Currently Europe's forests are mitigating climate change by taking up large quantities of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
#USDA report on greenhouse gas emissions: Uniform tools to measure, manage greenhouse gas emissionsthe U s. Department of agriculture today released a report that for the first time provides uniform scientific methods for quantifying the changes in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and carbon storage from various land
management and conservation activities. Colorado State university faculty members served as authors and external science advisors on the new report and a CSU team is leading the implementation of a new online tool that provides customized GHG reports
The report Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Agriculture and Forestry: Methods for Entity-Scale Inventory will help the USDA evaluate greenhouse gas mitigation programs
and develop new tools to help farmers ranchers and forest landowners participate in emerging carbon markets.
This report provides science-based methods for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions and carbon storage on local farms ranches and forests allowing managers of these entities to calculate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions
while building carbon storage and improving production efficiency on their lands said Stephen Ogle associate professor in CSU's Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability and senior scientist at the Natural resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL).
COMET-Farm is unique in that it allows non-experts to use very advanced methods databases and models for greenhouse gas inventory via a fully spatial user-friendly interface.
Most carbon emissions linked to human activity are in the form of carbon dioxide gas (CO2) but other forms of carbon include the methane gas (CH4)
and the particles generated by such fires--the tiny bits of soot called black carbon and motes of associated substances known as brown carbon.
Jacobson said the sum of warming caused by all anthropogenic greenhouse gases--CO2 methane nitrous oxide chlorofluorocarbons
which are found in everything from industrial pesticides to the sarin gas used in chemical warfare.
in addition to therapeutic formulations which could prevent nerve damage in the event of a gas attack
Thus the increased use of clean energy sources that do not emit either greenhouse gases
The environmental inputs the team considered included land use irrigation water greenhouse gas emissions and nitrogen fertilizer use.
and 11 times more irrigation water are responsible for releasing 5 times more greenhouse gases and consume 6 times as much nitrogen as eggs or poultry.
Carbon dioxide is the most-prevalent gas when it comes to climate change. It is released by vehicles industry
and forest removal and comprises the greatest portion of greenhouse gas totals. But methane and nitrous oxide are also greenhouse gasses
These two gasses are responsible for a quarter of these non-carbon dioxide gas emissions and 9 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions overall.
and now at the University of Siena in Italy and Carnegie's Ken Caldeira estimated the greenhouse gas emissions related to livestock in 237 countries over a nearly half a century
As a result greenhouse gas emissions from livestock keep going up and up in much of the developing world.
and dairy cattle comprised 74 percent of livestock-related greenhouse gas emissions 54 percent coming from beef cattle and 17 percent from dairy cattle.
The remaining one percent comprises gases that --although present in small concentrations--can have a big impact on life On earth.
Trace gases called greenhouse gases warm the surface making it habitable for humans plants and animals.
But these greenhouse gases as well as clouds and tiny particles called aerosols in the atmosphere also play vital roles in Earth's complex climate system.
and its four onboard instruments measure some of the climate agents in the atmosphere including greenhouse gases clouds
and greenhouse gases stop some of the heat from escaping to space keeping the surface warm.
Greenhouse gases are necessary to keep Earth at a habitable temperature but since the Industrial revolution greenhouse gases have increased substantially causing an increase in temperature.
Aura provides measurements of greenhouse gases such as ozone and water vapor helping scientists understand the gases that influence climate.
People plants and animals live in the lowest layer of the atmosphere called the troposphere. In this layer the temperature decreases with altitude as mountain climbers experience.
The temperature starts to increase again at the tropopause about 8 miles (12.9 kilometers) above the surface at temperate latitudes like those of the United states and Europe.
In the middle and upper troposphere ozone acts as a greenhouse gas trapping heat in Earth's atmosphere.
Tropospheric ozone is one of the most important human-influenced greenhouse gases. Aura's Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) instrument built
For instance ozone appeared to be a more effective greenhouse gas over hotter regions like the tropics and cloud-free regions like the Middle east.
If you want to understand climate change you need to monitor the greenhouse gases and how they change over time said Bryan Duncan an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland.
Along with ozone Aura measures other important greenhouse gases such as methane carbon dioxide and water vapor. Improving Climate Modelsin addition to greenhouse gases Aura measures several other constituents relevant to climate--smoke dust and clouds including the ice particles within the clouds--that are important
for testing and improving climate models. If you don't have any data then you don't know
Like greenhouse gases high thin clouds in the tropics absorb some of Earth's outgoing heat
Both OMI and TES also provide data on gases such as sulfur dioxide and ammonia which are primary ingredients for other types of less-absorbing aerosols.
Agriculture is responsible for 20 to 35 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions largely in the form of carbon dioxide from tropical deforestation methane from livestock and rice growing and nitrous oxide from crop fertilization.
The study found that the biggest opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas production are in Brazil and Indonesia for deforestation;
Agriculture is the main source of water use greenhouse gas emissions and habitat loss yet we need to grow more food West said.
#Health risks posed by third hand tobacco smokeresearch led by the University of York has highlighted the potential cancer risk in nonsmokers--particularly young children--of tobacco smoke gases
and dust contaminated with residual smoke gases and particles the so-called third hand smoke. This risk should not be overlooked
and then is released again to the gas phase or reacts with ozone nitrous acid and other atmospheric oxidants.
Measurements were made using a comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography system which was funded originally by NERC to study particulate matter in the atmosphere.
Paper is also superior to plastics from the viewpoint of plant gas metabolism. This cover has given its best performance in tunnel cultivation
A star is glowing sphere of gas while planets like Earth are made up of solids.
The elements themselves are formed out of the glowing hydrogen gas in stars. The hydrogen atoms fuse together into heavier and heavier elements
and giant clouds of gas are slung out into space where they are recycled into new stars in a vast cosmic cycle.
This gas cloud resides as a shell around the star. There are more of these outbursts
and the dense gas cloud take centre stage. When the star explodes the shockwave hits the dense gas cloud like a brick wall.
It is all in gas form and incredibly hot but when the eruption hits the'wall'the gas gets compressed
and cools down to about 2000 degrees. At this temperature and density elements can nucleate
and form solid particles. We measured dust grains as large as around one micron (a thousandth of a millimeter)
In combination these factors could be removing nearly 54 million tons of carbon from the forest each year introduced into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases.
accelerate global warmingclemson University scientists are shedding new light on how invasion by exotic plant species affects the ability of soil to store greenhouse gases.
But as the comet gets closer to the sun the gas production rate will increase.
and to determine the global gas production rate as a function of its distance from the sun. The gas production rate that MIRO determined provides scientists a measure of the evolution of the comet as it moves both toward
and then away from the sun. The gas production rate is also important to the Rosetta navigation team controlling the spacecraft as this flowing gas can alter the trajectory of spacecraft.
By studying the gas dust and structure of the nucleus and organic materials associated with the comet via both remote and in-situ observations the Rosetta mission should be a key to unlocking the history and evolution of our solar system as well as answering questions regarding the origin of Earth's water and perhaps even life.
Resembling a miniaturized ground-based radio telescope it was designed to study the composition velocity and temperature of gases on or near the comet's surface and measure the temperature of the nucleus down to a depth of several inches or centimeters.
This could make a big difference in protecting tropical biodiversity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
which is heating up at about twice the rate of the rest of the planet due to increasing greenhouse gases said CU-Boulder geological sciences Associate professor Jaelyn Eberle a study co-author.
if CO2 and other greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere continue to rise and what a runaway greenhouse effect potentially could look like.
The clearing of tropical forests to plant oil palm trees releases massive amounts of carbon dioxide a greenhouse gas fueling climate change.
Home to the world's third-largest tropical forest the country is also one of the principal emitters of greenhouse gases due to the rapid conversion of carbon-rich forests and peatlands to other uses.
The carbon footprint of plants and trees a measure of all greenhouse gases emitted in a product's life cycle is expressed in units of tons (or kilograms) of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2E.
and evaluate potential system modifications to reduce greenhouse gas emissions Ingram and Hall noted. They added that product differentiation is an increasingly important business strategy for burgeoning green industry businesses
When organic chemicals from trees and vegetation mix with air pollutants the resulting corrosive gas can increase the erosion of building materials including stone concrete and steel.
which can reduce greenhouse gases cut down exposure to pollution and provide mental health benefits. However the effect on buildings from the mix of pollutants and organic chemicals has not been accounted previously for.
When organic chemicals from trees and vegetation mix with air pollutants the resulting corrosive gas can increase the erosion of building materials including stone concrete and steel.
which can reduce greenhouse gases cut down exposure to pollution and provide mental health benefits. However the effect on buildings from the mix of pollutants and organic chemicals has not been accounted previously for.
Brazil's national commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions along with rising gasoline prices has led to the world's largest fleet of flex-fuel vehicles fueled by the over 36 million tonnes of sugar cane currently grown in the country.
when ethanol is burned in lieu of gas and oil. With over 2. 5 million square kilometers of existing cleared lands in Brazil much of which is degraded pasture lands there is already a large potential area for biofuel crop expansion.
#Vegetarian diets produce fewer greenhouse gases and increase longevity, say new studiesconsuming a plant-based diet results in a more sustainable environment
and reduces greenhouse gas emissions while improving longevity according to new research from Loma Linda University Health.
and compare greenhouse gas emissions as well as assess total mortality. The mortality rate for non-vegetarians was almost 20 percent higher than that for vegetarians and semi-vegetarians.
On top of lower mortality rates switching from non-vegetarian diets to vegetarian diets or even semi-vegetarian diets also helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
since previous studies relating dietary patterns to greenhouse gas emissions and health effects relied on simulated data
Both papers demonstrate that the production of food for human consumption causes significant emissions of greenhouse gases
The project also looks at the scenario where strong greenhouse gas reduction policies are implemented and temperature rise is kept below 2 degrees Celsius (the current international target).
It would also reduce emissions of greenhouse gases says Skreiberg. In comparison with other fossil fuels charcoal emits low levels of sulphur and nitrogen oxides.
We also want to make use of by-products such as combustible gases and tars bio-oils) says Skreiberg.
#Livestock gut microbes contributing to greenhouse gas emissionsincreased to levels unprecedented is how the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) described the rise of carbon dioxide methane and nitrous oxide emissions in their report on the physical science basis
when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. It turns out that the amount of methane produced varies substantially across individual animals of the same ruminant species. To find out why this is
In a new study published in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Michigan State university researchers provide an improved prediction of nitrogen fertilizer's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural fields.
The study uses data from around the world to show that emissions of nitrous oxide a greenhouse gas produced in the soil following nitrogen addition rise faster than previously expected
Nitrogen-based fertilizers spur greenhouse gas emissions by stimulating microbes in the soil to produce more nitrous oxide.
Agriculture accounts for 8 to 14 percent of all greenhouse gas production globally. We're showing how farmers can help to reduce this number by applying nitrogen fertilizer more precisely.
Simply put when plant nitrogen needs are matched with the nitrogen that's supplied fertilizer has substantially less effect on greenhouse gas emission Robertson said.
however would deliver major reductions to greenhouse gas emissions in those regions. This study provides support for expanding the use of carbon credits to pay farmers for better fertilizer management.
Acid rain occurs when these gases react in the atmosphere with water oxygen and other chemicals to form various acidic compounds.
and the amounts of greenhouse gas emissions created by loss of trees as a result of human activity. They found that tropical forests absorb almost two billion tonnes of carbon each year equivalent to one-fifth of the world's carbon emissions by storing it in their bark leaves and soil.
Peat fires in forests add significantly to the greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers estimate that if all human-related deforestation of the tropics were to stop the forests could absorb more carbon than at present equivalent to one-fifth of global emissions.
Humans continue to dump billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year and it's evidently affecting even the remotest forests On earth said Laurance.
Recyclable material absorbs 82 percent of its weight in carbon dioxiderice University scientists have created an Earth-friendly way to separate carbon dioxide from natural gas at wellheads.
A porous material invented by the Rice lab of chemist James Tour sequesters carbon dioxide a greenhouse gas at ambient temperature with pressure provided by the wellhead
Natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel. Development of cost-effective means to separate carbon dioxide during the production process will improve this advantage over other fossil fuels
and enable the economic production of gas resources with higher carbon dioxide content that would be too costly to recover using current carbon capture technologies Tour said.
Traditionally carbon dioxide has been removed from natural gas to meet pipelines'specifications. The Tour lab with assistance from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) produced the patented material that pulls only carbon dioxide molecules from flowing natural gas
and polymerizes them while under pressure naturally provided by the well. When the pressure is released the carbon dioxide spontaneously depolymerizes
If the oil and gas industry does not respond to concerns about carbon dioxide and other emissions it could well face new regulations Tour said noting the White house issued its latest National Climate Assessment last month and this week set new rules to cut carbon pollution from the nation
or use it for enhanced oil recovery to further the release of oil and natural gas. Or they can package
Methane ethane and propane molecules that make up natural gas may try to stick to the carbon but the growing polymer chains simply push them off he said.
Apache Corp. a Houston-based oil and gas exploration and production company funded the research at Rice
The interdisciplinary team looked at a range of possible approaches to dissipating greenhouse gases and reducing warming.
Working under the auspices of the National Science Foundation the team spent two years evaluating more than 100 studies that addressed the various implications of climate engineering and their anticipated effects on greenhouse gases.
but scientists are only now starting to appreciate its potential for tying up greenhouse gases Cusack said.
It contributes significantly to global environmental change with a recently estimated 14.5%of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions attributable to the sector as well as through environmental problems associated with manure management and disruption of the nitrogen cycle in the soil water and air.
#Wood-waste biofuel to cut greenhouse gas, transform shipping industrya sustainable biofuel made from Norwegian forest wood waste could help transform the shipping industry
and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Alternative sustainable fuels are needed urgently in the marine transport sector due to stringent upcoming regulations demanding reduced sulphur
because it influences how much carbon dioxide these regions can absorb as well as how they are influenced by the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
and surface wildfires can result in an annual loss of 54 billion tonnes of carbon from the Brazilian Amazon increasing greenhouse gas emissions.
#Oil, gas development homogenizing core-forest bird communitiesconventional oil and gas development in northern Pennsylvania altered bird communities and the current massive build-out of shale-gas infrastructure may accelerate these changes according to researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural
Sciences. The commonwealth's Northern Tier--one of the largest blocks of Eastern deciduous forest in the entire Appalachian region--is an important breeding area for neotropical migrant songbirds.
and gas wells says Margaret Brittingham professor of wildlife resources who conducted a study of bird communities in the Allegheny National Forest.
The national forest on the extensively forested Allegheny Plateau in northwestern Pennsylvania has more than 14000 active oil and gas wells.
and gas development and suggest that a loss of community uniqueness is a consequence. The study done in collaboration with the U s. Department of agriculture's Northern Forest Research Station took place over three years.
Lead researcher Emily Thomas at the time a graduate student advised by Brittingham surveyed birds in 50-acre blocks selected for their varied amount of oil and gas development.
or absence of different songbird species in a range of landscapes including undisturbed forest low-density oil and gas development and high-density development.
and gas development are doing to bird populations said Brittingham. We compared and contrasted the abundance
and at a rate that was roughly proportional to the intensity of gas development. Songbird species that prefer early successional habitat increased in abundance on the edge of gas development.
In addition Brittingham noted the generalist bird species that do better around people and tend to be common wherever there are people
and gas development than within undisturbed forest--potentially displacing the forest specialists. The expansive development of Marcellus Shale gas which began within the core forests of northcentral Pennsylvania around 2007 is increasing exponentially.
Deep horizontal shale gas wells differ substantially from shallow conventional oil and gas wells in many ways.
Shale-gas well pads are immense but occur at a much lower density. Drillers install pad substrate of stone to support heavy equipment
and the drillers use a much greater quantity of water for hydrofracturing. That technology demands greatly increased levels of truck traffic on wider more highly engineered roads.
Brittingham and her students are currently studying the effects of shale-gas development on birds to determine how it affects avian communities.
and survey to gauge the impacts of gas development because they are abundant respond quickly to habitat change
while extracting the gas. We hope our research will help to determine where thresholds of change occur
For example the project has discovered the release of greenhouse gases is controlled differently in large lakes versus small ones.
and because carbon dioxide is the major greenhouse gas and therefore a major regulator of earth's temperature.
Among the technologies evaluated in situ are floor type in cattle housing use of additives in slurry storage manure turning flexible lagoons for collective slurry storage biowashers for gases at the outlet of air ducts of the sheds
but it poses numerous environmental problems like the emissions of polluting gases (ammonia nitrous oxide and methane) into the atmosphere and the polluting of soil and water by nitrates.
Like in a chimney these gases are presumed to be rising to the surface resulting in the localised loss and disappearance of vegetation.
And according to the research team underground emission of abiotic gases as well is unlikely to result in such evenly dispersed and homogeneous spatial distribution.
The transformation of gas molecules into clusters and then into particles a process called nucleation produces more than half of the particles that seed cloud formation around the world today.
greenhouse gas expert warnsas the shale gas boom continues the atmosphere receives more methane adding to Earthâ##s greenhouse gas problem.
Robert Howarth greenhouse gas expert and ecology and environmental biology professor fears that we may not be many years away from an environmental tipping point â
and natural gas is the largest methane pollution source in the United Statesâ#said Howarth who explains in an upcoming journal article that Earth may reach the point of no return
Methane Emissions and the Greenhouse Gas Footprint of Natural Gasâ#will be published May 20 in the journal Energy Science and Engineering.
Natural gas â#that once seemingly promising link between the era of oil and coal to the serenity of sustainable solar wind and water power â#is a major source of atmospheric methane due to widespread
leaks as well as purposeful venting of gas. Howarth points to â#oeradiative forcingâ#a measure of trapped heat in Earthâ##s atmosphere from man-made greenhouse gases.
The current role of methane looms large he says contributing over 40 percent of current radiative forcing from all greenhouse gases based on the latest science from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The role of methane as a driver of global warming is even more critical than this 40 percent value might indicate Howarth notes.
â#with another like natural gas will not suffice as an approach to take on global warming. Rather we should embrace the technologies of the 21st century
#By itself, abundant shale gas unlikely to alter climate projectionswhile natural gas can reduce greenhouse emissions
when it is substituted for higher-emission energy sources abundant shale gas is not likely to substantially alter total emissions without policies targeted at greenhouse gas reduction a pair of Duke researchers find.
If natural gas is abundant and less expensive it will encourage greater natural gas consumption and less of fuels such as coal renewables and nuclear power.
The net effect on the climate will depend on whether the greenhouse emissions from natural gas--including carbon dioxide
and methane--are lower or higher than emissions avoided by reducing the use of those other energy sources.
Most evidence indicates that natural gas as a substitute for coal in electricity production gasoline in transport and electricity in buildings decreases greenhouse gases.
But natural gas production and consumption has higher emissions than renewables and nuclear power. Over the range of scenarios that we examine abundant natural gas by itself is neither a climate hero nor a climate villain said Richard Newell Gendell Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics and director of the Duke university Energy Initiative.
The findings are published in a special issue of Environmental science and Technology Understanding the Risks of Unconventional Shale Gas Development.
Natural gas from shale formations is favored by proponents as a cleaner inexpensive replacement for fuels such as coal
and oil that emit more carbon dioxide and local air pollutants. But extracting processing and transporting the fuel can result in emissions of methane--itself a potent greenhouse gas.
The precise level of these methane emissions is uncertain and extensive research on the subject is under way.
We find that so far increased natural gas has taken mostly the place of coal but looking forward there also may be increased consumption for sectors such as industry as well as some degree of displacement of zero-emission sources such as renewables
The net effect on U s. greenhouse gas emissions appears likely to be small in the absence of policies specifically directed at greenhouse gas mitigation.
one where natural gas production and prices follow a reference case scenario and another where increased shale gas production lowers prices
and encourages increased consumption. They also account for a range of methane emissions scenarios ranging from 25 percent below to 50 percent above the levels estimated by the U s. Environmental Production Agency.
The fact that increased shale gas doesn't have a huge climate impact on its own doesn't mean it's not important.
If broad climate policy is enacted having abundant natural gas could be very helpful by making it cheaper for society to achieve climate goals Newell said.
If natural gas is expensive then it will be more costly to switch away from fuels that have higher greenhouse gas emissions such as coal and oil.
But keeping methane emissions low is essential to maximizing the potential benefits of natural gas. The climate benefits of natural gas are reduced
if there are a lot of methane emissions but while recent evidence suggests methane emissions may be higher than the EPA currently estimates it's not clear how this new information will affect those estimates Raimi said.
but even if methane emissions from natural gas systems are significantly higher than current EPA estimates we did not find this significantly alters the impact of abundant natural gas on long-term national or global greenhouse gas emissions pathways.
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