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DocWatch carbon sequestration Twitterit? News stories about "carbon sequestration," with punchlines: http://apocadocs.com/d.pl?carbon+sequestration Related Scary Tags: carbon emissions  ~ technological innovation  ~ technical cleverness  ~ coal issues  ~ climate impacts  ~ anthropogenic change  ~ smart policy  ~ efficiency increase  ~ forests  ~ holyshit  ~ carbon sinks   Wed, Jul 13, 2016 from University of Exeter, via DesdemonaDespair: Drought stalls tree growth and shuts down Amazon carbon sink A recent drought completely shut down the Amazon Basin's carbon sink, by killing trees and slowing their growth, a ground-breaking study led by researchers at the Universities of Exeter and Leeds has found. Previous research has suggested that the Amazon - the most extensive tropical forest on Earth and one of the "green lungs" of the planet - may be gradually losing its capacity to take carbon from the atmosphere. This new study, the most extensive land-based study of the effect of drought on Amazonian rainforests to date, paints a more complex picture, with forests responding dynamically to an increasingly variable climate.... Co-author Professor Oliver Phillips, from the University of Leeds, said: "For more than 20 years the Amazon has been providing a tremendous service, taking up hundreds of millions more tonnes of carbon every year in tree growth than it loses through tree death. But both the 2005 and 2010 droughts eliminated those net gains." ... Surely this was included in the modeling algorithms upon which the barely-sufficient Paris accords depend. ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Jul 5, 2015 from Science, via ScienceDaily: The oceans can't take any more: Fundamental change in oceans predicted Our oceans need an immediate and substantial reduction of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. If that doesn't happen, we could see far-reaching and largely irreversible impacts on marine ecosystems, which would especially be felt in developing countries. That's the conclusion of a new review study published today in the journal Science. In the study, the research team from the Ocean 2015 initiative assesses the latest findings on the risks that climate change poses for our oceans, and demonstrates how fundamentally marine ecosystems are likely to change if human beings continue to produce just as much greenhouse gases as before.... "To date, the oceans have essentially been the planet's refrigerator and carbon dioxide storage locker. For instance, since the 1970s they've absorbed roughly 93 percent of the additional heat produced by the greenhouse effect, greatly helping to slow the warming of our planet," explains Prof Hans-Otto Pörtner, co-author of the new Ocean 2015 study.... ... I think I'm hearing my heart explode. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Feb 2, 2015 from InsideClimate News: Southern Forests' Ability to Suck Carbon From the Air May Be Slowing ...How are today's forests doing when it comes to sucking carbon out of the atmosphere?...[Scientists] discovered a possible reduction in the ability of these forests to absorb carbon... The biggest factor is the age of the forests. They are getting old. And old trees don't have the same capacity to absorb carbon as younger trees because they are not growing as fast. ... Fewer Tony Bennett trees; more Taylor Swift trees! ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Jan 9, 2015 from Globe & Mail: Oil sands must remain largely unexploited to meet climate target, study finds The study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, does not single out the Alberta oil sands for special scrutiny, but rather considers the geographic distribution of the world's total fossil fuel supply, including oil, coal and natural gas reserves, and their potential impact on international efforts to curb global warming.... As previous studies have already shown, roughly two-thirds of fossil fuels that can already be extracted at a competitive price will need to remain unburned before 2050 to achieve this goal. The new analysis shows that in order to optimize costs and benefits, that two-thirds cannot be evenly distributed around the world, but must be skewed toward more carbon-intense fuels situated far from potential markets. The computer model suggests that it will be next to impossible to meet climate targets if those fuels are tapped to a significant degree, even as producers continue to develop these reserves.... The study uses a more conservative estimate of 48 billion barrels as the current reserve and then finds that only 7.5 billion barrels of that, or about 15 per cent, can be used by 2050 as part of the global allotment of fossil-fuel use in a two-degree scenario. The figure assumes that new technologies will make possible a reduction in the carbon intensity of oil sands production. If this does not happen, the authors say, then even less of the oil-sands reserve should be extracted. ... Tell ya what, oil sands: take your 15 cents on the dollar, and we won't sue you for environmental reparations. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Dec 29, 2014 from Sheffield, University of: Switch from cattle fields to 'carbon farms' could tackle climate change, save endangered animals cheaply Changing cattle fields to forests is a cheap way of tackling climate change and saving species threatened with extinction, a new study has found. Researchers from leading universities carried out a survey of carbon stocks, biodiversity and economic values from one of the world's most threatened ecosystems, the western Andes of Colombia. The main use of land in communities is cattle farming, but the study found farmers could make the same or more money by allowing their land to naturally regenerate. ... I'm raisin' a whole herd of carbons. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Sep 24, 2014 from New York Times: Companies Are Taking the Baton in Climate Change Efforts With political efforts to slow global warming moving at a tortuous pace, some of the world's largest companies are stepping into the void, pledging more support for renewable energy, greener supply chains and fresh efforts to stop the destruction of the world's tropical forests. Forty companies, among them Kellogg, L'Oréal and Nestlé, signed a declaration on Tuesday pledging to help cut tropical deforestation in half by 2020 and stop it entirely by 2030. They included several of the largest companies handling palm oil, the production of which has resulted in rampant destruction of old-growth forests, especially in Indonesia... Several environmental groups said they were optimistic that at least some of these would be kept, but they warned that corporate action was not enough, and that climate change could not be solved without stronger steps by governments. ... I thought government and corporations were the same thing. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, May 22, 2014 from European Association of Geochemistry: Iron from melting ice sheets may help buffer global warming A newly-discovered source of oceanic bioavailable iron could have a major impact our understanding of marine food chains and global warming. A UK team has discovered that summer meltwaters from ice sheets are rich in iron, which will have important implications on phytoplankton growth. The findings are reported in the journal Nature Communications on 21st May, 2014. It is well known that bioavailable iron boosts phytoplankton growth in many of Earth's oceans. In turn phytoplankton capture carbon -- thus buffering the effects of global warming. The plankton also feed into the bottom of the oceanic food chain, thus providing a food source for marine animals. ... Does that mean I can stop repressing this fart? ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Apr 9, 2014 from Reuters: Many nations wary of extracting carbon from air to fix climate Many nations want a draft U.N. report to tone down prospects for sucking greenhouse gases from the air to help fix global warming, reckoning the technologies are risky, documents seen by Reuters show. Government officials and scientists are meeting in Berlin this week to edit the report, which says time is running out to keep warming below an agreed ceiling of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times.... China, the European Union, Japan and Russia were among nations saying the draft, to be published on Sunday, should do more to stress uncertainties about technologies that the report says could be used to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and bury it below ground to limit warming. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) "technologies are currently not available and would be associated with high risks and adverse side-effects," the German government said in a comment on the draft by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). "There are no CDR technologies by now," Russia said. The technologies would go far beyond the traditional focus on cutting emissions from burning coal, oil or natural gas. ... Some things are as risky as doing no things. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jan 15, 2014 from Oregon State University: Oldest Trees Are Growing Faster, Storing More Carbon as They Age In a finding that overturns the conventional view that large old trees are unproductive, scientists have determined that for most species, the biggest trees increase their growth rates and sequester more carbon as they age. In a letter published today in the journal Nature, an international research group reports that 97 percent of 403 tropical and temperate species grow more quickly the older they get. ... I'll bet 97 percent of scientists agree on this. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Dec 31, 2013 from USA Today: Plastic made from pollution hits U.S. market Two childhood friends spent a decade, beginning in college, figuring out how to cheaply make plastic from carbon that's been captured from the atmosphere... Today, the 31-year-old co-founders of California-based Newlight Technologies have two factories that take methane captured from dairy farms and use it to make AirCarbon -- plastic that will soon appear in the form of chairs, food containers and automotive parts. Coming next year: cellphone cases for Virgin Mobile. "You'll be able to hold carbon in your hand," Herrema says of the products, which an independent lab says remove more carbon from the atmosphere than their manufacturing emits. By replacing oil-based plastics, he says he wants to help reduce global warming: "We actually want to change the world."... ... Conceivably, my kitchen sink could be a carbon sink. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Nov 23, 2013 from BBC: 'Signature' achievement on forests at UN climate talks Forests in Peru Countries with forests will have to provide information on safeguards for local communities. Nations meeting in Warsaw at UN talks have agreed [to] a significant step forward towards curbing emissions from deforestation. A package of measures has been agreed here that will give "results-based" payments to developing nations that cut carbon by leaving trees standing. One observer told the BBC that this was the "signature achievement" of these talks. Deforestation accounts for about 20 percent of global emissions of carbon dioxide. Earlier this week the UK, US, Norway and Germany agreed a $280m package of finance that will be managed by the World Bank's BioCarbon fund to promote more sustainable use of land. ... I can't see the deforest for the detrees. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, May 29, 2013 from PNAS, via RedOrbit: New CO2 Removal Technique Produces Green Fuel, Offsets Ocean Acidification A new technique to remove and store atmospheric carbon dioxide has been demonstrated by scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The new technique also generates carbon-negative hydrogen and produces alkalinity, which can be used to offset ocean acidification. At laboratory scale, the team demonstrated a system that uses the acidity normally produced in saline water electrolysis to accelerate silicate mineral dissolution. The system simultaneously produces hydrogen fuel and other gases. The electrolyte solution that results shows a significant elevation in hydroxide concentration that in turn proved strongly absorptive and retentive of atmospheric CO2. The findings of this study were published in a recent issue of PNAS. The carbonate and bicarbonate produced in the process could be used to mitigate ongoing ocean acidification, the researchers suggest, much like how an Alka Seltzer neutralizes excess acid in the stomach. ... Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it might be if it scales up! ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Apr 25, 2013 from Stanford, via EurekAlert: New battery design could help solar and wind power the grid ... Currently the electrical grid cannot tolerate large and sudden power fluctuations caused by wide swings in sunlight and wind. As solar and wind's combined contributions to an electrical grid approach 20 percent, energy storage systems must be available to smooth out the peaks and valleys of this "intermittent" power - storing excess energy and discharging when input drops.... When discharging, the molecules, called lithium polysulfides, absorb lithium ions; when charging, they lose them back into the liquid. The entire molecular stream is dissolved in an organic solvent, which doesn't have the corrosion issues of water-based flow batteries.... "In initial lab tests, the new battery also retained excellent energy-storage performance through more than 2,000 charges and discharges, equivalent to more than 5.5 years of daily cycles," Cui said.... A utility version of the new battery would be scaled up to store many megawatt-hours of energy. ... Warning: Carbon industry crash ahead! ApocaDoc permalink Want more context? Try reading our book FREE online: Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies! More fun than a barrel of jellyfish! Sun, Mar 24, 2013 from Guardian: Real market forces now drive action on climate change Fifteen years after the Kyoto protocol was signed and just months after being extended, a true global carbon trading marketplace may finally be within the world's grasp. It is as though a line of dominos has suddenly appeared, awaiting the slightest push to set off a chain reaction. When the dominos begin to fall, the world will suddenly have a powerful and effective tool to reduce carbon emissions, one of the most environmentally destructive aspects of modern human activity.... Oil is losing its place as a preferred fuel. The discovery of vast reserves of natural gas in the US is sparking a shift in the power generation industry. As more power plants convert from coal and oil to cleaner burning gas, emissions trading is losing its downside. With affordable alternatives in the wings, the reluctance among regulators and governments to impose emissions limits is easing. A signal moment in the cap and trade debate has arrived in the US. In winning a supreme court decision as to its right to impose emissions standards, the current administration has the power - and many think the inclination - to flip a major domino by setting standards for existing power plants (so far it has limited itself to new facilities). Such a move would make Kyoto ratification much less important. ... "Falling dominos," alas, sit right beside "tipping points." ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jun 12, 2012 from BBC: New holey material soaks up CO2 NOTT-202 is a "metal-organic framework" that works like a sponge, absorbing a number of gases at high pressures. But as the pressure is reduced, CO2 is retained as other gases are released. The development, reported in Nature Materials, holds promise for carbon capture and storage, or even for removing CO2 from the exhaust gases of power plants and factories. ... Until we build a solar-powered system that extracts carbon from the air, and pumps it back down the oil wells and mines faster than we burn it, it's hard to get excited. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, May 15, 2012 from PhysOrg: Scientists sound acid alarm for plankton The microscopic organisms on which almost all life in the oceans depends could be even more vulnerable to increasingly acidic waters than scientists realised, according to a new study. Previous experiments have given an unduly optimistic view of the impact of acidifying oceans on plankton; it turns out that the methods used may have biased their results. "Plankton often grow in clumps or aggregates," says Professor Kevin Flynn of Swansea University, lead author of the study. "But the way they are handled tends to break these clumps up. When a scientists starts working on a plankton sample in the lab, the first thing they do is give it a good shake."... They found that if predictions of general ocean acidification come true, many kinds of plankton will face much more acidic conditions, and more widely varying conditions over each day, than previously realized - conditions far beyond anything seen in recent history. The results are likely to be stunted growth, or even death.... In another twist, as seawater gets more acidic, its capacity to protect against even more acidity diminishes, so general ocean acidification will increase the impact of the local acidification that plankton trigger. ... Whaddaya expect? Plankton're not cute. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Apr 13, 2012 from ScienceDaily: Artificial Photosynthesis Breakthrough: Fast Molecular Catalyzer Researchers from the Department of Chemistry at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden, have managed to construct a molecular catalyzer that can oxidize water to oxygen very rapidly. In fact, these KTH scientists are the first to reach speeds approximating those is nature's own photosynthesis. The research findings play a critical role for the future use of solar energy and other renewable energy sources.... The speed with which natural photosynthesis occurs is about 100 to 400 turnovers per seconds. The KTH have now reached over 300 turnovers per seconds with their artificial photosynthesis.... "I'm convinced that it will be possible in ten years to produce technology based on this type of research that is sufficiently cheap to compete with carbon-based fuels. This explains why Barack Obama is investing billions of dollars in this type of research," says Licheng Sun. ... Replacing Mother Nature is just around the corner. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Dec 26, 2011 from Oregon State University via ScienceDaily: Forest Health Versus Global Warming: Fuel Reduction Likely to Increase Carbon Emissions Forest thinning to help prevent or reduce severe wildfire will release more carbon to the atmosphere than any amount saved by successful fire prevention, a new study concludes. There may be valid reasons to thin forests -- such as restoration of forest structure or health, wildlife enhancement or public safety -- but increased carbon sequestration is not one of them, scientists say... even in fire-prone forests, it's necessary to treat about 10 locations to influence fire behavior in one. There are high carbon losses associated with fuel treatment and only modest savings in reducing the severity of fire... ... We may be forced to thin the herd instead. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Sep 26, 2011 from Northwestern University via ScienceDaily: Edible Carbon Dioxide Sponge: All-Natural Nanostructures Could Address Pressing Environmental Problem A 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. And the compounds themselves are carbon-neutral. The porous crystals -- known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) -- are made from all-natural ingredients and are simple to prepare, giving them a huge advantage over other MOFs. Conventional MOFs, which also are effective at adsorbing carbon dioxide, are usually prepared from materials derived from crude oil and often incorporate toxic heavy metals. ... We need mo' mofos like MOFs! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Aug 3, 2011 from EurekAlert: Crop breeding could 'slash CO2 levels' Writing in the journal Annals of Botany, Professor Douglas Kell argues that developing crops that produce roots more deeply in the ground could harvest more carbon from the air, and make crops more drought resistant, while dramatically reducing carbon levels. In principle, any crops could be treated in this way, giving more productive yields while also being better for the environment.... Breeding crop plants with deeper and bushy root ecosystems could simultaneously improve both the soil structure and its steady-state carbon, water and nutrient retention, as well as sustainable plant yields.... "In addition to the simple carbon sequestration that this breeding could imply - possibly double that of common annual grain crops - such plants seem to mobilise and retain nutrients and water very effectively over extended periods, thus providing resistance to drought, flooding and other challenges we shall face from climate change. "While there is a way to go before such crops might have, for example, the grain yields of present day cereals, their breeding and deployment seems a very promising avenue for sustainable agriculture." ... I'm rooting for this guy! ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Jul 15, 2011 from Reuters: As CO2 levels rise, land becomes less able to absorb CO2 Scientists say land ecosystems are an essential brake on the pace of climate change because plants soak up large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) as they grow. This also boosts the level of carbon in soils. But in a study published in the British journal Nature on Thursday, scientists say rising levels of planet-warming CO2 will trigger an increased release of two other far more potent greenhouse gases from soils, rice paddies and wetlands. "Our results suggest that the capacity of land ecosystems to slow climate warming has been overstated," the authors, led by Kees Jan van Groenigen of Northern Arizona University in the United States, conclude.... But rising levels of nitrous oxide and methane offsets some of the benefit. Van Groenigen and colleagues calculated that a surge in the release of greenhouse gases from soils would negate at least 16.6 percent of the previously estimated climate change fighting potential of increased carbon storage in the landscape. This means the pace of global warming could in fact be faster than previously thought and that complex computer models that scientists use to project the impacts of climate change would need to be adjusted, van Groenigen told Reuters. ... More is less. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jul 11, 2011 from University of Wisconsin, via EurekAlert: Climate change reducing ocean's carbon dioxide uptake How deep is the ocean's capacity to buffer against climate change? As one of the planet's largest single carbon absorbers, the ocean takes up roughly one-third of all human carbon emissions, reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide and its associated global changes.... "The ocean is taking up less carbon because of the warming caused by the carbon in the atmosphere," says McKinley, an assistant professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and a member of the Center for Climatic Research in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.... But the researchers found that rising temperatures are slowing the carbon absorption across a large portion of the subtropical North Atlantic. Warmer water cannot hold as much carbon dioxide, so the ocean's carbon capacity is decreasing as it warms. ... The oceans are gettin' lazy! ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Mar 19, 2011 from ASA, via EurekAlert: Can biochar help suppress greenhouse gases? Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas and a precursor to compounds that contribute to the destruction of the ozone. Intensively managed, grazed pastures are responsible for an increase in nitrous oxide emissions from grazing animals' excrement. Biochar is potentially a mitigation option for reducing the world's elevated carbon dioxide emissions, since the embodied carbon can be sequestered in the soil. Biochar also has the potential to beneficially alter soil nitrogen transformations. Laboratory tests have indicated that adding biochar to the soil could be used to suppress nitrous oxide derived from livestock. Biochar has been used for soil carbon sequestration in the same manner.... Addition of biochar to the soil allowed for a 70 percent reduction in nitrous oxide fluxes over the course of the study. Nitrogen contribution from livestock urine to the emitted nitrous oxide decreased as well. The incorporation of biochar into the soil had no detrimental effects on dry matter yield or total nitrogen content in the pasture. ... Can't we do the same thing with industro-char? ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Feb 1, 2011 from Yale360: Ocean Fertilization to Cut CO2 Has Low Chance of Success, Study Says The first comprehensive survey of plans to remove CO2 from the atmosphere by seeding the oceans with iron or other nutrients shows that even widespread fertilization would remove only modest amounts of CO2 from the air over the next century. The summary of existing studies said ocean fertilization also carries a risk of causing unintended long-term harm to marine ecosystems. Ocean fertilization involves dumping iron and other nutrients into the ocean to trigger the growth of phytoplankton, which consumes CO2 as it grows. But the summary, released at a conference on climate geoengineering schemes in California, said the risks of ocean fertilization probably far outweigh the rewards, as it is extremely difficult to assess the impact of the technique over wide swaths of ocean. ... I'm sure we'll figure something out. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jan 10, 2011 from CBC: China bans logging in largest forest reserve China has banned logging in its largest forest reserve area for 10 years in a bid to combat climate change. The official Xinhua News agency reported Monday that logging will be prohibited until 2020 in the Great and Lesser Hinggan Mountains in the northeast.... China is trying to increase the size of its forests by 40 million hectares to help reduce greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. The forest reserve in the Hinggan mountains spreads out over 430,000 square kilometres across Heilongjiang province and into neighbouring Inner Mongolia. ... Don'tcha hate it when one-party rule makes democracies look like dilly-dallyers? ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Jan 9, 2011 from Chemical and Engineering News: Scrubbing Carbon Dioxide From The Air And Ocean New research points toward a solution that could kill two birds with one stone: Remove CO2 from a natural-gas-powered plant's waste gas stream using seawater and mineral calcium carbonate, and then pump the resulting calcium bicarbonate into the sea to neutralize it.... Roughly one-third of anthropogenic CO2 emissions come from burning fossil fuel in electricity plants.... Rau built a lab-scale scrubber that used seawater and mineral carbonate to remove CO2 from a simulated flue gas stream. The scrubber worked by pumping CO2 over or through a porous bed of limestone particles sprayed with a continuous flow of water. He found that the process removed up to 97 percent of the CO2 in the gas. Water hydrated the waste CO2 to produce carbonic acid, which then reacted with, and was neutralized by the limestone. As a result, the CO2 gas transformed into dissolved calcium bicarbonate. Dumping the dissolved calcium bicarbonate into the ocean would provide a second benefit: The calcium bicarbonate can increase seawater alkalinity, Rau says, by speeding up a natural but very slow process known as carbonate weathering, which captures carbon in the ocean. The world's oceans would benefit from increasing alkalinity because they absorb as much as one-third of man-made CO2 emissions and are becoming more acidic. Ocean acidity in turn threatens the health of coral reefs, calcareous plankton, and other sea life. "We might be able to safely modify ocean chemistry to help mitigate both CO2 and ocean acidification," Rau says. ... Y'know, lab-scale solar works really well too! ApocaDoc permalink You're still reading! Good for you! You really should read our short, funny, frightening book FREE online (or buy a print copy): Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies! We've been quipping this stuff for more than 30 months! Every day! Which might explain why we don't get invited to parties anymore. Fri, Jan 7, 2011 from BBC: Dirty Business film debunks 'clean coal' myth Dirty Business, the new documentary from the Centre for Investigative Journalism, began its nationwide screening tour last night in Berkeley, California, with the aim of debunking the myth of "clean coal" and kick-starting a debate on the future of energy in the US. The film shows scarred mountains, abandoned family homes on remote hillsides, water courses toxic with sludge, respiratory fatalities and children whose growth has been stunted by pollution as some of the side effects of coal extraction and the power stations that burn it. And, of course, it shows the effect of coal combustion on global temperatures.... Vaclav Smil, professor at the faculty of environment at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, estimates that the infrastructure of networks of pipelines for CCS would have to be twice that for oil and gas. He says: "Clearly you don't have to know anything about anything to realise that industry like that is not going to be created in five or 10 years and still it would contain only 10 percent of [emissions] we are generating today. The problem of scale is immense. It's not a technical problem, it's not a storage problem, it's just a problem scaling it up to a level where it would make a difference." Aside from the problem of building an infrastructure of a technology not yet operating at an economic scale, the real dirty business, as the film suggests, is the murky work of lobbyists, who pay large sums of money to influence political direction. ... The "problem of scale" is so immense it becomes its own problem of scale. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Dec 14, 2010 from Edmunton Journal: Mystery under our feet troubling ...one of Shell Canada's open pit mines in the oilsands...has sprung a leak at the bottom -- but instead of water running out, it's running in. Ever since October, brackish water from an underground source has been pouring into the bottom of the open mine like water filling a bathtub up through the drain hole. Shell initially dumped dirt into the leak as a sort of stopper but the water kept coming. And it's still coming, gradually filling up the pit that at its mouth is 400 metres by 400 metres. Shell officials have built a higher earthen wall around the pit and expect that in the coming months the water pressure will equalize and the leak will stop before it overflows...what's troubling here -- and why you should care about a watery mine pit in a remote part of northeastern Alberta -- is that experts don't know where the water came from, how much has flowed into the pit or how they can stop it.That's troubling because it demonstrates how little we know about the water under our feet. We don't know much about underground sources of drinking water and we know even less about the vast underground aquifers of salt water where we hope one day to dump vast amounts of carbon dioxide via carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). ... Why, this sounds like a cute little BP blowout! ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Dec 13, 2010 from Stanford University, via PhysOrg: Earthshaking possibilities may limit underground storage of carbon dioxide Storing massive amounts of carbon dioxide underground in an effort to combat global warming may not be easy to do because of the potential for triggering small- to moderate-sized earthquakes, according to Stanford geophysicist Mark Zoback. While those earthquakes are unlikely to be big enough to hurt people or property, they could still cause serious problems for the reservoirs containing the gas. "It is not the shaking an earthquake causes at the surface that creates the hazard in this instance, it is what it does at depth," Zoback said. "It may not take a very big earthquake to damage the seal of an underground reservoir that has been pumped full of carbon dioxide."... The other complication, Zoback said, is that for sequestration to make a significant contribution to reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the volume of gas injected into reservoirs annually would have to be almost the same as the amount of fluid now being produced by the oil and gas industry each year. This would likely require thousands of injection sites around the world. "Think about how many wells and pipelines and how much infrastructure has been developed to exploit oil and gas resources over the last hundred years," he said. "You need something of comparable scale and volume for carbon dioxide sequestration." ... Well then, I'm sure glad we have clean coal technology that's just around the corner. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Sep 17, 2010 from Guardian: Carbon-absorbent foam triumphs at 2010 Earth Awards An artificial foam inspired by the meringue-like nest of a South American frog has won the 2010 Earth Awards. The foam, which could help to tackle climate change, soaks up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and generates sugars that can be converted into biofuel. The Earth Awards were set up in 2007 to bring together green start-ups strapped for cash with investors. Between March and May, over 500 designs were submitted to a panel of judges that included Richard Branson, Jane Goodall, David de Rothschild and Diane von Furstenberg.... The foam, which will be installed in the flues of coal-burning power plants, captures carbon dioxide and locks it away as sugar before it has a chance to enter the atmosphere and contribute to climate change. Due to its frothy structure, the foam can be up to five times more efficient than plants at converting carbon dioxide into sugar.... The secret to the foam's success is a protein that the Tungara frog uses as scaffolding in its foamy nests. "I read about a protein that the frog uses that allows bubbles to form in the nest, but doesn't destroy the lipid membranes of the eggs that the females lay in the foam, and realised that it was perfect for our own foam." ... See? Proof that CleanCoal™ is a reality! Or at least, just around the corner! ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Sep 13, 2010 from Carnegie Institution via ScienceDaily: Carbon Mapping Breakthrough By integrating satellite mapping, airborne-laser technology, and ground-based plot surveys, scientists from the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, with colleagues from the World Wildlife Fund and in coordination with the Peruvian Ministry of the Environment (MINAM), have revealed the first high-resolution maps of carbon locked up in tropical forest vegetation and emitted by land-use practices. These new maps pave the way for accurate monitoring of carbon storage and emissions for the proposed United Nations initiative on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). ... How wonderful that we can actually watch the horror unfold! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Aug 18, 2010 from Rice, via EnvironmentalResearchWeb: Carbon surprise on Texas river A new study by geochemists at Rice University finds that damming and other human activity has completely obscured the natural carbon dioxide cycle in Texas' longest river, the Brazos. "The natural factors that influence carbon dioxide cycling in the Brazos are fairly obvious, and we expected the radiocarbon signature of the river to reflect those influences," said study co-author Caroline Masiello, assistant professor of Earth science at Rice. "But it looks like whatever the natural process was in the Brazos, in terms of sources and sinks of carbon dioxide, it has been completely overprinted by human activities." ... Plants take up carbon dioxide from the air via photosynthesis and store it in their leaves and stems. Some of that stored carbon gets buried in the soil and locked away for hundreds or thousands of years. But much is also washed into rivers, where rapid decomposition can quickly return it to the atmosphere. Understanding when and where that plant carbon dioxide is returned to the atmosphere is essential if policymakers are to plan effective carbon-sequestration strategies.... Scientists currently believe Earth's rivers take up about 1 gigaton of carbon each year and give off about the same amount. But the exact dynamics of the process are largely unknown. For example, the residence time of carbon dioxide - how long it stays in the river - has been studied in fewer than a half a dozen rivers worldwide. If a significant number of those rivers are like the Brazos, scientists may need to adjust the way they think about rivers inhaling and exhaling carbon dioxide. ... Is that a "known unknown" or an "unknown unknown"? ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Aug 2, 2010 from American Society of Agronomy, via EurekAlert: Is biochar the answer for ag? Scientists demonstrate that biochar, a type charcoal applied to soils in order to capture and store carbon, can reduce emissions of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, and inorganic nitrogen runoff from agriculture settings. The finding will help develop strategies and technologies to reduce soil nitrous oxide emissions and reduce agriculture's influence on climate change.... The study revealed for the first time that interactions between biochar and soil that occur over time are important when assessing the influence of biochar on nitrogen losses from soil. The scientists subjected soils samples to three wetting-drying cycles, to simulate a range of soil moistures during the five-month study period, and measured nitrous oxide emissions and nitrogen runoff. Initially, biochar application produced inconsistent effects. Several early samples produced greater nitrous oxide emissions and nitrate leaching than the control samples. However, during the third wetting-drying cycle, four months after biochar application, all biochars reduced nitrous oxide emissions by up to 73 percent, and reduced ammonium leaching by up to 94 percent. The researchers suggest that reductions in nitrous oxide emissions and nitrogen leaching over time were due to "ageing" of the biochars in soil. ... Carbon sequestration and nitrogen stabilization and runoff control? This sounds like a conspiracy. ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Jul 4, 2010 from New York Times: Could Crystals Sponge Up the Carbon? As a climate change prevention strategy, carbon capture and storage is nowhere near ready for prime time. On the storage side of the equation, major questions remain on how and where to sequester the billions of tons of gas produced by power plants and industry every year. Another stumbling block, known as the parasitic energy cost, is the amount of energy needed to strip carbon out of power plant emissions. Carbon capture technologies being tested today, like amine scrubbing, exact an energy penalty as high as 30 percent, a vast and perhaps untenable expense to utilities and society. Yet a breakthrough in chemistry may be able to radically reduce the cost of stripping carbon from power plant emissions, potentially making carbon capture and storage a far more realistic climate change solution. That is the hope, at least, of researchers studying a remarkable class of materials called metal-organic frameworks.... A single gram, unfolded and flattened, could cover a football field. And most promisingly, these crystals can be adjusted to absorb specific molecules like carbon dioxide.... "We think we can modify the surface so it will cause just the carbon dioxide to stick," Dr. Long said in an interview. "It would be a sort of carbon-dioxide selective sponge." ... Crystals already balanced my aura, so I'm not surprised. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Jul 3, 2010 from SolveClimate: IEA: $46 Trillion Roadmap for Halving Global Emissions a "Bargain" Memo to the planet from the International Energy Agency: Buckle down and speed up the nascent low-carbon revolution. Top thinkers from the energy watchdog presented an ambitious 40-year pathway to halve the world's carbon emissions during a Thursday rollout at the National Press Club. Indeed, weaning the globe of its fossil fuel dependency will require ingenuity, cooperation and tens of trillions of dollars. But IEA maintains that bumping up investments in renewables, nuclear power and a smart electric grid, and perfecting technologies such as carbon sequestration are the most reasonable and reachable course available to keep Earth's temperature stable and arrest the severe impacts climate scientists agree are imminent--and already occurring.... In addition, the plan counts on the rather rapid maturation of a technology still in the test phases--carbon capture and sequestration. The catch is that IEA's proposal calls for constructing 30 new nuclear plants and outfitting 35 coal-fired plants with the technology to capture carbon emissions and bury them underground every year through 2050. ... Some days these "all it would take to save the world is..." stories are the saddest of all. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jun 28, 2010 from Grist: 'Carbon storage' faces leak dilemma, study finds Dreams of braking global warming by storing carbon emissions from power plants could be undermined by the risk of leakage, according to a study published on Sunday. Rich countries have earmarked tens of billions of dollars of investment in carbon capture and storage (CCS), a technology that is still only at an experimental stage. With CCS, carbon dioxide would be snared at source from plants that are big burners of oil, gas, and coal. Instead of being released into the atmosphere, where it would contribute to global warming, the gas would be buried in the deep ocean or piped into underground chambers such as disused gas fields.... Storing CO2 in the ocean will contribute to acidification of the sea, with dangers that reverberate up the food chain, says its author, Gary Shaffer, a professor at the Danish Centre for Earth System Science in Humlebaek, Denmark. It also carries a higher risk of being returned to the atmosphere by ocean currents and storms. Underground storage is a better option, but only if the geological chamber does not have a significant leak or is not breached by an earthquake or some other movement, says the paper.... To offset any bigger leak, re-sequestration would be needed -- in other words, grabbing an equivalent amount of CO2 from the air and storing it. But this would be a cost burden that could last for millennia. ... Guess we better work on that "clean coal" thing. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Jun 18, 2010 from CanWest News Service: Carbon emissions having harmful, lasting impact on oceans: Reports The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a disaster, but it may pale compared to what scientists say is brewing in the world's oceans due to everyday consumption of fossil fuels. The billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide sent wafting into the atmosphere each year through the burning of oil, gas and coal are profoundly affecting the oceans, says a series of reports published Friday in the journal Science... Marine scientists Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, at the University of Queensland in Australia, and John Bruno, at University of North Carolina, describe how the oceans act as a "heat sink" and are slowly heating up along with the atmosphere as greenhouse gas emissions climb. The warming, they say, is "likely to have profound influences on the strength, direction and behaviour" of major ocean currents and far-reaching impacts on sea life. ... The surf is up a creek with a dissolving paddle. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Jun 11, 2010 from Friends of the Earth, via SolveClimate: Potential of "Clean Coal" to Reduce Emissions is Overstated A new research paper by Friends of the Earth (FOE) Denmark says that governments and institutions have greatly overstated the potential of CCS to curb greenhouse gases and asserts that even if widely deployed, it would only avoid a "small fraction" of global warming emissions from coal-fired power plants by mid-century.... His research found that about 11 percent of total coal plant emissions would be avoided over the next 50 years - assuming 40 percent of coal plants have CCS by 2050. That means 90 percent of the emissions expected from the world's coal plants would still reach the atmosphere.... "I couldn't believe it," Bendsen told SolveClimate of his "very, very surprising" result. ... Well... that would just about cover Guangdong Province's emissions, by then. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Apr 30, 2010 from American Chemical Society, via EurekAlert: A roadmap for 'the only practical way to preserve the planet' The United States could completely stop emissions of carbon dioxide from coal-fired electric power plants -- a crucial step for controlling global warming -- within 20 years by using technology that already exists or could be commercially available within a decade.... Pushker Kharecha and colleagues say that the global climate change problem becomes manageable only if society deals quickly with emissions of carbon dioxide from burning coal in electric power plants. "The only practical way to preserve a planet resembling that of the Holocene (today's world) with reasonably stable shorelines and preservation of species, is to rapidly phase out coal emissions and prohibit emissions from unconventional fossil fuels such as oil shale and tar sands," they state.... They include elimination of subsidies for fossil fuels; putting rising prices on carbon emissions; major improvements in electricity transmission and the energy efficiency of homes, commercial buildings, and appliances; replacing coal power with biomass, geothermal, wind, solar, and third-generation nuclear power; and after successful demonstration at commercial scales, deployment of advanced (fourth-generation) nuclear power plants; and carbon capture and storage at remaining coal plants. ... That's too hard. Can't we just put up a big space umbrella over 10 percent of the globe? ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Apr 8, 2010 from Greenwire: Frightened, Furious Neighbors Undermine German Co2-Trapping Power Project ...The first electric utility in the world to launch a coal-fired power plant designed from the ground up to capture its carbon dioxide emissions, Vattenfall has found that building the complicated 70 million [Euros] pilot plant may have been the easy part. Finding a home for its captured gas? Now that's hard. For more than a year, the plant has been doing its job, capturing 90 percent of its CO2, the heat-trapping gas that drives global warming. Nestled in strip-mining country in eastern Germany, the plant could provide the prototype for the next generation of relatively affordable "clean" coal plants. But until Vattenfall finds a place to stash its CO2, those dreams will be as intangible as the CO2 it collects and vents every few days back into the atmosphere. Vatenfall AB, which is owned by the Swedish government, has been frustrated by boisterous local opposition to its plans to pump CO2 more than a kilometer underground into porous rock formations. ... NIMUPRF: Not In MY Underground Porous Rock Formations ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Feb 12, 2010 from ScienceDaily: Chemists Create Synthetic 'Gene-Like' Crystals for Carbon Dioxide Capture UCLA chemists report creating a synthetic "gene" that could capture heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming, rising sea levels and the increased acidity of oceans.... "We have taken organic and inorganic units and combined them into a synthetic crystal which codes information in a DNA-like manner. It is by no means as sophisticated as DNA, but it is certainly new in chemistry and materials science." The discovery could lead to cleaner energy, including technology that factories and cars can use to capture carbon dioxide before it reaches the atmosphere. "What we think this will be important for is potentially getting to a viable carbon dioxide-capture material with ultra-high selectivity," said Yaghi, who holds UCLA's Irving and Jean Stone Chair in Physical Sciences and is director of UCLA's Center for Reticular Chemistry. "I am optimistic that is within our reach. Potentially, we could create a material that can convert carbon dioxide into a fuel, or a material that can separate carbon dioxide with greater efficiency." ... My potential excitement is just around the corner! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Dec 1, 2009 from Times Online (UK): Carbon must be sucked from air, says IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri Drastic cuts in carbon emissions may not be sufficient to avoid the worst ravages of global warming and the world will need to suck carbon from the atmosphere to avert permanent damage to the climate, according to a leading world authority on climate science. In an interview with The Times, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), proposed that new techniques should be applied to help to mop up atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide that have been pumped into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels. "There are enough technologies in existence to allow for mitigation," he said. "At some point we will have to cross over and start sucking some of those gases out of the atmosphere." ... Go in reverse? That sucks indeed. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Nov 12, 2009 from Mongabay: Boreal forests contain more carbon than tropical forest per hectare A new report states that boreal forests store nearly twice as much carbon as tropical forests per hectare: a fact which researchers say should make the conservation of boreal forests as important as tropical in climate change negotiations. The report from the Canadian Boreal Initiative and the Boreal Songbird Initiative, entitled "The Carbon the World Forgot", estimates that the boreal forest -- which survives in massive swathes across Alaska, Canada, Northern Europe, and Russia -- stores 22 percent of all carbon on the earth's land surface. According to the study the boreal contains 703 gigatons of carbon, while the world's tropical forests contain 375 gigatons.... Researchers explain that while tropical forests store most of their carbon in vegetation, boreal forests store vast amounts of the greenhouse gas deep in permafrost soil and peatlands in addition to its trees. Cold temperatures prevent the complete breakdown of dead biomass in the boreal, so that carbon is accumulated over time, sometimes even millennia. Scientists have found carbon that has been locked away for 8,000 years. ... All right! We can still burn rainforests for palm oil plantations! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Nov 10, 2009 from Science Daily: Antarctica Glacier Retreat Creates New Carbon Dioxide Store; Has Beneficial Impact On Climate Change Large blooms of tiny marine plants called phytoplankton are flourishing in areas of open water left exposed by the recent and rapid melting of ice shelves and glaciers around the Antarctic Peninsula. This remarkable colonisation is having a beneficial impact on climate change. As the blooms die back phytoplankton sinks to the sea-bed where it can store carbon for thousands or millions of years. Reporting recently in the journal Global Change Biology, scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) estimate that this new natural 'sink' is taking an estimated 3.5 million tonnes* of carbon from the ocean and atmosphere each year.... *The 3.5 million tonnes of carbon taken from the ocean and atmosphere is equivalent to 12.8 million tonnes of CO2. Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion and land use change reached 8.7 billion tonnes of carbon in 2007. ... That's just Nature's way of buying us an extra day or two! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Oct 14, 2009 from UPI: Climate change may be faster than expected A team of U.S. scientists has, for the first time, successfully incorporated the nitrogen cycle into global climate change simulations.... "We've shown that if all of the global modeling groups were to include some kind of nutrient dynamics, the range of model predictions would shrink because of the constraining effects of the carbon nutrient limitations, even though it's a more complex model," Oak Ridge scientist Peter Thornton said. By taking the natural demand for nutrients into account, the authors demonstrated the stimulation of plant growth during the coming century might be two to three times smaller than previously predicted. Since less growth implies less carbon dioxide absorbed by vegetation, the CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere are expected to increase. ... We don't even know how much we don't even know. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Oct 10, 2009 from CleanTechnica: 90 percent of Coal Plant CO2 Captured in 12-Month Test One year ago the French company Alstrom began a year-long US test of capturing CO2 from the water+carbon-dioxide mix created using their chilled-ammonia technology, in the smokestack of the Pleasant Prairie Power Plant in Wisconsin. This week the year's results were announced. The years average CO2 capture rate was 90 percent, according to a joint announcement from the EPRI, We Energies and Alstrom to the Society of Environmental Journalists.... The 12-month test was just completed after running 24 hours a day on a small sectioned-off portion of the smokestack; working on just 5 percent of the plants total emissions. But the test is scalable, and the Electric Power Research Institute, the R&D arm of the utility industry, is optimistic that chilled-ammonia technology will work on a larger scale. It is one of several carbon-capture technologies under consideration as we move to a carbon constrained world. ... I think we need another few years of study, don't you? ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Oct 10, 2009 from BBC (UK): 'Scary' climate message from past A new historical record of carbon dioxide levels suggests current political targets on climate may be "playing with fire", scientists say. Researchers used ocean sediments to plot CO2 levels back 20 million years. Levels similar to those now commonly regarded as adequate to tackle climate change were associated with sea levels 25-40m (80-130 ft) higher than today.... In the intervening millennia, CO2 concentrations have been much lower; in the last few million years they cycled between 180ppm and 280ppm in rhythm with the sequence of ice ages and warmer interglacial periods. Now, humanity's emissions of greenhouse gases are pushing towards the 400ppm range, which will very likely be reached within a decade.... "This is yet another paper that makes the future look more scary than previously thought by many," said the University of Arizona scientist. ... Lucky for me, I just watch television, where there are no papers to read. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Sep 2, 2009 from BBC (UK): Engineering Earth 'is feasible' A UK Royal Society study has concluded that many engineering proposals to reduce the impact of climate change are "technically possible". Such approaches could be effective, the authors said in their report.... Of the two basic geo-engineering approaches, the report concluded that those involving the removal of carbon dioxide were preferable, as they effectively return the climate system closer to its pre-industrial state. But the authors found that many of these options were currently too expensive to implement widely.... The study also said that many of these approaches had huge logistical demands, and it could take several decades for them to be implemented. ... I am sanguine in my belief that humans understand ecosystem complexities well enough to predict all the consequences of our actions. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Aug 18, 2009 from DOE, via EurekAlert: New process removes sulfur components, CO2 from power plant emissions The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has developed a reusable organic liquid that can pull harmful gases such as carbon dioxide or sulfur dioxide out of industrial emissions from power plants. The process could directly replace current methods and allow power plants to capture double the amount of harmful gases in a way that uses no water, less energy and saves money. "Power plants could easily retrofit to use our process as a direct replacement for existing technology," said David Heldebrant, PNNL's lead research scientist for the project.... Harmful gases such as carbon dioxide or sulfur dioxide are called "acid gases". The new scrubbing process uses acid gas-binding organic liquids that contain no water and appear similar to oily compounds. These liquids capture the acid gases near room temperature. Scientists then heat the liquid to recover and dispose of the acid gases properly. ... Double survival, double it now, with doublegood, doublefun, monoethanolamine. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Aug 13, 2009 from Telegraph.co.uk: Thumbnail Explanations of Current Carbon Markets Companies and governments are turning to emissions trading as a weapon to fight climate change in a carbon market worth $125 billion last year. Here are some of the proposed plans and existing schemes. Carbon markets allow polluters to buy rights to emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Under cap and trade schemes, companies or countries face a carbon limit. If they exceed their limit they can buy allowances from others. Alternatively, they can buy carbon offsets from projects which avoid greenhouse gas emissions outside the scheme, often in developing countries.... [Thumbnail overviews of Kyoto, EU, NE US, Japan, Australia, US, US & Canada, New Zealand's carbon markets.] ... Milk-toast insufficient solutions soppy with special interest juice. I'll have mine with despair sauce, please. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jul 22, 2009 from West Virginia Gazette: Carbon capture for coal costly, study finds Harvard University researchers have issued a new report that confirms what many experts already feared: Stopping greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants is going to cost a lot of money.... Electricity costs could double at a first-generation plant that captures and stores carbon dioxide emissions, according to the report from energy researchers at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center. Costs would drop as the technology matures, but could still amount to an increase of 22 to 55 percent, according to the report, "Realistic Costs of Carbon Capture," issued this week.... In the U.S., coal provides half of the nation's electricity. Many experts believe that, because of vast supplies, coal will continue to generate much of the nation's power for many years to come. ... OMG!! You mean we might have to almost pay the true cost of coal?? ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jul 15, 2009 from American Chemical Society, via EurekAlert: Capturing CO2 in a bowl The accidental discovery of a bowl-shaped molecule that pulls carbon dioxide out of the air suggests exciting new possibilities for dealing with global warming, including genetically engineering microbes to manufacture those CO2 "catchers," a scientist from Maryland reports in an article scheduled for the August 3 issue of ACS' Inorganic Chemistry, a bi-weekly journal. J. A. Tossell notes in the new study that another scientist discovered the molecule while doing research unrelated to global climate change. Carbon dioxide was collecting in the molecule, and the scientist realized that it was coming from air in the lab. Tossell recognized that these qualities might make it useful as an industrial absorbent for removing carbon dioxide. ... Cool! Can we figure out a "cup" to take carbonic acid out of the ocean? ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jul 14, 2009 from Inderscience via ScienceDaily: Trapping Carbon Dioxide Or Switching To Nuclear Power Not Enough To Solve Global Warming Problem, Experts Say Attempting to tackle climate change by trapping carbon dioxide or switching to nuclear power will not solve the problem of global warming, according to energy calculations published in the July issue of the International Journal of Global Warming... The researchers have calculated that the heat energy accumulated in the atmosphere corresponds to a mere 6.6 percent of global warming, while the remaining heat is stored in the ground (31.5 percent), melting ice (33.4 percent) and sea water (28.5 percent). They point out that net heat emissions between the industrial revolution circa 1880 and the modern era at 2000 correspond to almost three quarters of the accumulated heat, i.e., global warming, during that period. ... So I guess this means it's time to party hardy! ApocaDoc permalink Mon, May 25, 2009 from London Guardian: Climate change summit hijacked by biggest polluters, critics claim A vital meeting in Copenhagen this weekend that will help shape the agenda for the most important climate change talks since the Kyoto protocol has been hijacked by some of the biggest polluters in the world, critics claimed today. Among those attending the World ­Business Summit on Climate Change is Shell, which has just been named by environmentalists on the basis of new research as "the most carbon-intensive oil company in the world". There is concern that the big energy companies will be pushing carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a way of keeping the oil-based economy running....Six of the companies involved in the summit have been nominated for Climate Greenwash Awards because of their failure to live up to their PR spin on tackling climate change. ... You mean the foxes are watching the foxhouse AGAIN? ApocaDoc permalink Tue, May 19, 2009 from Guardian (UK): China and US held secret talks on climate change deal A high-powered group of senior Republicans and Democrats led two missions to China in the final months of the Bush administration for secret backchannel negotiations aimed at securing a deal on joint US-Chinese action on climate change, the Guardian has learned. The initiative, involving John Holdren, now the White House science adviser, and others who went on to positions in Barack Obama's administration, produced a draft agreement in March, barely two months after the Democrat assumed the presidency.... The secret missions suggest that advisers to Obama came to power firmly focused on getting a US-China understanding in the run-up to the crucial UN meeting in Copenhagen this December, which is aimed at sealing a global deal to slash greenhouse gas emissions. In her first policy address the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said she wanted to recast the broad US-China relationship around the central issue of climate change.... Chandler said he and Holdren drew up a three-point memo which envisaged: * Using existing technologies to produce a 20 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2010. * Co-operating on new technology including carbon capture and storage and fuel efficiency for cars. * The US and China signing up to a global climate change deal in Copenhagen. "We sent it to Xie and he said he agreed," said Chandler. ... Backchannel, frontchannel, we don't care, just get moving! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Apr 29, 2009 from CBC (Canada): Deep emission cuts needed to limit global warming: scientists The bottom line is that avoiding dangerous change to climate will be difficult, said NASA space scientist Gavin Schmidt and University of Chicago researcher David Archer in a related commentary in Nature. "Unless emissions begin to decline very soon, severe disruption to the climate system will entail expensive adaptation measures and may eventually require cleaning up the mess by actively removing CO2 from the atmosphere," they wrote. "Like an oil spill or groundwater contamination, it will probably be cheaper in the long run to avoid making the mess in the first place." ... The "long run"? What's that? I want my profit now. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Apr 9, 2009 from SciDev.net: Charcoal plan for carbon storage under fire Campaigners have launched a protest against a proposed form of geoengineering that they say is gaining popularity despite being untested and fraught with potential social and environmental repercussions. Biochar, at its most ambitious, involves recruiting vast amounts of biomass -- for example, from dedicated plantations -- and converting the carbon captured in the plant matter into charcoal. The charcoal is then ploughed into soils where it is hoped it will remain forever, improving soil fertility in the process.... But a coalition of nearly 150 organisations launched their campaign against biochar this week (6 April) during the Bonn Climate Change Talks, held in the run-up to the Copenhagen meeting.... The group, made up of small-scale farmers associations, forest protection groups, international environmental networks and human rights advocates, called on governments to study biochar in greater depth because of what they say is serious scientific uncertainty about both its ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere and side effects of its use. ... Come on -- unintended consequences? When did that ever happen? ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Apr 7, 2009 from Greenwire: Scientists try tapping 'ice that burns' Researchers may have found a way to extract large amounts of natural gas from methane hydrates -- ice-like structures that might contain more energy than all the world's coal, oil and conventional natural gas combined. Massive amounts of frozen natural gas are buried far below the ocean floor and Arctic permafrost, but the compounds are highly unstable when they experience changes in temperature or pressure. Until now, scientists have struggled to find how to economically extract usable fuel from them. But Columbia University researchers believe they may have discovered ideal conditions for separating gas from the ice, and they have developed an apparatus to help them do that. Methane hydrates, also known as "ice that burns," form when natural gas from microbial activity or organic decomposition gets trapped within water molecules at low temperature and high pressure. ... Couple the 'ice that burns' with 'fire that chills' and now we're really talking! ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Mar 30, 2009 from Cleantech Blog: Carbon Capture and Storage: To Be or Not To Be? Or, To Partially Be? One of the more contentious questions in the cleantech community is the role of coal in the energy sector of the future. There's a lot of coal in the world -- many decades of supply left -- including here in the U.S. It's pretty darned cheap to mine. So, it would be great to figure out a way to use it in non-harmful ways. And there's the rub: it's a pretty nasty fuel. Putting aside the issue of how to mine coal in an environmentally-acceptable manner, coal is one of the most highly carbonaceous of hydrocarbons, meaning that it generates a lot of carbon dioxide per unit of energy released when burned -- much more so than oil or natural gas. As a result, the worldwide use of coal -- primarily for power generation -- is the largest component of global carbon dioxide emissions, which in turn is the most important of the greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change. In the arena of climate change, coal is therefore the main culprit. Not the only culprit, to be sure, but the main one.... ... Hey, it all smells like the same air to me. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Mar 25, 2009 from Mongabay: Ocean fertilization will not help reduce CO2 levels, suggests experiment A controversial 'ocean fertilization' experiment suggests seeding the seas with iron to boost carbon-absorbing phytoplantkon will not sequester much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Some -- including researchers and private companies -- had hoped iron fertilization might be an easy fix for climate change. The Lohafex experiment, conducted by Indo-German team of scientists from the National Institute of Oceaonography and the Alfred Wegener Institute earlier this year, dumped 20 tons of iron sulphate into the Southern Ocean and measured the carbon uptake by plankton. Fertilization stimulated a short burst of phytoplankton growth which was negated by increased predation by crustaceans known as amphipods. "As a result, only a modest amount of carbon sank out of the surface layer by the end of the experiment," said the Alfred Wegener Institute in a statement. ... Damn! Time for "Plan C"? ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Mar 14, 2009 from London Guardian: 'Biochar' goes industrial with giant microwaves to lock carbon in charcoal Giant microwave ovens that can "cook" wood into charcoal could become our best tool in the fight against global warming, according to a leading British climate scientist. Chris Turney, a professor of geography at the University of Exeter, said that by burying the charcoal produced from microwaved wood, the carbon dioxide absorbed by a tree as it grows can remain safely locked away for thousands of years. The technique could take out billions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere every year. Fast-growing trees such as pine could be "farmed" to act specifically as carbon traps — microwaved, buried and replaced with a fresh crop to do the same thing again. Turney has built a 5m-long prototype of his microwave, which produces a tonne of CO2 for $65. He plans to launch his company, Carbonscape, in the UK this month to build the next generation of the machine, which he hopes will process more wood and cut costs further. ... If the pines are okay with this... I'm all for it! ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Mar 14, 2009 from Living on Earth: CO2-Eating Rocks GELLERMAN: Carbon dioxide has the planet between a rock and a hard place - we get needed energy from fossil fuels, yet burning them produces a greenhouse gas that's causing climate change. But perhaps the answer lies in the problem: put the gas between a rock and a hard place. Not just any rock - but a type called ultramafic. Juerg Matter has investigated this ultra-interesting rock. He's an Associate Research Scientist at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory.... MATTER: Yeah, ultramafic rocks are mantle rocks which are usually 25 to 30 miles below surface, and they are rich in magnesium silicate minerals. And actually these magnesium silicate minerals can be used for carbon sequestration. The magnesium is used to carbonate the CO2 into magnesium carbonate minerals.... It changes, you know, the carbon dioxide, which is a gas, into a mineral, which is stable and environmentally benign. ... Rocks like this ROCK!!! ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Feb 19, 2009 from Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, via EurekAlert: Cleaning the atmosphere of carbon: African forests out of balance "If you assume that these forests should be in equilibrium, then the best way to explain why trees are growing bigger is anthropogenic global change -- the extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could essentially be acting as fertilizer." says Muller-Landau, "But it's also possible that tropical forests are still growing back following past clearing or fire or other disturbance. Given increasing evidence that tropical forests have a long history of human occupation, recovery from past disturbance is almost certainly part of the reason these forests are taking up carbon today." Muller-Landau, who directs a project to monitor carbon budgets in forest study sites worldwide as part of the Smithsonian's Center for Tropical Forest Science and the HSBC Climate Partnership, advises that this newfound sink shouldn't be taken for granted, or presumed to continue indefinitely. "While we still can't explain exactly what is behind this carbon sink, one thing we know for sure is that it can't be a sink forever. Trees and forests just can't keep getting bigger. Tropical forests are buying us a bit more time right now, but we can't count on them to continue to offset our carbon emissions in the future." ... Just a wee bit more time. ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Feb 15, 2009 from Telegraph.co.uk: 'Crazy ideas' to fight global warming revealed by scientists The science known as "geo-engineering" is considered dangerous by some for interfering with the world's delicate ecosystems, however advocates claim that it could "save the world" from catastrophic global warming.... However Robin Webster of Friends of the Earth said it was dangerous to rely on untested science. "We cannot afford to close our eyes to new ideas but the fear is politicians see geo-engineering as the magic bullet that will get us out of trouble and take attention away from making difficult choices to cut carbon emissions now. We need to look at tried and tested technologies like renewables that work and can start reducing the threat climate change now." ... "Wrapping" Greenland? Space-based "sun shield"? In the movies, "these are so crazy they just might work!" In reality, there's this thing called "the law of unintended consequences..." ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Feb 9, 2009 from BusinessGreen: Emergency Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen to be held in March Climate change scientists are to hold an emergency summit in Copenhagen next month to collate the latest findings in climate science and step up pressure on the UN negotiating process to ensure any deal agreed later this year is informed by the scientific realities of global warming. The International Scientific Congress on Climate Change will run from 10-12 March and is being organised by the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU), including the University of Copenhagen, Yale, UC Berkeley, Tokyo, Oxford and Cambridge. It will feature keynotes from IPCC Chairman Dr. RK Pachauri, Lord Nicholas Stern, and President of the European Commission Jose M. Barroso, as well as a raft of the world's top climate scientists and will address the extent to which a "technological fix" to climate change is now possible, the likely costs of inaction, and the scale of the global security threat climate change presents. In addition, the conference aims to "bridge the four year data gap left by the leading global scientific body on climate change -- the IPCC -- with its latest reports". ... On the one hand, Great! Informed emergency measures are required. On the other, Gaah! It is that bad! ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jan 28, 2009 from Guardian (UK): EU spending spree brings carbon capture closer to reality The European commission today proposed earmarking €1.25bn to kickstart carbon capture and storage (CCS) at 11 coal-fired plants across Europe, including four in Britain....CCS involves capturing CO2 at power stations and burying it in disused oil/gas fields or other undersea rock formations.... ... The best carbon to capture is the oil and coal we don't burn. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jan 28, 2009 from New Scientist: Most effective climate engineering solutions revealed Tim Lenton of the University of East Anglia, UK, has put together the first comparative assessment of climate-altering proposals such pumping sulphur into the atmosphere to mimic the cooling effect of volcanic emissions, or fertilising the oceans with iron. "There is a worrying feeling that we're not going to get our act together fast enough," says Lenton, referring to international efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists have reached a "social tipping point" and are starting to wonder which techniques might complement emissions cuts, he says.... First, Lenton says the exercise shows there is no "silver bullet" -- no single method that will safely reverse climate change on its own. ... re: Geoengineering see Law of Unintended Consequences ApocaDoc permalink Wed, Jan 21, 2009 from New Scientist: Biofuel from the oceans Now a group at the Korea Institute of Technology in South Korea has developed a way to use marine algae, or seaweed, to produce bioethanol and avoid taking up land altogether. The group says seaweed has a number of advantages over land-based biomass. It grows much faster, allowing up to six harvests per year; unlike trees and plants, it does not contain lignin and so requires no pre-treatment before it can be turned into fuel; and it absorbs up to seven times as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as wood. The group's patent suggests treating all sizes of algae -- from large kelp to single-celled spirulina -- with an enzyme to break them into simple sugars, which can then be fermented into ethanol. The resulting seaweed biofuel is cheaper and simpler to produce than crop or wood-based fuels, and will have no effect on the price of food, says the group. ... Can we use the algae blooming in our dead zones? Now that would be a win-win! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, Jan 11, 2009 from Guardian (UK): 20 big green ideas as Emma Howard Boyd, head of socially responsible investing at Jupiter Asset Management – sponsors of the Big Idea award, makes clear: "The urgency of what is required to combat issues such as climate change has not diminished as a result of the current financial crisis. We need big ideas -- and it is at times like these, when there is widespread disruption, that we see innovation and new thinking." Big ideas need not necessarily be a whistle-and-bells hi-tech response. At least one of our Big 20 can be described as an "ancient technique" on loan from the Aztecs. The modern genius lies in its rediscovery and deployment because, while it would be foolish to believe blindly in a silver bullet for all environmental problems, now is absolutely the time for faith in contemporary ingenuity. ... This story makes me feel like, y'know, Yes We Can. ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Jan 2, 2009 from Chicago Tribune: Canada's forests, once huge help on greenhouse gases, now contribute to climate change As relentlessly bad as the news about global warming seems to be, with ice at the poles melting faster than scientists had predicted and world temperatures rising higher than expected, there was at least a reservoir of hope stored here in Canada's vast forests. The country's 1.2 million square miles of trees have been dubbed the "lungs of the planet" by ecologists because they account for more than 7 percent of Earth's total forest lands. They could always be depended upon to suck in vast quantities of carbon dioxide, naturally cleansing the world of much of the harmful heat-trapping gas. But not anymore. In an alarming yet little-noticed series of recent studies, scientists have concluded that Canada's precious forests, stressed from damage caused by global warming, insect infestations and persistent fires, have crossed an ominous line and are now pumping out more climate-changing carbon dioxide than they are sequestering. Worse yet, the experts predict that Canada's forests will remain net carbon sources, as opposed to carbon storage "sinks," until at least 2022, and possibly much longer. ... So... Ronald Reagan WAS right. Trees do cause pollution! ApocaDoc permalink Fri, Nov 21, 2008 from Environmental Expert (Spain): Supercritical CO2 boosts super optimism in sequestering greenhouse gas Scientists appear to have the rock-solid evidence that suggests carbon dioxide can be safely and permanently sequestered in deep, underground basalt rock formations, without risk of it eventually escaping to the atmosphere. The findings have potential implications for sequestering carbon in other reservoir systems as well. Researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have discovered key factors that show water-saturated liquid CO2, under conditions mimicking deep geologic settings, will plug cracks within the rock that otherwise might allow the hazardous greenhouse gas to escape. ... Let's get cracking! ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Nov 6, 2008 from The Earth Institute at Columbia University via ScienceDaily: Rocks Could Be Harnessed To Sponge Vast Amounts Of Carbon Dioxide From Air Scientists say that a type of rock found at or near the surface in the Mideast nation of Oman and other areas around the world could be harnessed to soak up huge quantities of globe-warming carbon dioxide. Their studies show that the rock, known as peridotite, reacts naturally at surprisingly high rates with CO2 to form solid minerals -- and that the process could be speeded a million times or more with simple drilling and injection methods. ... Now I'm lamenting I threw my pet rock away! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Sep 30, 2008 from New Zealand Herald: NZ firm to microwave forest waste into charcoal A New Zealand company which says it has patented world-first industrial technology to microwave forest waste is planning to offer charcoal to farmers and horticulturists who want to boost the quality of their soils. The technology can capture significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and hold it for 10,000 years by putting the charcoal into topsoils, and at the same time improve plant growth. The company, Carbonscape, has begun initial batch scale production of the "biochar" at its Marlborough plant. ... Let's hope they're not burning coal to power the microwaves. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Sep 15, 2008 from Guardian (UK): Roll back time to safeguard climate, expert warns Scientists may have to turn back time and clean the atmosphere of all man-made carbon dioxide to prevent the worst impacts of global warming, one of Europe's most senior climate scientists has warned. Professor John Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, told the Guardian that only a return to pre-industrial levels of CO2 would be enough to guarantee a safe future for the planet. He said that current political targets to slow the growth in emissions and stabilise carbon levels were insufficient, and that ways may have to be found to actively remove CO2 from the air. ... Maybe a time machine is the only answer. ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Sep 9, 2008 from Ohio State University: Scientists point to forests for carbon storage solutions The researchers' calculations suggest that carbon storage in Midwestern forests could offset the greenhouse gas emissions of almost two-thirds of nearby populations, and that proper management of forests could sustain or increase their storage capacity for future generations. Based on measurements taken between 1999 and 2005 at a forest study site in northern Michigan, the scientists have determined that similar upper Midwest forests covering an estimated 40,000 square miles store an average of 1,300 pounds of carbon per acre per year. ... Does it offset the CO2 from my chainsaw? ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Sep 9, 2008 from London Times: How carbon capture and storage (CCS) could make coal the fuel of the future It has been condemned as one of the main causes of global warming but is coal about to enjoy an extraordinary rebirth as the fuel of the future? The first power plant in the world that will take the toxic emissions from coal and bury them deep in the ground opens today, carrying with it the hopes of scientists and environmentalists around the world. If the power station in Spremberg, eastern Germany, is able to produce affordable electricity without polluting the atmosphere, it could mark the start of a new era for a fossil fuel whose days appeared numbered. ... Surely, putting toxic emissions deep in the ground will never come back to haunt us. ApocaDoc permalink Mon, Jul 21, 2008 from Society of Chemical Industry, via EurekAlert: A dash of lime -- a new twist that may cut CO2 levels back to pre-industrial levels Scientists say they have found a workable way of reducing CO2 levels in the atmosphere by adding lime to seawater. And they think it has the potential to dramatically reverse CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere... [I]t could be made workable by locating [lime production] 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. ... That'll work until we get to "peak limestone." ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Jul 15, 2008 from Guardian (UK): Ocean floor could store century of US carbon emissions The Juan de Fuca plate, which comprises the ocean floor a few hundred kilometres from the coasts of Washington and Oregon, contains layers of basalt that geologists think might be suitable for long-term sequestration of CO2 as part of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) system.... The region identified could potentially store around 208bn tonnes of liquefied CO2, the researchers said, a figure that could rise to 250bn tonnes depending on how much of the gas reacted with the rocks to form carbonates. ... I wonder what happens when the big one hits the West Coast. ApocaDoc permalink Sat, Jun 28, 2008 from University of Missouri, via EurekAlert: Ancient Oak Trees Help Reduce Global Warming, MU Study Finds "If a tree is submerged in water, its carbon will be stored for an average of 2,000 years," said Richard Guyette, director of the MU Tree Ring Lab and research associate professor of forestry in the School of Natural Resources in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. "If a tree falls in a forest, that number is reduced to an average of 20 years, and in firewood, the carbon is only stored for one year." ... The team studied trees in northern Missouri, a geographically unique area with a high level of riparian forests (forests that have natural water flowing through them). They discovered submerged oak trees that were as old as 14,000 years, potentially some of the oldest discovered in the world. This carbon storage process is not just ancient; it continues even today as additional trees become submerged, according to Guyette. ... The sound of one carbon clapping. ApocaDoc permalink Wed, May 21, 2008 from American Chemical Society via ScienceDaily: Simple, Low-cost Carbon Filter Removes 90 Percent Of Carbon Dioxide From Smokestack Gases "Researchers in Wyoming report development of a low-cost carbon filter that can remove 90 percent of carbon dioxide gas from the smokestacks of electric power plants that burn coal and other fossil fuels. The study describes a new carbon dioxide-capture process, called a Carbon Filter Process, designed to meet the need. It uses a simple, low-cost filter filled with porous carbonaceous sorbent that works at low pressures." ... Dude, this news is sooooo carbonaceous! ApocaDoc permalink Sun, May 11, 2008 from Linköping University via ScienceDaily: Carbon Dioxide Capture And Storage: Grasping At Straws In The Climate Debate? "Great hopes are being placed on undeveloped technology. Capturing and storing carbon dioxide is predicted to be one of the most important measures to counter the threats to our climate. But the technology still hasn’t been tested in full scale, and the complications and risks it entails may have been grossly underestimated." ... Will carbon dioxide capture and storage go the way of corn-based ethanol? Maybe we need to just get off carbon altogether and focus on renewable energy. ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Apr 24, 2008 from Newcastle University, via Eurekalert: Technological breakthrough in the fight to cut greenhouse gases The Newcastle team has succeeded in developing an exceptionally active catalyst, derived from aluminium, which can drive the reaction necessary to turn waste carbon dioxide into cyclic carbonates at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, vastly reducing the energy input required.... 'If our catalyst could be employed at the source of high-concentration CO2 production, for example in the exhaust stream of a fossil-fuel power station, we could take out the carbon dioxide, turn it into a commercially-valuable product and at the same time eliminate the need to store waste CO2', he said. ... A big "if," of course, but come on -- let's get catalyzing! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Apr 15, 2008 from American Chemical Society: Ancient Method, Black Gold "Fifteen hundred years ago, tribes people from the central Amazon basin mixed their soil with charcoal derived from animal bone and tree bark. Today, at the site of this charcoal deposit, scientists have found some of the richest, most fertile soil in the world. Now this ancient, remarkably simple farming technique seems far ahead of the curve, holding promise as a carbon-negative strategy to rein in world hunger as well as greenhouse gases." ... We love those tribes people! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Mar 25, 2008 from Moscow Times: Carbon Credits Get Cool Reception "Despite evidence that the country's northernmost reaches are melting, threatening people and animals as well as its unique landscape, concern over global warming has yet to hit home for many Russians. Indeed, environmental experts say melting icecaps have prompted Russia's push to reclaim part of the Arctic with showy submarine missions that would have been all but impossible just a few years ago. And environmental issues make the front pages mainly when huge foreign-led oil and gas projects fall afoul of the Kremlin." ... Maybe we need another Cold War! ApocaDoc permalink Tue, Feb 19, 2008 from Science: New Materials Can Selectively Capture Carbon Dioxide, Chemists Report "UCLA chemists report a major advance in reducing heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Science. The scientists have demonstrated that they can successfully isolate and capture carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming, rising sea levels and the increased acidity of oceans. Their findings could lead to power plants efficiently capturing carbon dioxide without using toxic materials." ... This could be very important -- though there's no description of how much energy it takes to produce the "zeolitic imidazolate frameworks, or ZIFs," nor what we'd do with megatons of ZIFs that had absorbed all the CO2 they could absorb, nor what other unintended consequences... but here's hoping! ApocaDoc permalink Thu, Feb 14, 2008 from Georgia Institute of Technology: Carbon Capture Strategy Could Lead To Emission-free Cars "Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a strategy to capture, store and eventually recycle carbon from vehicles to prevent the pollutant from finding its way from a car tailpipe into the atmosphere. Georgia Tech researchers envision a zero emission car, and a transportation system completely free of fossil fuels." ... We can envision a "transportation system completely free of fossil fuels," too -- it just takes a little weed. ApocaDoc permalink Copyright 2009 The Apocadocs.com