Archive for the 'Climate Change' Category

Bioengineered E. Coli - Smells like Bananas

Published
by
Larry
on May 9, 2008
in Climate Change and Global Warming
. 0 Comments

Bioengineers at MIT have modified e. coli bacteria in two ways: rather than smell like human fecal matter, their E. coli cultures smell like mint when they’re growing, and banana when they are mature.

If they can do that, can should be able to devise metabolic pathways that breaks down plastics into carbon dioxide, which then can be metabolized, which will render plastic biodegradable.  However, to mitigate the global warming effects of the carbon dioxide, they also need to figure out ways to sequester the carbon.

McKinsey Report: U.S. could cut 40% of greenhouse gases with “negative” costs

Published
by
Jon
on March 7, 2008
in Clean Energy, Climate Change and Energy
. 0 Comments

McKinsey & Company released a report in November called “Reducing Greenhouse Gases: How Much at What Cost?“

From the executive summary, available here:

  • Almost 40 percent of abatement could be achieved at “negative” marginal costs, meaning that investing in these options would generate positive economic returns over their lifecycle. The cumulative savings created by these negative-cost options could substantially offset (on a societal basis) the additional spending required for the options with positive marginal costs.

McKinsey is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a bunch of sandal-wearing, left-wing treehuggers. In fact, this particular study was funded by a number of energy companies. Nonetheless, they’ve come to these conclusions, and a quick look at their prominently website features progressive energy policy. For example, “The Case For Investing in Energy Productivity.”

Perhaps this represents a shift of the political center of gravity among American corporations. If so, a welcome change.

Thanks to David Roberts of Grist.org; see his piece “It Can Be Done” for more details, as well as Mathew Wald’s “Study Details How U.S. Could Cut 28% of Greenhouse Gases.“

Al Gore, Nobel Laureate

Published
by
Larry
on January 6, 2008
in Al Gore, Climate Change, Connecting the Dots, Energy, Environmental Issues and Global Warming
. 0 Comments

Excerpts from Gore’s Speech © THE NOBEL FOUNDATION 2007:

The distinguished scientists with whom it is the greatest honor of my life to share this award have laid before us a choice between two different futures – a choice that to my ears echoes the words of an ancient prophet: “Life or death, blessings or curses. Therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”

We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency – a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst – though not all – of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly.

However, despite a growing number of honorable exceptions, too many of the world’s leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler’s threat: “They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.”

So today, we dumped another 70 million tons of global-warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were an open sewer. And tomorrow, we will dump a slightly larger amount, with the cumulative concentrations now trapping more and more heat from the sun.

Full text: Click Here:

Hurricane Katrina’s Carbon Footprint on U.S. Gulf Coast Forests — Chambers et al. 318 (5853): 1107 — Science

Published
by
Jon
on November 23, 2007
in Climate Change and Katrina
. 0 Comments

Jeffrey Q. Chambers is the lead author in an article in Science, dated 16 November, reporting findings that Katrina destroyed or seriously damaged

320 million large trees totaling 105 teragrams of carbon, representing 50 to 140% of the net annual U.S. forest tree carbon sink. Changes in disturbance regimes from increased storm activity expected under a warming climate will reduce forest biomass stocks, increase ecosystem respiration, and may represent an important positive feedback mechanism to elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Link to Science abstract of “Hurricane Katrina’s Carbon Footprint on U.S. Gulf Coast Forests” — Chambers et al. 318 (5853): 1107; subscription required for full text. 

Thomas H. Maugh II and Karen Kaplan’s coverage in the Los Angeles Times is excellent. Please read to the bottom of this excerpt - they’ve gone far enough to identify what, to my mind, is the most frightening detail in the story. The lost trees are already being replaced by invasive species; the implications are (1) we can’t just let it grow back (2) the longer we wait to reforest, the harder it will be.

The death of the trees from wind damage and soaking in saltwater will ultimately release about 367 million tons of carbon dioxide as they decompose — about the same amount that is absorbed by all U.S. forests in a year, according to the study published in the journal Science.

Considered on the vast scale of global climate change, Katrina’s impact is small. But as a one-time event, its infusion of carbon is significant, exceeding an entire season’s worth of emissions from U.S. forest fires.

“This is a one-shot massive hit to these systems, where you see this enormous impact,” said Jason Neff, an assistant professor of geoscience at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who was not involved in the study.

Most of the lost trees in the Gulf region stood 70 to 100 feet tall, and others will not grow back for decades, if ever, experts said.

Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall in August 2005 with winds that reached 125 mph, damaged 5 million acres of forests, 80% of them in Mississippi, according to the U.S. Forest Service. By comparison, the 1980 eruption in Washington of Mt. St. Helens wiped out 150,000 acres of forest.

“In some areas of southeast Louisiana and southeast Mississippi, it was 100% damage,” said Wayne Hagan, founder of Timberland Management Services of Louisiana in Clinton. “I had one landowner on 2,000 acres who had basically $4 million worth of trees on his place. One hundred percent of the trees were blown over and broken down. That’s basically what the hurricane did.”

Biologist Jeffrey Q. Chambers of Tulane University and his colleagues said the deforested land, once covered with native species such as longleaf pine, oak and cypress, is being taken over by invasive species that are changing the ecology of the area. One of the most prolific, the Chinese tallow, oozes a milky, toxic sap that creates an inhospitable environment for insects, birds and small animals.

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