed information on the carbon cycle in the world’s oceans. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s next-generation platform, the Carbon Flux Explorer, survived a brief three-day test in a stormy gale and will soon fully deploy.
Carbon hitches a ride from field to market
August 4, 2011 4:54 am | by Frances White | News | CommentsToday’s agriculture is mobile: Crops are transported long distances, contributing to the nation’s carbon footprint. But crops also have their carbon footprint that is left not where they are grown, but where they are consumed. Recent research has produced a new map that shows the complexity of carbon distribution.
Unburned ethanol detected in atmospheric plumes
August 3, 2011 5:16 am | News | CommentsScientists in Miami has found that ethanol mixed in vehicle fuel is not completely burned, and its unique chemical signature can be found and tracked in atmospheric plumes. It differs from naturally occurring ethanol from plants, and, at least in the Miami area, accounts for 75% of the ethanol present.
