The Environment

• Dry Water to Join the Fight Against Global Warming

  Dry water was discovered in 1968 and got attention for its potential use in cosmetics. Scientists at the University of Hull, U.K. rediscovered it in 2006 in order to study its structure.  Ben Carter, Ph.D., researcher for study leader Professor Andrew Cooper and his group at the University of Liverpool has since expanded its range of potential applications. Powdered material called "dry water" could provide a new way to store carbon dioxide in an effort to fight global warming. Click image for the largest view.Carter explains that the substance became known as “dry water” because it consists of 95 percent…

• New Research on The Oceans and Carbon Dioxide Release

  Carbon Dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, is intricately linked to global warming. The largest store of CO2 is the world's oceans. How the oceans sequester or release CO2 to or from the atmosphere is important to understand as mankind alters Earth's climate with the burning of fossil fuels. A new report from researchers at the University of California, Davis offers clues on how that mechanism works by analyzing the shells of plankton fossils. CO2 from the atmosphere touches the ocean surface is absorbed by the water. Marine phytoplankton consume the CO2 from the surface as they grow. After the plankton…

• Global Warming and Climate Models

  Climate models use various methods to simulate the interactions of the atmosphere, oceans, land surface, and ice. All climate models take account of incoming energy as short wave electromagnetic radiation, chiefly visible and short wave infrared, as well as outgoing energy as long wave infrared electromagnetic radiation from the earth. Any imbalance results in a change in temperature. The most talked about models of recent years have been those relating temperature to emissions of carbon dioxide. These models project an upward trend in the surface temperature record, as well as a more rapid increase in temperature at higher altitudes. Researchers…

• Microbes Dissolving the Oil Spill Much Faster Than Anticipated

  What is the real story about the "missing oil"? One study shows that most of the oil is gone, while another shows that there is still a whole lot of it in a mid-depth plume not visible from the surface. The answer might have been found in research announced today by Lawrence Berkeley Lab of the US Department of Energy. They found the plume alright, but they also found that microbial activity, spearheaded by a new and unclassified species, degrades oil much faster than anticipated. This degradation appears to take place without a significant level of oxygen depletion. The study…

• Ocean Acidification – The Other Carbon Problem

  Humankind's assault on the oceans continues apace. A short time ago, we considered the loss of 40% of the phytoplankton in the oceans since 1950. In my post How We Wrecked The Oceans, marine ecologist Jeremy Jackson explains why he believes the sea will be devoid of fish and other large marine organisms sometime in the 2040s. And now comes the "other" carbon problem—acidification of the oceans. As we burn fossil fuels, carbon dioxide (CO2) is released into the atmosphere. Everyone knows that part, but what they often don't know is that the oceans act as a enormous carbon "sink"…

• Media and Politics Impact on The Oil Spill Disaster that Isn’t

  The BP well blowout, fire, explosion and platform collapse, and the ensuing crude oil leak are without doubt the result of human failings.  Underestimating the quality of the reservoir is one reason, perhaps some engineering choices and safety oversights, inadequate equipment, testing that didn’t work out in the real world and all the rest only show that human planning can come up short. Now that its over this writer can recoil from the anger felt as the catastrophe unfolded.  Yes, the well getting away is cause No. 1 – something that has happened before and will happen again – hopefully…

• Why Oceans Are So Resilient To Oil Spills

  A 2003 research paper by Kvenvolden and Cooper in Geo-Marine Letters estimated that natural seeps dump 140,000 metric tons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico each year – over one million barrels of crude per year. In fact, the authors estimate that 47% of all the petroleum found in the sea is from natural seeps – the largest single source, ahead of airborne pollution, ground runoff and drilling/shipping accidents. _EnergyTribune Worldwide seeps can add up to more that 14 million barrels a year, and in the Gulf of Mexico the NRC report suggests that the annual flow from…

• Dwindling Hopes for Climate Accord

  Heat waves and deadly floods notwithstanding, an effective global climate change treaty is not on the horizon. Delegates from 190 countries gathered in Bonn last week for the UN Climate Change Confererence in preparation for the sixth meeting of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which will take place in Cancun, Mexico this November. In Cancun, world leaders are expected to craft a follow-up agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012. Yet already four months prior to the Cancun Summit, hopes for reaching a binding global climate accord are dwindling rapidly among…

• Climate Change: The Danger of Complacency

  As US climate policy stumbles, runaway climate change scenarios highlight the dangers of complacency. A choice topic to spoil dinner parties and a long-standing, legitimate source of concern among scientists and well-informed policymakers, abrupt climate change - climate events that unfold faster than the pace at which humans can adapt to them - was the focus of a December 2008 report released by the US Climate Change Science Program, a collaborative project of relevant US government agencies scrutinizing the four most pressing scenarios. A relatively high degree of indeterminacy characterizes each scenario. Nevertheless, the potential downsides make for sober reading.…

• Gulf Spill Has ‘Far Reaching’ Impact on Oil Company Credit – S&P

  The oil spill and subsequent suspension of drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico will have a long-term impact on the creditworthiness of oil and gas companies, according to ratings agency Standard & Poors. “For oil and gas operators in the Gulf of Mexico, the business ramifications are likely to be far reaching and enduring. And regulatory oversight and safety restrictions … will in our view have cost and operational implications for all offshore operators in the US,” the firm said in its CreditWeek publication last week. Because of the accident, S&P cut ratings on BP, Anadarko, Mitsui & Co.…