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Five Questions for Jeffrey Sachs On Decarbonizing the Economy

Thu, 2014-07-17 21:16 — Kathy Gilbeaux

CLICK HERE - The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP)

submitted by Albert Gomez

e360.yale.edu - July 15, 2014

Thirty scientific institutions from 15 countries last week released a report for the United Nations outlining how the world’s major carbon dioxide-emitting nations can slash those emissions by mid-century. Called the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project, the initiative aims to provide government leaders with a plan of action in advance of a UN climate summit in September and climate negotiations in Paris in late 2015. Yale Environment 360 asked Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute and a key player in the decarbonization project, five questions about the initiative and the prospects for global action on the climate front.

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The Blue Carbon Project

Mon, 2014-07-14 17:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Joe Browder

      

Offsetting carbon emissions by conserving ocean vegetation

thebluecarbonproject.com

What is Blue Carbon?

The problem: The growing emission of carbon dioxide from a wide range of human activities is causing unprecedented changes to the land and sea. Identifying effective, efficient and politically acceptable approaches to reduce the atmospheric concentration of CO2 is one of society’s most pressing goals.

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Four hundred parts per million

Sun, 2014-07-13 11:36 — Maeryn Obley

The Keeling CurveImage: The Keeling Curve

economist.com - May 11th, 2013

Charles D. Keeling, mostly known as Dave, was a soft-spoken, somewhat courtly man who changed the way people and governments see the world. A slightly aimless chemistry graduate with an interest in projects that took him out into the wild, in 1956 he started to build instruments that could measure the proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a scientific topic which, back then, was barely even a backwater. In 1958, looking for a place where the level of carbon dioxide would not be too severely influenced by local plants or industry, he installed some instruments high up on Mauna Loa, a Hawaiian volcano.

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Oldest Baby Boom in North America Sheds Light on Native American Population Crash

Tue, 2014-07-01 22:40 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Sites like Pueblo Bonito in northern New Mexico reached their maximum size in the early A.D. 1100s, just before a major drought began to decrease birth rates throughout the Southwest. Credit: Nate Crabtree

Scientists chart an ancient baby boom—in southwestern Native Americans from 500 to 1300 AD

phys.org - June 30, 2014

Washington State University researchers have sketched out one of the greatest baby booms in North American history, a centuries-long "growth blip" among southwestern Native Americans between 500 to 1300 A.D.

It was a time when the early features of civilization—including farming and food storage—had matured to where birth rates likely "exceeded the highest in the world today," the researchers write in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A crash followed . . .

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CLICK HERE - PNAS - RESEARCH - Long and spatially variable Neolithic Demographic Transition in the North American Southwest

 

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The Turning Point: New Hope for the Climate

Thu, 2014-06-19 16:27 — Kathy Gilbeaux

 

Former US Vice President Al Gore
Anthony Harvey/Getty Images for Free The Children

It's time to accelerate the shift toward a low-carbon future

rollingstone.com - by Al Gore - June 18, 2014

In the struggle to solve the climate crisis, a powerful, largely unnoticed shift is taking place. The forward journey for human civilization will be difficult and dangerous, but it is now clear that we will ultimately prevail. The only question is how quickly we can accelerate and complete the transition to a low-carbon civilization.

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GHG Emissions Changes: Redrawing Baselines

Thu, 2014-06-12 15:38 — Kathy Gilbeaux

environmentalleader.com - by Ailsa Burns - June 12, 2014

Greenhouse gases (GHG) can be measured by recording emissions at source by estimating the amount emitted using active data and applying relevant conversion factors. . . With recent changes to how the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) calculate CO2 emissions, the potential exists for companies in the UK to experience significant shifts in both individual emission factors and overall Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. These changes have been published as part of DEFRA’s greenhouse gas conversion factors for company reporting: methodology paper for emission factors which reviewed the format and content of GHG conversion factors.

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China Says Climate Deal Hinges On Aid To Emerging Economies

Mon, 2014-06-09 17:20 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

A security guard uses a fan to keep cool as a heatwave continues in Shanghai on July 24, 2013. (PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images)

huffingtonpost.com - Reuters - by Alister Doyle - June 6, 2014

BONN, Germany, June 6 (Reuters) - China led calls by emerging economies on Friday for the rich to raise financial aid to the poor as a precondition for a United Nations deal to combat global warming.

Many countries at U.N. climate negotiations from June 4-15 have welcomed news this week that the United States plans to slash emissions from power plants, but emerging nations said cash was just as important to unlock progress.

"When the financing is resolved, this will set a very good foundation to negotiate a good agreement," China's chief negotiator Xie Zhenhua told delegates from about 170 nations.

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Dust in the Wind Could Speed Greenland’s Ice Melt

Sun, 2014-06-08 21:22 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Meltwater channels run along the ice in Greenland. Soot, dust and microbes that live in the ice all contribute to its darkening.  Credit: Henry Patton/Flickr

climatecentral.org - by Brian Kahn - June 8, 2014

Despite it’s name, Greenland is predominantly white, as snow and ice cover the majority of the country. New research indicates that Greenland’s main color may be starting to fade and in fact darken, though, thanks to a widespread increase of dust across the ice sheets. That darkening could speed up surface melt, and with it, sea level rise around the globe.

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RESEARCH - Contribution of light-absorbing impurities in snow to Greenland’s darkening since 2009

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Canada Bars Its Meteorologists From Mentioning Climate Change

Sun, 2014-06-08 19:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

Pipelines carrying steam to wellheads and heavy oil back in Alberta, Canada Todd Korol/Reuters

newsweek.com - by Zoe Schlanger - June 2, 2014

Just weeks after President Obama made on-air appearances with meteorologists explicitly to address climate change, a journalist learned that in Canada, official policy dictates that government-employed meteorologists aren’t supposed to talk about climate change at all.

Government scientists “speak to their area of expertise,” a government spokesman recently wrote to journalist Mike DeSouza defending the policy. . . Questions about climate change or long-term trends would be directed to a climatologist or other applicable authority.”

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Ancient Soils Found to be Rich in Carbon

Sun, 2014-06-08 17:02 — Maeryn Obley

An eroding bluff on the U.S. Great Plains reveals a buried, carbon-rich layer of fossil soil. Image credit: Jospeh Mason

Image: An eroding bluff on the U.S. Great Plains reveals a buried, carbon-rich layer of fossil soil. Image credit: Jospeh Mason

sci-news.com - May 27th 2014

The team analyzed a soil known as the Brady soil, which was formed more than 13,500 years ago in what is now Nebraska, Kansas and other parts of the Great Plains. It lies up to 6.5 m below the present-day surface and was buried by a vast accumulation of windborne dust known as loess beginning about 10,000 years ago.

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