Study raises new doubts about carbon storage
US researchers who injected carbon dioxide in a depleted oil field in Texas found it caused the minerals underground to dissolve, raising fresh doubts about carbon capture and storage technology as a viable solution to global warming. Yousif Kharaka, the geochemist who led the experiment, said the 1,600 tonnes of liquid CO2 injected underground changed the acidity of the minerals, causing them to dissolve. This, she said, has environmental implications as the liquid CO2 could then leak into ground water or find its way back into the atmosphere and aggravate the greenhouse effect. The results of the study, performed in October 2004, were published in the July 2006 edition of journal Geology. (07/31/06) MORE»
U.S. sees record-breaking temperatures for first half of 2006
The government reports that the first half of the year was the warmest on record for the United States. The average temperature for the 48 contiguous states from January through June recorded at 51.8 degrees Fahrenheit, or 3.4 degrees above average for the 20th century. This makes it the warmest such period since record-keeping began at the National Climatic Data Center. According to the data, no state was cooler than average and five states—Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri—experienced record warmth for the period. As of June, 45 percent of the contiguous U.S. was in moderate-to-extreme drought, an increase of 6 percent from May. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, dry conditions spawned more than 50,000 wildfires, burning more than 3 million acres in the continental U.S. (07/17/06) MORE»
Toyota moves to corner the 'plug-in' market
Toyota's revelation Tuesday that it will develop a new "plug-in hybrid", which uses a wall socket at night to charge and relies on an electric motor to go many miles before sipping any gasoline, could presage a major shift in automotive technology, some industry analysts say. "When you combine plugging-in—which pushes fuel efficiency over 100 miles per gallon—with biofuels, then you're getting into multiple hundreds of miles per gallon," says Bradley Berman, publisher of hybridcars.com, a technology website. "It starts to look like a real here-and-now solution to oil dependence, air quality, and climate change." (07/20/06) MORE»
Gorbachev: Climate crisis and overpopulation being ignored
World leaders are ignoring issues such as climate change and over population despite the threats they pose to the "very foundations" of human existence on Earth, according to former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. Mr Gorbachev, speaking in Brisbane yesterday ahead of the global forum Earth Dialogues Brisbane 2006, said the Earth faced an environmental crisis. But issues including global warming, population growth, pollution and the depletion of natural resources are being ignored by the world's leaders. (07/22/06) MORE»
From a related article: A worldwide lack of water and energy supplies could spark wars, warns former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. Mr Gorbachev, who won a Nobel prize in 1990 for his contribution to ending the Cold War, said despite an increasing lack of resources "we are still acting in a very wasteful way. This is of great concern. It is a problem that basically comes down to the future of mankind," he said. (07/22/06) MORE»
Climate change takes toll on Bandelier
Bandelier National Monument is suffering from thirst and heat stroke. An estimated 90 percent of the piñon trees have died at the 32,700-acre national monument near Santa Fe because of drought, high temperatures and bark beetles, a new report says. That has led to erosion and an increased risk of wildfires that could damage archaeological sites, says the document issued Tuesday by environmental groups that looked at global warming's impact on parks in the West. Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado faces similar threats, while Glacier and Mount Rainier national parks are watching their glaciers melt away, according to Losing Ground: Western National Parks Endangered by Climate Disruption. (07/26/06) MORE»
Fight Global Warming by Increasing Soil's Organic Matter
We can begin counteracting the effects of global warming if farmers and ranchers build up "the organic content of their farmlands," says Texas agricultural consultant Malcolm Beck. They can do so by using animal grazing techniques developed 25 years ago by the Albuquerque, New Mexico-based non-profit, Holistic Management International (HMI). When a protective cover remains over the soil, the soil's ability to trap moisture goes up, and this increases the microbial action essential to carbon sequestration. Erosion is reduced, plant roots absorb more water, flood damage is lessened, and healthy habitats are created that increase the diversity of native plant and wildlife species. (07/27/06) MORE»
Climate change blamed for western US wildfires
Here's another thing to blame on climate change: wildfires, those forest and grass fires that have threatened communities across the U.S. West, according to research published on Thursday. And a warming climate will only cause more. "We show that large wildfire activity increased suddenly and dramatically in the mid-1980s, with higher large-wildfire frequency, longer wildfire durations and longer wildfire seasons," the researchers at the University of Arizona in Tucson and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California wrote in the journal Science. "When you have a warm spring and early summer, you get rapid snowmelt. With the snowmelt coming out a month earlier, areas get drier overall. There is a longer season in which a fire can be started and more opportunity for ignition." (07/06/06) MORE»
Rising Ocean Acidity Threatens Reefs
The same manmade gases that are heating up the planet are also making oceans acidic enough to dissolve the skeletons and shells of many marine organisms, according to a new scientific report released Wednesday. Already ocean surface concentrations of carbonic acid—created by excess atmospheric carbon dioxide dissolving into the water—are high enough to eat away the skeletons of many vital reef-building corals and microscopic "calcifiers," like caulk-making phytoplankton and tiny marine snails. The new report is the result of years of work by scientists worldwide and was assembled by top researchers. (07/05/06) MORE»
Lower grade uranium could hasten climate change pace
The value of nuclear power as a weapon against climate change might have been exaggerated..."The advantage may not be as large as has been claimed." The Oxford Research Group argues that a worldwide shortage of high- grade uranium ore will force new nuclear reactors to exploit increasingly lower-grade ores for their fuel. Because that requires more energy to extract, the process will result in ever-greater amounts of climate-wrecking pollution. A report by the Dutch nuclear expert Jan Willem Storm van Leeuwen says that, after 2034, the grade of uranium ore being dug out of the ground will fall dramatically. (07/09/06) MORE»
Beckett puts climate change at core of UK foreign policy
On her first official visit to Washington since being appointed British foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett put climate change at the heart of UK foreign policy, even as she acknowledged differences with the Bush administration on the issue...Mrs Beckett set out a sweeping national security agenda that suggested the need to tackle energy, climate, water and food security. "If we respond to the global imperative of climate change the right way, we can reinforce global security," she said. When she was appointed foreign secretary last month, Mrs Beckett said Tony Blair, the British prime minister, wanted to make climate change a "top strategic priority for the Foreign Office, to be mainstreamed through our work and through our diplomatic concerns". (07/11/06) MORE»
Gas-Guzzling Cars in London May Face Higher Charges
Drivers of the least environmentally friendly vehicles could face charges of up to 25 pounds a day to enter the capital's central congestion zone, under proposals outlined by mayor Ken Livingstone. Livingstone told the London Assembly about plans for the charge to reflect the carbon emission of vehicles in the same way as cars are subjected to road tax. The proposals would be for cleaner vehicles to pay slightly less than the current 8 pound charge while the more fuel-hungry would pay on an incremental scale, up to 25 pounds for gas-guzzlers like big 4x4 off-roaders. The chairman of the assembly's Transport Committee said he welcomed the proposals. "I hope we get carbon emission down in central London—we can then consider extending the scheme across London," Geoff Pope said in a statement. (07/13/06) MORE»
All Energy for Europe Could Come from Concentrating Solar Power
A study commissioned by the German Government shows in detail how Europe (including the UK and Ireland) can meet all its needs for electricity, cut emissions of CO2 from electricity generation by 70% by the year 2050, and phase out nuclear power at the same time, using concentrating solar power (CSP), according to a release from Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC). Dr. Franz Trieb, Project Manager for the two studies, said, "Every year, each square kilometer of desert receives solar energy equivalent to 1.5 million barrels of oil. Multiplying by the area of deserts worldwide, this is nearly a thousand times the entire current energy consumption of the world." "We can tap in to this energy by using mirrors to concentrate sunlight and create heat. The heat may be used to raise steam and drive a generator in the conventional way. (07/17/06) MORE» |
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