Atmospheric CO2 will pass an alarming milestone in 2021
Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration will soar past a scary threshold this year, exceeding 417 parts per million (ppm) — a 50% increase since the start of widespread industrial activity in the 18th century. The forecast comes from the Met Office, the national meteorological service for the U.K., which used data collected at Mauna Loa […]
CO2 photocatalysis sees the light of day
A team of chemical engineers has created a pilot-scale photoreactor for making chemicals using just carbon dioxide and sunlight. Making fuel from carbon dioxide and sunlight at Gillette, Wyoming, USA. Figure permission courtesy of Jason Salfi, Dimensional Energy Of all utilization technologies that employ some genre of catalysis to produce renewable chemicals and fuels […]
Fish sex organs boosted under high CO2
Triplefin fish. Credit: University of Adelaide Research from the University of Adelaide has found that some species of fish will have higher reproductive capacity because of larger sex organs, under the more acidic oceans of the future. Published in PLOS Biology, the researchers say that far from the negative effects expected under the elevated CO2 […]
Land ecosystems are becoming less efficient at absorbing CO2 — ScienceDaily
Land ecosystems currently play a key role in mitigating climate change. The more carbon dioxide (CO2) plants and trees absorb during photosynthesis, the process they use to make food, the less CO2 remains trapped in the atmosphere where it can cause temperatures to rise. But scientists have identified an unsettling trend – as levels of […]
COVID lockdown causes record drop in CO2 emissions for 2020
Credit: CC0 Public Domain The global COVID-19 lockdowns caused fossil carbon dioxide emissions to decline by an estimated 2.4 billion tonnes in 2020—a record drop according to researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA), University of Exeter and the Global Carbon Project. The fall is considerably larger than previous significant decreases—0.5 (in 1981 and […]
What type of forest to choose for better CO2 storage? — ScienceDaily
An international team led by the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has studied which types of forest, in terms of biodiversity, are the most effective in storing carbon. Inventory data from natural forests on five continents show that species diversity is optimal for equatorial and tropical rainforests, and that, conversely, in forests located in cold or […]
Comparing Impacts of CO2 and Particle Emission Reductions
Black carbon contained in airborne particles is often cited as a major factor warming the climate. Kumar et al. [2020] evaluate the temperature and climate forcing changes associated with modified airborne particulate matter concentrations driven by reductions in California greenhouse gas emissions. Although the adoption of low-carbon energy sources improved surface-level air quality […]
Amazon fires cause Brazil’s CO2 emissions to jump amid pandemic
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Forest fires have sent carbon dioxide emissions soaring in Brazil over the past two years, undermining efforts by the government of President Jair Bolsonaro to restore the country’s environmental credentials. Emissions jumped 10% in 2019, Bolsonaro’s first year in office, following a decade of small declines or stagnation, according to a […]
Plastics and rising CO2 levels could pose combined threat to marine environment — ScienceDaily
The combined environmental threat of plastic pollution and ocean acidification are having significant impacts on species living in our oceans, according to new research. An international team of scientists found that after three weeks of being submerged in the ocean, the bacterial diversity on plastic bottles was twice as great as on samples collected from […]
Plastics and rising CO2 levels could pose combined threat to marine environment
The combined environmental threat of plastic pollution and ocean acidification are having significant impacts on species living in our oceans, according to new research. An international team of scientists found that after three weeks of being submerged in the ocean, the bacterial diversity on plastic bottles was twice as great as on samples collected from […]
