探花直播 of Cambridge - greenhouse gas /taxonomy/subjects/greenhouse-gas en 2023 was the hottest summer in two thousand years /research/news/2023-was-the-hottest-summer-in-two-thousand-years <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/news/gettyimages-2022583362-dp.jpg?itok=hLS_mjJj" alt="Morning sun over Los Angeles, USA." title="Morning sun over Los Angeles, USA., Credit: trekandshoot via Getty Images" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Although 2023 has been reported as the hottest year on record, the instrumental evidence only reaches back as far as 1850 at best, and most records are limited to certain regions.</p> <p>Now, by using past climate information from annually resolved tree rings over two millennia, scientists from the 探花直播 of Cambridge and the Johannes Gutenberg 探花直播 Mainz have shown how exceptional the summer of 2023 was.</p> <p>Even allowing for natural climate variations over hundreds of years, 2023 was still the hottest summer since the height of the Roman Empire, exceeding the extremes of natural climate variability by half a degree Celsius.</p> <p>鈥淲hen you look at the long sweep of history, you can see just how dramatic recent global warming is,鈥 said co-author Professor Ulf B眉ntgen, from Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Geography. 鈥2023 was an exceptionally hot year, and this trend will continue unless we reduce greenhouse gas emissions dramatically.鈥</p> <p> 探花直播<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07512-y">results</a>, reported in the journal <em>Nature</em>, also demonstrate that in the Northern Hemisphere, the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels has already been breached.</p> <p>Early instrumental temperature records, from 1850-1900, are sparse and inconsistent. 探花直播researchers compared early instrumental data with a large-scale tree ring dataset and found the 19th century temperature baseline used to contextualise global warming is several tenths of a degree Celsius colder than previously thought. By re-calibrating this baseline, the researchers calculated that summer 2023 conditions in the Northern Hemisphere were 2.07C warmer than mean summer temperatures between 1850 and 1900.</p> <p>鈥淢any of the conversations we have around global warming are tied to a baseline temperature from the mid-19th century, but why is this the baseline? What is normal, in the context of a constantly-changing climate, when we鈥檝e only got 150 years of meteorological measurements?鈥 said B眉ntgen. 鈥淥nly when we look at climate reconstructions can we better account for natural variability and put recent anthropogenic climate change into context.鈥</p> <p>Tree rings can provide that context, since they contain annually-resolved and absolutely-dated information about past summer temperatures. Using tree-ring chronologies allows researchers to look much further back in time without the uncertainty associated with some early instrumental measurements.</p> <p> 探花直播available tree-ring data reveals that most of the cooler periods over the past 2000 years, such as the Little Antique Ice Age in the 6th century and the Little Ice Age in the early 19th century, followed large-sulphur-rich volcanic eruptions. These eruptions spew huge amounts of aerosols into the stratosphere, triggering rapid surface cooling. 探花直播coldest summer of the past two thousand years, in 536 CE, followed one such eruption, and was 3.93C colder than the summer of 2023.</p> <p>Most of the warmer periods covered by the tree ring data can be attributed to the El Ni帽o climate pattern, or El Ni帽o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). El Ni帽o affects weather worldwide due to weakened trade winds in the Pacific Ocean and often results in warmer summers in the Northern Hemisphere. While El Ni帽o events were first noted by fisherman in the 17th century, they can be observed in the tree ring data much further back in time.</p> <p>However, over the past 60 years, global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions are causing El Ni帽o events to become stronger, resulting in hotter summers. 探花直播current El Ni帽o event is expected to continue into early summer 2024, making it likely that this summer will break temperature records once again.</p> <p>鈥淚t鈥檚 true that the climate is always changing, but the warming in 2023, caused by greenhouse gases, is additionally amplified by El Ni帽o conditions, so we end up with longer and more severe heat waves and extended periods of drought,鈥 said Professor Jan Esper, the lead author of the study from the Johannes Gutenberg 探花直播 Mainz in Germany. 鈥淲hen you look at the big picture, it shows just how urgent it is that we reduce greenhouse gas emissions immediately.鈥</p> <p> 探花直播researchers note that while their results are robust for the Northern Hemisphere, it is difficult to obtain global averages for the same period since data is sparse for the Southern Hemisphere. 探花直播Southern Hemisphere also responds differently to climate change, since it is far more ocean-covered than the Northern Hemisphere.</p> <p> 探花直播research was supported in part by the European Research Council.</p> <p><em><strong>Reference:</strong><br /> Jan Esper, Max Torbenson, Ulf B眉ntgen. 鈥<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07512-y">2023 summer warmth unparalleled over the past 2,000 years</a>.鈥 Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07512-y</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Researchers have found that 2023 was the hottest summer in the Northern Hemisphere in the past two thousand years, almost four degrees warmer than the coldest summer during the same period.</p> </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">When you look at the long sweep of history, you can see just how dramatic recent global warming is</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote-name field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Ulf B眉ntgen</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-credit field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/los-angeles-california-morning-fiery-sunburst-royalty-free-image/2022583362?phrase=heatwave&amp;adppopup=true" target="_blank">trekandshoot via Getty Images</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-desctiprion field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Morning sun over Los Angeles, USA.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/" rel="license"><img alt="Creative Commons License." src="/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/inner-images/cc-by-nc-sa-4-license.png" style="border-width: 0px; width: 88px; height: 31px;" /></a><br /> 探花直播text in this work is licensed under a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>. Images, including our videos, are Copyright 漏 探花直播 of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways 鈥 on our <a href="/">main website</a> under its <a href="/about-this-site/terms-and-conditions">Terms and conditions</a>, and on a <a href="/about-this-site/connect-with-us">range of channels including social media</a> that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div> Tue, 14 May 2024 15:00:00 +0000 sc604 245931 at Cambridge heads to COP28 /stories/cambridge/cop28 <div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p> 探花直播 探花直播 of Cambridge heads to COP28 in Dubai, UAE, with a film premiere and a host of higher education and research events.</p> </p></div></div></div> Fri, 01 Dec 2023 17:43:08 +0000 plc32 243521 at Millions of carbon credits are generated by overestimating forest preservation /stories/carbon-credits-hot-air <div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Study analyses major carbon offset projects, and finds that 鈥 of a potential 89 million credits 鈥 only 5.4 million (6%) were linked to additional carbon reductions through tree conservation.</p> </p></div></div></div> Fri, 25 Aug 2023 07:28:16 +0000 fpjl2 241541 at Shrinking Arctic glaciers are unearthing a new source of methane /stories/glaciers-methane <div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>As the Arctic warms, shrinking glaciers are exposing bubbling groundwater springs which could provide an underestimated source of the potent greenhouse gas methane, finds new research published today in Nature Geoscience.</p> </p></div></div></div> Thu, 06 Jul 2023 14:23:15 +0000 cmm201 240541 at Solar-powered system converts plastic and greenhouse gases into sustainable fuels /research/news/solar-powered-system-converts-plastic-and-greenhouse-gases-into-sustainable-fuels <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/news/dsc06575-copy.jpg?itok=dv22q52p" alt="Solar-powered reactor for converting plastic and greenhouse gases into sustainable fuels" title="Solar-powered reactor for converting plastic and greenhouse gases into sustainable fuels, Credit: Reisner Lab" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p> 探花直播researchers, from the 探花直播 of Cambridge, developed the system, which can convert two waste streams into two chemical products at the same time 鈥 the first time this has been achieved in a solar-powered reactor.</p> <p> 探花直播reactor converts carbon dioxide (CO2) and plastics into different products that are useful in a range of industries. In tests, CO2 was converted into syngas, a key building block for sustainable liquid fuels, and plastic bottles were converted into glycolic acid, which is widely used in the cosmetics industry. 探花直播system can easily be tuned to produce different products by changing the type of catalyst used in the reactor.</p> <p>Converting plastics and greenhouse gases 鈥 two of the biggest threats facing the natural world 鈥 into useful and valuable products using solar energy is an important step in the transition to a more sustainable, circular economy. 探花直播<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44160-022-00196-0">results</a> are reported in the journal <em>Nature Synthesis</em>.</p> <p>鈥淐onverting waste into something useful using solar energy is a major goal of our research,鈥 said <a href="http://www-reisner.ch.cam.ac.uk/">Professor Erwin Reisner</a> from the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, the paper鈥檚 senior author. 鈥淧lastic pollution is a huge problem worldwide, and often, many of the plastics we throw into recycling bins are incinerated or end up in landfill.鈥</p> <p>Reisner also leads the <a href="https://www.energy.cam.ac.uk/Plastic_Waste">Cambridge Circular Plastics Centre (CirPlas)</a>, which aims to eliminate plastic waste by combining blue-sky thinking with practical measures.</p> <p>Other solar-powered 鈥榬ecycling鈥 technologies hold promise for addressing plastic pollution and for reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but to date, they have not been combined in a single process.</p> <p>鈥淎 solar-driven technology that could help to address plastic pollution and greenhouse gases at the same time could be a game-changer in the development of a circular economy,鈥 said Subhajit Bhattacharjee, the paper鈥檚 co-first author.</p> <p>鈥淲e also need something that鈥檚 tuneable, so that you can easily make changes depending on the final product you want,鈥 said co-first author Dr Motiar Rahaman.</p> <p> 探花直播researchers developed an integrated reactor with two separate compartments: one for plastic, and one for greenhouse gases. 探花直播reactor uses a light absorber based on perovskite 鈥 a promising alternative to silicon for next-generation solar cells.</p> <p> 探花直播team designed different catalysts, which were integrated into the light absorber. By changing the catalyst, the researchers could then change the end product. Tests of the reactor under normal temperature and pressure conditions showed that the reactor could efficiently convert PET plastic bottles and CO2 into different carbon-based fuels such as CO, syngas or formate, in addition to glycolic acid. 探花直播Cambridge-developed reactor produced these products at a rate that is also much higher than conventional photocatalytic CO2 reduction processes.</p> <p>鈥淕enerally, CO2 conversion requires a lot of energy, but with our system, basically you just shine a light at it, and it starts converting harmful products into something useful and sustainable,鈥 said Rahaman. 鈥淧rior to this system, we didn鈥檛 have anything that could make high-value products selectively and efficiently.鈥</p> <p>鈥淲hat鈥檚 so special about this system is the versatility and tuneability 鈥 we鈥檙e making fairly simple carbon-based molecules right now, but in future, we could be able to tune the system to make far more complex products, just by changing the catalyst,鈥 said Bhattacharjee.</p> <p>Reisner recently received new funding from the European Research Council to help the development of their solar-powered reactor. Over the next five years, they hope to further develop the reactor to produce more complex molecules. 探花直播researchers say that similar techniques could someday be used to develop an entirely solar-powered recycling plant.</p> <p>鈥淒eveloping a circular economy, where we make useful things from waste instead of throwing it into landfill, is vital if we鈥檙e going to meaningfully address the climate crisis and protect the natural world,鈥 said Reisner. 鈥淎nd powering these solutions using the Sun means that we鈥檙e doing it cleanly and sustainably.鈥</p> <p> 探花直播research was supported in part by the European Union, the European Research Council, the Cambridge Trust, Hermann and Marianne Straniak Stiftung, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Erwin Reisner is a Fellow of St John鈥檚 College, Cambridge.</p> <p><em><strong>Reference:</strong><br /> Subhajit Bhattacharjee, Motiar Rahaman et al. 鈥<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44160-022-00196-0">Photoelectrochemical CO2-to-fuel conversion with simultaneous plastic reforming</a>.鈥 Nature Synthesis (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s44160-022-00196-0</em></p> <p><em><strong>For more information on聽energy-related research in Cambridge, please visit聽<a href="https://www.energy.cam.ac.uk/">Energy聽IRC</a>, which brings together Cambridge鈥檚 research knowledge and expertise, in collaboration with global partners, to create solutions for a sustainable and resilient energy landscape for generations to come.聽</strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Researchers have developed a system that can transform plastic waste and greenhouse gases into sustainable fuels and other valuable products 鈥 using just the energy from the Sun.</p> </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">A solar-driven technology that could help to address plastic pollution and greenhouse gases at the same time could be a game-changer in the development of a circular economy</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote-name field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Subhajit Bhattacharjee</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-credit field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/" target="_blank">Reisner Lab</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-desctiprion field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Solar-powered reactor for converting plastic and greenhouse gases into sustainable fuels</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license"><img alt="Creative Commons License" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" style="border-width:0" /></a><br /> 探花直播text in this work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>. Images, including our videos, are Copyright 漏 探花直播 of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified.聽 All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways 鈥 as here, on our <a href="/">main website</a> under its <a href="/about-this-site/terms-and-conditions">Terms and conditions</a>, and on a <a href="/about-this-site/connect-with-us">range of channels including social media</a> that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div> Mon, 09 Jan 2023 16:00:00 +0000 sc604 236261 at Greenhouse gas 鈥榝eedback loop鈥 discovered in freshwater lakes /research/news/greenhouse-gas-feedback-loop-discovered-in-freshwater-lakes <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/news/lakeinset.jpg?itok=M8rGe-Mk" alt="" title="Lake near Sudbury, Ontario, in the Canadian Boreal Shield, with aquatic plants in the foreground providing fuel for methane production. , Credit: Andrew Tanentzap." /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>A new study of chemical reactions that occur when organic matter decomposes in freshwater lakes has revealed that the debris from trees suppresses production of methane 鈥 while debris from reed beds actually promotes this harmful greenhouse gas.</p> <p>As vegetation in and around bodies of water continues to change, with forest cover being lost while global warming causes wetland plants to thrive, the many lakes of the northern hemisphere 鈥 already a major source of methane 鈥 could almost double their emissions in the next fifty years.聽</p> <p> 探花直播researchers say that the findings suggest the discovery of yet another 鈥渇eedback loop鈥 in which environmental disruption and climate change trigger the release of ever more greenhouse gas that further warms the planet, similar to the concerns over the methane released by fast-melting arctic permafrost.</p> <p>鈥淢ethane is a greenhouse gas at least twenty-five times more potent than carbon dioxide. Freshwater ecosystems already contribute as much as 16% of the Earth鈥檚 natural methane emissions, compared to just 1% from all the world鈥檚 oceans,鈥 said study senior author Dr Andrew Tanentzap, from the 探花直播 of Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Plant Sciences.</p> <p>鈥淲e believe we have discovered a new mechanism that has the potential to cause increasingly more greenhouse gases to be produced by freshwater lakes. 探花直播warming climates that promote the growth of aquatic plants have the potential to trigger a damaging feedback loop in natural ecosystems.鈥</p> <p> 探花直播researchers point out that the current methane emissions of freshwater ecosystems alone offsets around a quarter of all the carbon soaked up by land plants and soil: the natural 鈥榗arbon sink鈥 that drains and stores CO2 from the atmosphere.</p> <p>Up to 77% of the methane emissions from an individual lake are the result of the organic matter shed primarily by plants that grow in or near the water. This matter gets buried in the sediment found toward the edge of lakes, where it is consumed by communities of microbes. Methane gets generated as a byproduct, which then bubbles up to the surface.</p> <p>Working with colleagues from Canada and Germany, Tanentzap鈥檚 group found that the levels of methane produced in lakes varies enormously depending on the type of plants contributing their organic matter to the lake sediment. 探花直播study, funded by the UK鈥檚 Natural Environment Research Council, is published today <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04236-2">in the journal <em>Nature Communications</em></a>.聽聽</p> <p>To test how organic matter affects methane emissions, the scientists took lake sediment and added three common types of plant debris: deciduous trees that shed leaves annually, evergreen pine-shedding coniferous trees, and cattails (often known in the UK as 鈥榖ulrushes鈥) 鈥 a common aquatic plant that grows in the shallows of freshwater lakes.</p> <p>These sediments were incubated in the lab for 150 days, during which time the scientists siphoned off and measured the methane produced. They found that the bulrush sediment produced over 400 times the amount of methane as the coniferous sediment, and almost 2,800 times the methane than that of the deciduous.聽聽聽聽聽</p> <p>Unlike the cattail debris, the chemical makeup of the organic matter from trees appears to trap large quantities of carbon within the lake sediment 鈥 carbon that would otherwise combine with hydrogen and get released as methane into the atmosphere.</p> <p>To confirm their findings, the researchers also 鈥渟piked鈥 the three samples with the microbes that produce methane to gauge the chemical reaction. While the forest-derived sediment remained unchanged, the sample containing the bulrush organic matter doubled its methane production.</p> <p>鈥 探花直播organic matter that runs into lakes from the forest trees acts as a latch that suppresses the production of methane within lake sediment. These forests have long surrounded the millions of lakes in the northern hemisphere, but are now under threat,鈥 said Dr Erik Emilson, first author of the study, who has since left Cambridge to work at Natural Resources Canada.聽</p> <p>鈥淎t the same time, changing climates are providing favourable conditions for the growth and spread of aquatic plants such as cattails, and the organic matter from these plants promotes the release of even more methane from the freshwater ecosystems of the global north.鈥</p> <p>Using species distribution models for the Boreal Shield, an area that covers central and eastern Canada and 鈥渉ouses more forests and lakes than just about anywhere on Earth鈥, the researchers calculated that the number of lakes colonised by just the common cattail (Typha latifolia) could double in the next fifty years 鈥 causing current levels of lake-produced methane to increase by at least 73% in this part of the world alone.</p> <p>Added Tanentzap: 鈥淎ccurately predicting methane emissions is vital to the scientific calculations used to try and understand the pace of climate change and the effects of a warmer world. We still have limited understanding of the fluctuations in methane production from plants and freshwater lakes.鈥澛</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Latest research finds plant debris in lake sediment affects methane emissions. 探花直播flourishing reed beds created by changing climates could threaten to double the already significant methane production of the world鈥檚 northern lakes.</p> </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> 探花直播warming climates that promote the growth of aquatic plants have the potential to trigger a damaging feedback loop in natural ecosystems</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote-name field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Andrew Tanentzap</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-credit field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/" target="_blank">Andrew Tanentzap.</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-desctiprion field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lake near Sudbury, Ontario, in the Canadian Boreal Shield, with aquatic plants in the foreground providing fuel for methane production. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license"><img alt="Creative Commons License" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" style="border-width:0" /></a><br /> 探花直播text in this work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>. For image use please see separate credits above.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div> Fri, 04 May 2018 09:00:06 +0000 fpjl2 197092 at Opinion: Worthless mining waste could suck CO鈧 out of the atmosphere and reverse emissions /research/discussion/opinion-worthless-mining-waste-could-suck-co2-out-of-the-atmosphere-and-reverse-emissions <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/discussion/mine-crop.jpg?itok=_47eiBKK" alt="Tagebau / Open cast mine" title="Tagebau / Open cast mine, Credit: Mundus Gregorius" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p> 探花直播<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-paris-climate-deal-52256">Paris Agreement</a> commits nations to limiting global warming to less than 2藲C by the end of the century. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that, to meet such a massive challenge, societies will need to do more than simply reduce and limit carbon emissions. It seems likely that <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-get-rid-of-carbon-in-the-atmosphere-not-just-reduce-emissions-72573">large scale removal</a> of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere may be called for: so-called 鈥<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-get-serious-about-negative-emissions-technology-fast-52549">negative emissions</a>鈥.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>One possibility is to use waste material from mining to trap CO鈧 into new minerals, locking it out of the atmosphere. 探花直播idea is to exploit and accelerate the same geological processes that have regulated Earth鈥檚 climate and surface environment over the 4.5 billion years of its existence.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Across the world, deep and open-pit mining operations have left behind huge piles of worthless rubble 鈥 the 鈥渙verburden鈥 of rock or soil that once lay above the useful coal or metal ore. Often, this rubble is stored in dumps alongside tiny fragments of mining waste 鈥 the 鈥渢ailings鈥 or 鈥渇ines鈥 left over after processing the ore. 探花直播fine-grained waste is particularly reactive, chemically, since more surface is exposed.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>A lot of energy is spent on extracting and crushing all this waste. However, breaking rocks into smaller pieces exposes more fresh surfaces, which can react with CO鈧. In this sense, energy used in mining could itself be harvested and used to reduce atmospheric carbon.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>This is one of the four themes of a <a href="http://www.nerc.ac.uk/press/releases/2017/09-greenhousegas/">new 拢8.6m research programme</a> launched by the UK鈥檚 <a href="http://www.nerc.ac.uk/">Natural Environment Research Council</a>, which will investigate new ways to reverse emissions and remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.</p>&#13; &#13; <figure class="align-center "><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/165888/width754/file-20170419-2423-odpq8h.JPG" style="height: 443px; width: 590px;" /><figcaption><em><span class="caption">Spoil tips from current and historic mining operations, such as this gold mine in Kazakhstan, could provide new ways to draw CO鈧 from the atmosphere.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo Credit: Ainur Seitkan, Earth Sciences, 探花直播 of Cambridge</span></span></em></figcaption></figure><p><br />&#13; 探花直播process we want to speed up is the 鈥渃arbonate-silicate cycle鈥, also known as the <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/CarbonCycle/page2.php">slow carbon cycle</a>. Natural silicate rocks like granite and basalt, common at Earth鈥檚 surface, play a key part in regulating carbon in the atmosphere and oceans by removing CO鈧 from the atmosphere and turning it into carbonate rocks like chalk and limestone.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Atmospheric CO鈧 and water can react with the silicate rocks to dissolve elements they contain like calcium and magnesium into the water, which also soaks up the CO鈧 as bicarbonate. This weak solution is the natural river water that flows to the oceans, which hold more than <a href="https://worldoceanreview.com/en/wor-1/ocean-chemistry/co2-reservoir/">60 times more carbon than the atmosphere</a>. It is here, in the oceans, that the calcium and bicarbonate can recombine, over millions of years, and crystallise as calcite or chalk, often instigated by marine organisms as they build their shells.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Today, rivers deliver <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/ch7s7-3-2-2.html">hundreds of millions</a> of tonnes of carbon each year into the oceans, but this is still around <a href="https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-global-greenhouse-gas-emissions">30 times less</a> than the rate of carbon emission into the atmosphere due to fossil fuel burning. Given immense geological time scales, these processes would return atmospheric CO鈧 to its normal steady state. But we don鈥檛 have time: the blip in CO鈧 emissions from industrialisation easily unbalances nature鈥檚 best efforts.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> 探花直播natural process takes millions of years 鈥 but can we do it in decades? Scientists looking at accelerated mine waste dissolution will attempt to answer a number of pressing questions. 探花直播<a href="https://www.esc.cam.ac.uk/">group at Cambridge</a> which I lead will be investigating whether we can speed up the process of silicate minerals from pre-existing mine waste being dissolved into water. We may even be able to harness friendly microbes to enhance the reaction rates.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Another part of the same project, conducted by colleagues in <a href="https://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/">Oxford</a>, <a href="https://www.southampton.ac.uk/about/faculties-schools-departments/school-of-ocean-and-earth-science">Southampton</a> and <a href="https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/earth-environmental-sciences">Cardiff</a>, will study how the calcium and magnesium released from the silicate mine waste can react back into minerals like calcite, to lock CO鈧 back into solid minerals into the geological future.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Whether this can be done effectively without requiring further fossil fuel energy, and at a scale that is viable and effective, remains to be seen. But accelerating the reaction rates in mining wastes should help us move at least some way towards reaching our climate targets.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>This article was originally published on <a href="https://theconversation.com/"> 探花直播Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/worthless-mining-waste-could-suck-co-out-of-the-atmosphere-and-reverse-emissions-76436">original article</a>.</em></p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Could waste material from mining be used to聽trap CO<sub>2聽</sub>emissions? A new 拢8.6 million research programme聽will investigate the possibilities. Simon Redfern聽(Department of Earth Sciences) explains,聽in this article from 探花直播Conversation.聽</p>&#13; </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-credit field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/beuel_sued/32387419070/in/photolist-RkXZk5-8c8UFx-aorvno-aooJLP-aorv9Y-aorvsd-aoruXC-aorvgC-TGLiZg-aorv6A-aorvvy-bxy5aG-aorv7Q-dpQLfY-iViHxW-umYusy-RR4Lhu-etDSfy-7TFZXr-a39SfQ-RVzm8p-etDS8W-66UkeP-4dgran-RVzkuF-r6JUJb-aNUUCD-Dj2oHV-etDSn1-6aWTYb-92UAKS-4fZRkG-bW8ooM-Q8yfbu-rDxNhv-rzyqjE-SjA99W-pG99DN-vS5891-dCe5ke-o4HrGe-8c8YWi-8EK4Nn-ru4FMx-7FEfuZ-7FEfD6-cNBgYU-GPe74-oPGujt-aWw5FT" target="_blank">Mundus Gregorius</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-desctiprion field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Tagebau / Open cast mine</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license"><img alt="Creative Commons License" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" style="border-width:0" /></a><br />&#13; 探花直播text in this work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>. For image use please see separate credits above.</p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-license-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Licence type:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/imagecredit/attribution-noncommercial-sharealike">Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike</a></div></div></div> Thu, 20 Apr 2017 16:06:39 +0000 Anonymous 187552 at High ozone levels in tropical Pacific caused by fires burning in Africa and Asia /research/news/high-ozone-levels-in-tropical-pacific-caused-by-fires-burning-in-africa-and-asia <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/news/pic-1.png?itok=mhU1_pTO" alt="CONTRAST and CAST Mission Planes" title="CONTRAST and CAST Mission Planes, Credit: Loretta Kuo/Shawn Honomichl" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>While efforts to limit emissions of greenhouse gases, including ozone, tend to focus on industrial activities and the burning of fossil fuels, a new study suggests that future regulations may need to address the burning of forests and vegetation. 探花直播<a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10267">study</a>, published in the journal <em>Nature Communications</em>, indicates that 鈥榖iomass burning鈥 may play a larger role in climate change than previously realised.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Based on observations from two aircraft missions, satellite data and a variety of models, an international research team showed that fires burning in tropical Africa and Southeast Asia caused pockets of high ozone and low water in the lower atmosphere above Guam 鈥 a remote island in the Pacific Ocean 1,700 miles east of Taiwan.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>鈥淲e were very surprised to find high concentrations of ozone and chemicals that we know are only emitted by fires in the air around Guam,鈥 said the study鈥檚 lead author Daniel Anderson, a graduate student at the 探花直播 of Maryland. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 make specific flights to target high-ozone areas 鈥 they were so omnipresent that no matter where we flew, we found them.鈥</p>&#13; &#13; <p>For the study, two research planes on complementary missions flew over Guam measuring the levels of dozens of chemicals in the atmosphere in January and February 2014. One aircraft flew up to 24,000 feet above the ocean surface during the UK Natural Environment Research Council鈥檚 Coordinated Airborne Studies in the Tropics (CAST) mission. 探花直播other flew up to 48,000 feet above the ocean surface during the CONvective Transport of Active Species in the Tropics (CONTRAST) mission.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><img alt="" src="/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/inner-images/pic-2.png" style="width: 590px; height: 288px; float: left;" /></p>&#13; &#13; <p>鈥淚nternational collaboration is essential for studying global environmental issues these days,鈥 said CAST Principal Investigator Neil Harris,聽of Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Chemistry. 鈥淭his US/UK-led campaign over the western Pacific was the first of its kind in this region and collected a unique data set. 探花直播measurements are now starting to produce insight into how the composition of the remote tropical atmosphere is affected by human activities occurring nearly halfway around the world.鈥</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Researchers examined 17 CAST and 11 CONTRAST flights and compiled over 3,000 samples from high-ozone, low-water air parcels for the study. In the samples, the team detected high concentrations of chemicals associated with biomass burning鈥攈ydrogen cyanide, acetonitrile, benzene and ethyne.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>鈥淗ydrogen cyanide and acetonitrile were the smoking guns because they are emitted almost exclusively by biomass burning. High levels of the other chemicals simply added further weight to the findings,鈥 said study co-author Julie Nicely, a graduate student from the 探花直播 of Maryland.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Next, the researchers traced the polluted air parcels backward 10 days, using the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model and precipitation data, to determine where they came from. Overlaying fire data from NASA鈥檚 moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board the Terra satellite, the researchers connected nearly all of the high-ozone, low-water structures to tropical regions with active biomass burning in tropical Africa and Southeast Asia.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>鈥 探花直播investigation utilised a variety of models, including the NCAR CAM-Chem model to forecast and later analyse chemical and dynamical conditions near Guam, as well as satellite data from numerous instruments that augmented the interpretation of the aircraft observations,鈥 said study co-author Douglas Kinnison, a project scientist at the 探花直播 Corporation for Atmospheric Research.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the paper, the researchers also offer a new explanation for the dry nature of the polluted air parcels.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>鈥淥ur results challenge the explanation atmospheric scientists commonly offer for pockets of high ozone and low water: that these zones result from the air having descended from the stratosphere where air is colder and dryer than elsewhere,鈥 said 探花直播 of Maryland Professor Ross Salawitch, the study鈥檚 senior author and principal investigator of CONTRAST.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>鈥淲e know that the polluted air did not mix with air in the stratosphere to dry out because we found combined elevated levels of carbon monoxide, nitric oxide and ozone in our air samples, but air in the higher stratosphere does not contain much naturally occurring carbon monoxide,鈥 said Anderson.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> 探花直播researchers found that the polluted air that reached Guam never entered the stratosphere and instead simply dried out during its descent within the lower atmosphere. While textbooks show air moving upward in the tropics, according to Salawitch, this represents the net motion of air. Because this upward motion happens mostly within small storm systems, it must be balanced by air slowly descending, such as with these polluted parcels released from fires.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Based on the results of this study, global climate models may need to be reassessed to include and correctly represent the impacts of biomass burning, deforestation and reforestation, according to Salawitch. Also, future studies such as NASA鈥檚 upcoming Atmospheric Tomography Mission will add to the data collected by CAST and CONTRAST to help obtain a clearer picture of our changing environment.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In addition to those mentioned above, the study鈥檚 authors included UMD Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Professor Russell Dickerson and Assistant Research Professor Timothy Canty; CAST co-principal investigator James Lee of the 探花直播 of York; CONTRAST co-principal investigator Elliott Atlas of the 探花直播 of Miami; and additional researchers from NASA; NOAA; the 探花直播 of California, Irvine; the California Institute of Technology; the 探花直播 of Manchester; the Institute of Physical Chemistry Rocasolano; and the National Research Council in Argentina.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>This research was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council, National Science Foundation, NASA, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. </em></p>&#13; &#13; <p><em><strong>Reference:</strong><br />&#13; Daniel C. Anderson et al. 鈥<a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10267">A pervasive role for biomass burning in tropical high ozone/low water structures</a>鈥 Nature Communications (2016). DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10267.聽</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Inset image:聽Air Tracking. Credit: Daniel Anderson</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Adapted from a 探花直播 of Maryland press release.聽</em></p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Study indicates 鈥榖iomass burning鈥 may play a larger role in climate change than previously realised.</p>&#13; </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> 探花直播measurements are now starting to produce insight into how the composition of the remote tropical atmosphere is affected by human activities occurring nearly halfway around the world.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote-name field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Neil Harris</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-credit field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/" target="_blank">Loretta Kuo/Shawn Honomichl</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-desctiprion field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">CONTRAST and CAST Mission Planes</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license"><img alt="Creative Commons License" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" style="border-width:0" /></a><br />&#13; 探花直播text in this work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>. For image use please see separate credits above.</p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div> Wed, 13 Jan 2016 10:00:31 +0000 sc604 165152 at