All global warming stories

Policy can empower technological climate change solution

404132862 — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:12:00 -0400

The chair of the U.S. House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming struck an optimistic tone about the planet’s climate crisis last night, saying that an energy revolution is in the offing if government can just get the policy right.

Engineered weathering process might mitigate climate change

404132862 — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:34:16 -0500

Researchers at Harvard University and Penn State University have invented a technology, inspired by nature, to reduce the accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) caused by human emissions.

By electrochemically removing hydrochloric acid from the ocean and then neutralizing the acid by reaction with silicate (volcanic) rocks, the researchers say they can accelerate natural chemical weathering, permanently transferring CO2 from the atmosphere to the ocean. Unlike other ocean sequestration processes, the new technology does not further acidify the ocean and may be beneficial to coral reefs.

Digging for solutions to energy crisis

50443248 — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:20:06 -0400

In the 1970s, Iceland was one of the poorest countries in Europe. Today it is one of the richest, with a per capita GDP higher than that of Denmark, from which it won full independence in 1944.

How did it accomplish this remarkable transformation? A key element was the shift from imported coal and oil to geothermal energy. Iceland now uses geothermal energy to generate a large portion of its electricity and nearly all of its heating needs.

Warming may not spark tree growth

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:21:22 -0400

A bright spot in the gloomy global warming picture has been scientists’ predictions that at least some carbon dioxide will be removed from the atmosphere by a burst of growth from tropical forests.

New research from the Arnold Arboretum, however, questions that prediction, finding that trees in two forests on opposite sides of the world have been growing dramatically slower, not faster, as temperatures have risen over the past 20 years.

Kenneth Feeley, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Tropical Forest Science, a partnership between the arboretum and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, examined tree growth data from forest plots in Panama and Malaysia.

Arctic hit by global warming first

50443248 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:28:30 -0400

Scientists from the eight nations bordering the Arctic recently enlisted representatives of the region's native peoples to help assess climate change there. What they found put a human face on a debate often involving distant projections and abstract numbers.

Less snow, less sea ice, freezing rain in winter, and the appearance of mosquitoes and robins, creatures so foreign the native residents have no word for them.

The experience of the Arctic peoples is a harbinger of things to come, according to James McCarthy, the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography.

"It's the canary in the mine, a glimpse of what's going to happen at lower latitudes," McCarthy said.

Current U.S. renewable energy goal too low, says head of national lab

50443248 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:34:55 -0400

The head of the U.S. government's renewable energy lab said Monday (Feb. 5) that the federal government is doing "embarrassingly few things" to foster renewable energy, leaving leadership to the states at a time of opportunity to change the nation's energy future.

Dan Arvizu, director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Colorado-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory, said a brief opening exists to dramatically increase the energy generated from renewable sources in the coming decades, but said more resources and a national policy promoting renewable energy will be needed to make it come true.

Heat waves deadliest for blacks, diabetics

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:22:13 -0400

Heat waves, like the one that scorched the country in July, are more deadly for some people than for others.

Poor blacks and diabetics fare the worst. As you might guess, extreme heat is also hard on the elderly. But as you might not guess, extreme cold has a greater impact.

Also, the increase in risk on extremely hot days is smaller for deaths due to heart disease, such as heart attacks, than for other causes. Conversely, the increase in risk of dying from heart disease on extremely cold days is greater. Deaths from cardiac arrest show the largest increase at such times.

Step-by-step to a cleaner energy future

50443248 — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:18:04 -0400

A Princeton University energy expert laid out a framework to arrest atmosphere-warming carbon emissions over the next 50 years, saying he was optimistic that significant action could be taken to address global warming.

Princeton Professor Robert Socolow said his optimism stems from his belief that carbon emissions could be arrested at today's rate using technology that is available today - much of it already used by industry.

Green Campus Initiative looks at global environment

50443248 — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:25:31 -0400

The Harvard Green Campus Initiative (HGCI) invites University faculty, staff, students, and alumni to its upcoming conference, titled "Harvard Vision 2020: A Bridge to Campus Sustainability," to contribute their thoughts on how Harvard can address the demands of environmental sustainability in its future campus design, development, and operations.

Study shows escalating climate change impacts

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:22:51 -0400

The Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, along with co-sponsors Swiss Re and the United Nations Development Programme, has released a study showing that climate change will significantly affect the health of humans and ecosystems and these impacts will have economic consequences.

The study, "Climate Change Futures: Health, Ecological and Economic Dimensions" (CCF), surveys existing and future costs associated with climate change and the growing potential for abrupt, widespread impacts. The study reports that the insurance industry will be at the center of this issue, absorbing risk and helping society and business to adapt and reduce new risks.

"We found that impacts of climate change are likely to lead to ramifications that overlap in several areas including our health, our economy and the natural systems on which we depend," said Paul Epstein, the study's lead author and associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School.

"A comparable event would be the aftermath of flooding, contamination and homelessness witnessed after Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast in August," he said. "Analysis of the potential ripple effects stemming from an unstable climate shows the need for more sustainable practices to safeguard and insure a healthy future."

The CCF study is comprised of three primary elements: trends, case studies and scenarios, which detail and analyze current climate-change-related consequences for human health, ecological systems and the global economy. Through two potential scenarios, the CCF report examines possible impacts of climate change that may impose severe strains on the financial sector.

Warming called a global 'experiment'

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:37:00 -0400

Climate scientist Daniel Schrag says that human-caused climate change is inevitable, though scientists don't know exactly how severe or even exactly what its effects will be. Schrag said the public health effects related to climate change would probably be most severe in poorer nations. Though climate effects will be experienced in richer nations, those countries have the resources to adapt and protect the health of their citizens. Schrag pointed to Hurricane Mitch, which devastated Honduras in 1998, compared with 2004's series of hurricanes that slammed into Florida, with relatively low loss of life. Though some researchers expect that a warmer environment will mean a spread of infectious tropical diseases, like malaria, into cooler latitudes, Schrag said he thought developed nations' public health systems are up to the challenge. Though poorer nations may be hardest hit by climate change, Schrag said it would be a mistake to divert attention from global warming to pour resources into developing those nations. Though there is much uncertainty about global warming, Schrag said, it appears clear that the effects will be dramatic and widespread. "We are performing an experiment on a planetary scale that hasn't been done for millions of years," Schrag said. "Nobody knows what's going to happen and there will be surprises."

Researchers observe ozone killer

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:35:41 -0400

Harvard researchers have implicated a particular molecule in the destruction of Earth's ozone layer. The molecule, made up of two chlorine atoms and two oxygen atoms, is called a chlorine monoxide dimer or chlorine peroxide, Cl-O-O-Cl. It has a crucial role in the process by which chlorine destroys atmospheric ozone. Though a variety of chemicals are implicated in ozone loss in the polar winter stratosphere, chlorine is thought to dominate, with a large contribution from bromine radicals. Scientists have been concerned about the impact of man-made processes on the Earth's ozone layer for decades. The ozone layer, a thin band high in the stratosphere, is responsible for shielding the Earth from harmful ultraviolet rays.

Oceans key to global warming

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:19:55 -0400

One of the largest unknowns about global warming is, How much of an overload of man-made carbon dioxide can the Earth take?

Pollen production -- and allergies -- may rise significantly over next 50 years

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:20:19 -0400

Ragweed, which flourishes along roadsides and in disturbed habitats throughout North America, produces one of the most common allergens. A study by Harvard researchers found that ragweed grown in an atmosphere with double the current carbon dioxide levels produced 61 percent more pollen than normal. Such a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide is expected to occur between 2050 and 2100. "The side effects of carbon dioxide, as well as its impact on heat budget and the water cycle, have to be taken very seriously," said Paul Epstein, Harvard Medical School instructor in medicine and associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at HMS.

Atmospheric chemists fly high and low for novel carbon dioxide measurements

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:16:26 -0400

Political leaders throughout the world have taken notice of the increasing levels of carbon in the atmosphere and have begun negotiations on how to mitigate "greenhouse" gases through accords such as the Kyoto Protocol. One major problem with the Kyoto Protocol, which the United States rejected, was how to monitor compliance. Currently there is no good way to tell how much carbon is being emitted from - or taken up by - land on a country-sized scale. This makes accords such as the Kyoto Protocol, should they be agreed upon, nearly impossible to enforce. That's why researchers at Harvard University are developing novel methods to measure greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.