Report Shows California's Investment in Green Boosts Economy
According to a study released by UC Berkeley this Monday, thinking green will work wonders for the state's economy despite global financial difficulties. ...
Photo Vinay Deep @ flickr.
Global warming is happening at an accelerated pace and may have reached its tipping point in the Arctic. That has some scientists worried that powerful emissions of methane from permafrost peatlands as well as from the warming Arctic ocean bottom are already upon us.
Methane bubbles and peat bog belches
Image by sourabhj
An enterprising fun fair operator in southern India has devised the ultimate in zero emission rides – a man-powered ferris wheel. Four or five men take turns spinning the ride, using their full body weight for optimum effect, sending passengers flying round.
Mexico is emerging as a fascinating climate change case study.
The new Global Carbon Budget's out. The numbers, compiled by the Australia-based Global Carbon Project, an international consortium of scientists that tracks emissions, show that despite an increase in the international community’s efforts to combat pollution, the growth rate of the emissions continued to speed up. The recalculations indicate that atmospheric CO2 concentration was 383 parts per million (ppm) in 2007. That means that our emissions have grown four times faster since 2000 than during the previous decade.
A study by California's Air Resources Board released this week reported that continuing to reduce the state's greenhouse gases would both boost the state economy and Californians' income. More below the fold....
A recent report from Carnegie Mellon University added numbers to our suspicions that a large portion of China's emissions are from producing goods for export. 1.7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, or 33% of China's emissions, are the result of activities related to the production of export goods. With roughly 18% of Chinese exports going to the US, the US is indirectly responsible for about 6% of China's emissions, or over 300 million metric tons of CO2.
I'm sure you're probably getting tired of hearing me drone on and on about ocean acidification (even though it arguably poses one of the greatest threats to our planet's livelihood), so I thought I'd let somebody else -- who's actually well-versed in the subject -- do the talking.
Though better known for its spectacular exhibits, the Monterey Bay Aquarium also boasts a crack research institute -- the appropriately named Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) -- which has been spending the last few years studying ocean acidification. While a bit on the short side,
Image from Señor Codo
The key word here being "voluntary," of course. Methinks the EPA's inspector general may have been a bit too charitable in even saying they have "limited potential" -- though I guess the term may be appropriate for describing the Bush team:
Image from StormyDog
It may seem hard to believe, but the planet's wetlands, which comprise 6% of its land surface area, contain 771 billion tons of carbon dioxide -- 20% of the Earth's carbon supply and roughly the same amount that is currently in the atmosphere. Wetlands include a wide array of different ecosystems, such as marshes, swamps, river deltas and mangroves, and perform a variety of vital ecological functions.
It's been a while since the last big to-do about adding limestone to the planet's oceanic waters, but researchers sponsored by oil company Shell are saying that they've found the ultimate solution this time.
Adding limestone extracts to the surface of the planet's oceans could dramatically lower the levels of CO2 into the atmosphere. This is because adding lime to seawater creates an increase in alkalinity, which in turn improves the water's ability to scrub the air clean of carbon.
Image from gabemac
Given the Bush administration's involvement -- or "non"-involvement, if you prefer -- it was no big surprise to see the latest G8 summit fail to make any real progress on the issue of GHG emission targets. Sure, Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda got the participants to "commit" to a 50% cut by 2050 (a target even President Bush agreed to seriously consider). And, yes, it may be that this pledge will help pave the way for a more significant breakthrough at the UN's climate summit in Copenhagen next year.
Protocols for corporate greenhouse gas accounting that are based on the ISO 14064 standards, such as the WBCSD/WRI GHG Protocol, use the term "scope" to distinguish between different greenhouse gas emissions sources. There are three categories; Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3. For most registry’s or reporting agencies Scopes 1 and 2 are considered mandatory while Scope 3 is considered optional.
Image from Reuters/Marcos Brindicci
Cow flatulence and its link to climate change has been a favorite topic for us to cover at TreeHugger. So it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that we'd jump on a Reuters story describing the climatic implications of cow burps.
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