They implored Congress to take action to cut carbon pollution and promote policies that will protect future generations from even greater climate threats predicted by scientists.
He measured the ratio of carbon isotopes (atoms of the same element with a different number of neutrons)
which changes as the radioactive carbon-14 isotope breaks down over time while the stable carbon-12 does not.
Within the soil he found evidence of past cultivation including animal manure and charred organic material (likely burnt kitchen scraps) both
A Glimpse of the Past I found a wonderful radiocarbon sequence of ages Bruins said. And it was for me a great surprise.
or other food to find its unique carbon fingerprint and determine its origin. A sample of honey for example can be matched to the flowers of a specific geographic region through the laser analysis. You will know in the case of olive oil
whether it is based carbon chemistry or something stranger he said. Something stranger? Okay so maybe that means they won't be in the phone book.
and'60s spread a radioactive variety of carbon worldwide which was picked up by plants during photosynthesis
By looking at the levels of this carbon isotope known as carbon-14 in elephant tusks and ivory researchers can find out how old they are.
A critical tool Atmospheric bomb testing caused a spike in carbon-14 that has declined slowly in the past 50 years.
By measuring the concentration of this type of carbon researchers are given two possible dates for the age of the sample before and after the spike on the curve of carbon-14 concentrations.
and fellow researchers looked for signatures of corn in the carbon isotopes (carbon atoms with different molecular weights) of 185 soil cores.
Conserving the gum trees provides myriad benefits that help mitigate climate change from absorbing carbon to creating feedback loops that increase the amount of rainfall.
and removals (such as carbon trapped by trees). The IPCC's new methodology report updates the methods for estimating man-made greenhouse gas emissions
Given current patterns of emissions approximately 1 trillion tons of carbon could be burned and emitted into the atmosphere before the increase in the planet's average surface temperature creeps above 3. 6 degrees Fahrenheit the panelists said.
We cannot emit more than 1000 billion 1 trillion tons of carbon of which already 54 percent has been emitted Stockersaid.
but we give very relevant guidance for the total amount of carbon that cannot be exceeded in terms of emissions in order to stay below 2 degrees Celsius 3. 6 degrees Fahrenheit.
of carbon emissions. Continued emissions of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and changes in all components of the climate system Stocker said.
which is a sugar a bit like glucose but with fewer carbons. The oedeoxy part means the ribose is missing one oxygen atom.
A new analysis by the Pembina Institute Forecasting the impacts of oilsands expansion reveals that this rapid expansion of Alberta's tar-sands operations will raise overall carbon pollution by 250 percent due to
It may be possible in the future to carbon date the shoes to confirm their age. Why they were left in the temple in antiquity
Roman locavores To determine diets from the Roman skeletons the researchers analyzed the bones for isotopes of carbon and nitrogen.
Such isotopes of carbon can tell researchers which types of plants people consumed. Grasses such as wheat and barley are called C3 plants;
The differences in photosynthesis create different ratios of carbon isotopes preserved in the bones of the people who ate the plants.
and 3d forest maps will help researchers measure the total amount of carbon stored in forests
and its observations will be the basis of significant environmental policy in the areas of carbon cycling
organically grown foods have a lower carbon footprint and use fewer pesticides. Recently the American Academy of Pediatrics said it's important for children to eat a diet that's high in fruits vegetables whole grains
and reached its carbon-absorbing capacity. After that point people are using more than the planet can sustain.
The measures which aim to reduce the nation's carbon pollution and prepare communities for the effects of global warming signal the administration's commitment to tackling climate change
preparing the country for the short-and long-term effects of climate change cutting the amount of carbon pollution in the United states
because the longer we wait before we start reducing carbon emissions the faster we will have to reduce them to avoid catastrophic damage.
Currently existing plants contribute about 40 percent of carbon emissions in the United states. In 2009 Obama pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by the year 2020.
Carbon isotopes (atoms of the same element that have revealed different molecular weights that the trees were about 52000 years old.
when we are trying to get radiocarbon dates Harley said. It can really make the sample undatable unusable.
In the world's forests We're trying to make the step from knowing where there's forest to how much carbon is stored in the forest
In the world's forests We're trying to make the step from knowing where there's forest to how much carbon is stored in the forest
The research on eastern red cedar trees all between 120 and 500 years old also showed changes in the types of carbon
and carbon isotopes showed that the trees'stomata (the pores that are opened and closed to regulate the exchange of carbon dioxide
The team then dated the structure using levels of radioactivity in minerals and the ratio of carbon isotopes or molecules of carbon with different numbers of neutrons from charcoal and grains of sand.
which make up about 10 percent of the Earth's land surface and more than 30 percent of its terrestrial carbon stock.
The results are particularly striking given that wildfires release the forests'stored carbon into the atmosphere potentially exacerbating climate change.
They also spew huge amounts of carbon and asthma-inducing particulate matter into the air a big fire is like setting a coal-fired power plant in the middle of a forest.
while reducing fuel loads slashing carbon emissions increasing water runoff to streams and rivers raising revenues and boosting meaningful job growth in rural areas.
which use different types of photosynthesis have very different carbon isotope ratios. We have used stable isotopes to quantify African elephant diet over time as it relates to rainfall history
Using carbon isotopes in hair we can see exactly how much grass these animals are eating
Similarly we have used carbon isotopes in fossil soils to determine the fraction of woody cover sites that bear hominin fossils a problem that has implications for the history of our species
. Because woody plants and grasses have very different carbon isotope ratios there is a strong relationship between carbon isotope ratios of soil
#To Cut Carbon, a Decade is Too Long to Wait (Op-Ed) Jeffrey Rissman policy analyst at Energy Innovation:
wildfires and desertification release carbon stored in vegetation; and melting permafrost allows for the decomposition of peat bogs and the melting of methane hydrates releasing methane into the atmosphere.
The U s. must make a serious commitment to zero-carbon energy and energy efficiency in the next ten years in order to be able to reduce emissions to the level required to stabilize atmospheric CO2 concentrations in a reasonable timeframe.
And if nations wait to address greenhouse gasses there will be a larger amount of high-carbon infrastructure to replace increasing future costs.
Put in terms of a global carbon price a tax implemented today could be just $20 per ton (18 cents per gallon of gasoline)
which affects carbon water and nutrient cycles; some birds produce additional clutches of eggs; and many insects (including pests such as bark beetles in the West
Rising numbers of scale insects in cities could spell trouble for city trees which can provide some environmental benefits like cooling through shade and carbon sequestration.
Because urban centers can be a leading source for greenhouse-gas emissions low-carbon urban design can be a crucial tool for combatting rising emissions levels.
thus conserving forestland and other green spaces that store carbon. Transportation impacts Research shows that densely-populated cities use less transportation energy the reason is less reliance on car travel.
and store carbon in the soil or vegetation at higher amounts than do buildings or roads.
While New york appears to have low carbon emissions based on its transportation and housing emissions per person this issue of traded goods complicates the picture.
and conserve green undeveloped land thus reducing the carbon footprints of their residents. With urbanization taking off in China and other developing countries now is the time to build sustainable cities.
and storing climate-warming carbon and differentiate it from secondary forests which may provide tree cover but without the original ecosystems.
At that point the tree stops growing and starts storing carbon in its cells. Late wood is denser than early wood
Mixed results Follow-up studies analyzing carbon molecules in the fossil wood also gives both deciduous and evergreen answers Ryberg said.
This is because developing nations where the U n. estimates most of the next century's surge in population will occur have much smaller carbon footprints than developed countries such as the United states Canada
As part of his work at the Worldwatch Institute Engelman also promotes the idea of carbon taxes which would introduce fees based on the carbon content of fuels.
History's Most Mysterious Extinctions Carbon signatures The scientists focused on isotopes of carbon in plant waxes found in ancient soils and sediments.
Carbon isotopes differ in how many neutrons they possess in their atomic nuclei carbon-12 has six neutrons
while carbon-13 has seven. Both have six protons. The kinds of grasses that dominate northern Australia today have adapted to warmer dryer conditions
and mostly practice a kind of photosynthesis known as C4 which uses both carbon-12 and the heavier carbon-13 isotope.
which also takes up carbon-12 and carbon-13 but prefers carbon-12. By analyzing the ratios of these different carbon isotopes within plant waxes the researchers could infer what plants dominated the region at different times in the past.
The scientists also looked for an organic compound known as levoglucosan. This molecule is generated exclusively during the burning of land vegetation
so its presence would bolster the idea that humans changed the landscape with fire. The results of the study showed that about 44000 to 58000 years ago C4 plants apparently dominated the region
because trees grow back biomass offers a carbon neutral form of energy. But not all biomass is created equal.
And the latest science reveals that burning whole trees for energy results in more carbon emissions than burning coal for decades.
and harvesting them for fuel means foregoing the carbon they would have absorbed from the atmosphere if left standing.
This video animation shows what happens to the balance of carbon between forest and atmosphere when people burn forests to produce energy instead of allowing trees to keep their day jobs as massive carbon storage facilities.
In 2011 the EPA took on this issue. The agency issued to biomass-burning plants a three-year exemption from permitting requirements under the Clean Air Act (basically a requirement that each new and modified industrial source gets a construction permit before starting to build showing that it will use the best available control
The agency then initiated a science-driven process to develop rules for properly quantifying carbon emissions from these plants.
It issued a draft methodology for doing the necessary carbon accounting then empaneled a group of expert scientists known as the Science Advisory board (SAB) to assess the scientific validity of the proposed approach.
Regulations governing how stationary sources account for biogenic carbon emissions must be based on sound science and ensure adequate protections for forests
Power plants account for 40 percent of the U s. carbon footprint. That makes EPA's effort to reduce carbon pollution from power plants a key part of the climate fighting initiatives of the administration of President Barack Obama
and ensuring that a rigorous accounting for biomass carbon emissions will be critical to the effort's integrity.
As the scientists conclude the only way to encourage bioenergy facilities to source low-carbon biomass resources efficiently burn
or otherwise convert them to electricity and to use the electricity and heat in the applications that most effectively reduce carbon emissions is for EPA to follow the science.
It's critical that EPA heeds the science community's call and follows through on the standard it set for itself in issuing rules for the bioenergy industry.
+By valuing the carbon stored in forests REDD+is changing the economic incentives around land use in developing forest countries.
Sales of verified REDD+carbon credits effectively give these countries and communities the credit they deserve for choosing a sustainable pathway to development.
and development solution hopes were high that global carbon markets would yield sustainable financing for REDD+conservation and sustainable forest management.
As a result today REDD+is at a crossroads as the potential supply of REDD+credits on the voluntary carbon market significantly outpaces demand.
This is a major win that will help homeowners save hundreds of dollars in energy and water costs each year while cutting carbon pollution from homes.
which will rely on energy efficiency as a tool to cut carbon pollution from power plants and is helping scale up efforts already underway to make homes buildings industrial processes equipment appliances and electronics more efficient.
NRDC estimates that a plan to cut carbon pollution 30 percent by 2020 would net health
More than a quarter of 2013 models are already ahead of schedule in meeting fuel-efficiency and carbon-pollution requirements.
Slash the country s overall carbon pollution from the electric power sector by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
because it would require existing coal-fired power plants to cut their carbon emissions. Specifically the rule proposes a unique carbon emissions reduction guideline for each state
and each state would have to create its own plan to achieve that goal by the end of June 2016.
and energy efficiency measures help to reduce the carbon footprint of electric power generation there. There are some big exceptions to those goals however.
Before seeing the proposed rule Michael B. Gerrard director of the Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University said reducing carbon emissions in the U s. by 20 percent
#oethe best way to reduce emissions would be a price on carbon such as through a carbon tax
William Fleckenstein said Monday adding that the federal government does not appear to be doing much to encourage the construction of liquefied natural gas facilities to help reduce carbon emissions globally by helping coal-dependent countries switch to less carbon-intensive natural gas for electric power production.#
whereas the Breitling MXS-R is a molded carbon-fiber airplane Mangold said. It has no metal tubing on it so it's very difficult to make major changes to it.
what liberating all that carbon into the Earth s atmosphere would do to the climate.
All while significantly reducing our total carbon emissions. Just when we have the greatest number of mouths to feed in all of human history our reserves of easy to obtain low cost phosphorus may start to run out.
Where will that low carbon energy come from in the middle of the century? Will we starve
Power plants are the largest source of U s. carbon pollution. The United states limits mercury arsenic and soot from power plants yet astonishingly there are no national limits on how much carbon these plants can dump into our atmosphere.
National Climate Assessment: Agriculture chapter This June the U s. Environmental protection agency (EPA) will propose the first-ever national limits on carbon pollution from existing power plants.
NRDC analysis shows that strong carbon limits would yield up to $60 billion in health and environmental benefits by 2020.
NRDC also found that energy efficiency provides the cheapest way for utilities to meet carbon limits
and utility investments inefficiency also help reduce household electric bills. If America acts now to reduce carbon pollution we can help protect our communities from unchecked climate change
and we can ensure our nation's farms and food remain secure long into the future.
Through our site you can tell the EPA you support strong limits on dangerous carbon pollution.
Beinecke's most recent Op-Ed was Cutting Power-plant Carbon Could Save U s. $60 Billion by 2020 The views expressed are those of the author
The Amazon also drives climate as well as responds to it thanks to its ability to take up carbon from the atmosphere.
or poultry and produces at least five times more carbon pollution. The contrast between beef and such staples as wheat rice and potatoes is even more stark.
According to Boucher's 2012 study U s. beef consumption helps drive tropical deforestation which is now responsible for about 10 percent of the world's carbon emissions.
The clearing of those forests not only harms the habitat of many endangered species it releases huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere that those forests had stored formerly.
While tropical forests store vast amounts of carbon the peat soils on which some of these forests grow often contain some twenty times more.
In fact the peat soils in Southeast asia store as much carbon as all aboveground vegetation in the Amazon.
When these peat-rich soils are drained to make way for palm-oil plantations the peat decomposes releasing large quantities of carbon
which can emit even more carbon into the atmosphere. Adding considerable urgency to the problem is the growing demand for palm oil.
A French research team figured out that by looking at the carbon atoms in mummies that had lived in Egypt between 3500 B c
All carbon atoms are taken in by plants from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by the process of photosynthesis. By eating plants
and the animals that had eaten plants the carbon ends up in our bodies. The sixth-lightest element on the periodic table carbon exists in nature as two stable isotopes:
carbon-12 and carbon-13. Isotopes of the same element behave the same in chemical reactions
but have slightly different atomic masses with the carbon-13 being slightly heavier than the carbon-12.
Plants are categorized into two groups. The first group C3 is most common in plants such as garlic eggplants pears lentils and wheat.
The common C3 plants take in less of the heavier isotope carbon-13 while the C4 plants take in more.
By measuring the ratio of carbon-13 to carbon-12 you can distinguish between these two groups.
If you eat a lot of C3 plants the concentration of carbon-13 isotopes in your body will be lower than
They measured carbon-13 to carbon-12 ratios (and also some other isotope ratios) in bone enamel and hair in these remains and compared them to similar measurements performed on pigs that had received controlled diets consisting of different proportions
As pigs have a similar metabolism to humans their carbon isotope ratios could be compared to
#Lost Microbes are Eroding Amazon s Ability to Capture Carbon (Op-Ed) This article was published originally at The Conversation.
Large amounts of nitrogen are needed to achieve the Amazon s role as a carbon Sink in the rainforest that comes primarily from the natural process of nitrogen fixation performed by microbes called diazotrophs.
PHA is a biodegradable polyester that is produced naturally inside some bacteria under the conditions of excess carbon and limited nutrient availability.
and to accept a carbon source of corn-based sugar. The microorganisms feed on the plant-derived sugars and produce PHA.
Mango Materials'process uses bacteria grown in fermenters to transform methane and oxygen along with added nutrients (to supply excess carbon) into PHA.
Other processes use sugar as a carbon feedstock whereas Mango Materials uses waste methane which is considerably less expensive than sugar.
When these rocks are analyzed they are found to contain higher than normal levels of carbon-12 isotopes compared to carbon-13 isotopes
When living things take in carbon (as CO2) they have a preference for carbon-12 and therefore all living things have proportionally higher levels of carbon-12 compared to nonliving things.
The higher levels of carbon-12 in the Isua rocks can only be explained by the presence of primitive life.
This means that DNA or some precursor molecule had assembled by that point and could begin its relentless self-replication driving the evolution of life.
The evidence came from measuring carbon trapped by forests. Overall a forest full of whippersnappers sucked more carbon from the atmosphere than a same-sized acreage filled by elderly trees.
Trees store carbon in their tissues such as wood bark and leaves. So scientists assumed the older trees were growing more slowly
because they ate less carbon. But these early data weren't measuring individual trees and that's where the rub comes in said Todd Dawson a forest biologist at the University of California Berkeley who was involved not in the study.
People had this misconception because forests showed a decline in productivity as they grew older.
The findings do not mean scientists need to rejigger their models for how forests remove carbon from the atmosphere though.
As earlier research shows on a forest-wide scale younger forests capture more carbon simply
Storing carbon But on a tree-by-tree basis ancient giants are much more effective at removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than young trees.
We realize now the big old trees are the ones pulling carbon most rapidly out of the atmosphere Stephenson said.
so they contain more old trees would help trap more carbon (making the forest a carbon sink).
If you want a forest to be a carbon sink you may want to manage it to make sure you always have a lot of older trees in it.
In the past 200 years the ocean has absorbed 50 percent of our skyrocketing carbon emissions and even if we hugely curb our destructive output the ocean is headed still for a record change in temperature and chemical makeup.
#'Plant That Ate the South'Boosting Carbon Pollution This article was published originally at The Conversation.
When it takes over ecosystems this invader causes soils to surrender their carbon and release it as greenhouse gas.
Soil holds a phenomenal amount of carbon. In fact there is more carbon stored in soil than in the atmosphere and in terrestrial plants combined.
Soil carbon comprises roots from plants dead matter and waste from plants and animals and a vast population of microbes.
Together they are known as soil organic matter. Much of this comes from plants mainly dead leaves
The carbon in the organic matter largely stays locked away in the soil like an enormous reservoir.
Over time carbon is released as greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane when the matter is degraded by soil microbes.
The extent to which carbon is determined by its susceptibility to microbial degradation. The problem with kudzu is that it changes the rate at
which carbon remains locked away in the soil. It changes the degradation rate of the organic matter.
and graduate student Mioko Tamura of Clemson University show that kudzu invasion results in an increase of carbon released from the soil organic matter into the atmosphere.
but despite this soil carbon decreased by nearly a third in those forests. Tharayil and Tamura attribute the release of carbon from kudzu-invaded forests to the fact that kudzu adds material to the soil that is susceptible to degradation relative to that produced by pine.
Simply put kudzu leaves and stems are easy for microbes to degrade pine needles and stems are not.
This means that carbon is locked in with waste from pines; whereas it gets released by kudzu.
Tharayil has estimated that kudzu invasion might cause the release of 4. 8 tonnes of carbon per year.
This is the equivalent of the amount of carbon stored almost 5m hectares of forest or the amount of carbon released by burning 2. 3m tonnes of coal annually.
That is approximately the same as the annual carbon footprint for a city of 1m in that part of the world.
The release of this amount of carbon into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide could itself contribute to global warming.
This could create a snowball effect as elevated temperature would enable kudzu to extend its range to more northern latitudes.
They found that knotweed resulted in a net increase in carbon locked away in the soil.
This is not to say that allowing knotweed to run rampant is the solution to kudzu s carbon-releasing menace.
Instead the findings point to the fact that plant composition in different ecosystems could actually be managed to reinforce carbon retention in the soil
and prevent carbon release into the atmosphere. In the meantime though we are going to have to find a way to restrain the plant that ate the south before it loads our skies with more carbon.
Next read this: Why one hectare of rainforest grows more tree species than US and Canada combined Malcolm Campbell receives funding from the Natural sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and from Genome Canada.
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