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Prime minister challenges his nation, and hopes U.S. will do same
Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown addresses a conference on climate change hosted by the World Wide Fund for Nature in London on Monday.
updated 11:52 a.m. CT, Mon., Nov. 19, 2007
LONDON – Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday he is determined to raise Britain’s already ambitious targets for cutting carbon emissions and to push the nation to the forefront of global efforts to tackle climate change.
Brown, making his first major environment speech since taking office, also said Britain would encourage allies such as the United States to make similar pledges.
Britain has already committed to cutting carbon emissions by 60 percent of 1990 levels by 2050, though lawmakers have warned that the country will likely miss a steppingstone target of a 20 percent reduction by 2010.
Brown, who took office in June, said he will ask a committee of advisers to consider whether Britain can meet a 80 percent cut in emissions by 2050.
“The climate change crisis is the product of many generations, but overcoming it must be the great project of this generation,” Brown told a meeting of the World Wide Fund for Nature.
“While the richest countries have caused climate change, it is the poorest who are already suffering its worst effects,” he said.
Any successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol — which set targets for industrialized nations to reduce emissions by 2012 — must pledge to hold the rise in global average temperatures to no more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, Brown said.
The British leader has used talks with President Bush to press Washington to accept a new global deal on reducing carbon emissions. The U.S. has declined to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol.
“It is not overdramatic to say that the character and course of the coming century will be set by how we measure up to that challenge,” Brown said.
Following talks last week with Jim Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, British climate change minister Phil Woolas said he believed Washington is “at the tipping point” of taking on a deal on emission reduction.
Brown said the British government hoped to build one of the world’s first carbon capture facilities — a process that involves collecting carbon dioxide and pumping it in liquid form into porous rock layers underground, where it cannot contribute to trapping sunlight and warming the atmosphere.
He said he would meet business leaders to discuss phasing out single-use plastic bags and will launch an information service for homeowners offering them tips on recycling and reducing energy consumption.
Next month, policy makers will meet in Bali, Indonesia, to discuss a successor to the Kyoto Treaty. Brown hopes a new pact will include the United States, China and India.
European Union nations already have agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 — or 30 percent if a global deal can be reached.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21884193/wid/18298287/
One approach uses lye to absorb greenhouse gas
By Charles Q
This prototype device sucks in air and extracts carbon dioxide. Credit: Frank Zeman
updated 1:08 p.m. CT, Tues., Nov. 20, 2007 function UpdateTimeStamp(pdt) { var n = document.getElementById(“udtD”); if(pdt != ” && n && window.DateTime) { var dt = new DateTime(); pdt = dt.T2D(pdt); if(dt.GetTZ(pdt)) {n.innerHTML = dt.D2S(pdt,((”.toLowerCase()==’false’)?false:true));} } } UpdateTimeStamp(‘633311825270600000′);
Emerging technologies could pull carbon dioxide straight from the air to potentially attack global warming directly.
Carbon dioxide traps heat from the sun, and humanity generates roughly 27 metric tons of the gas per year. To address concerns regarding global warming, inventors in recent decades have devised carbon dioxide scrubbers that absorb the gas from power plant exhausts, which account for half of all carbon dioxide emissions.
But how technology might take care of the other half — which spews from tailpipes, homes and other sources — remains an open question. Some approaches contemplate modifying the oceans to make them capture the global warming gas.
Increasingly, research now suggests devices could literally suck carbon dioxide straight from the atmosphere.
“The technology to do this is going through major advances, moving toward detailed designs,” said environmental engineer Frank Zeman at Columbia University. “It’s becoming more and more efficient — we’ve cut the electricity requirements by well over half.”
Zeman is developing technology that forces air through a chamber, where lye — sodium hydroxide — then absorbs carbon dioxide. This carbon-loaded fluid is then mixed with lime to form limestone. The limestone is baked in a kiln to release pure carbon dioxide gas, ready for storage.
Zeman detailed his new device in the Nov. 1 issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
This approach is much like one used in the paper and pulp industry. There, wood is doused with lye to soften it up, and the carbon-loaded fluid is mixed with lime and so on. This method has found use for decades, and could in principle thus be implemented rapidly, Zeman said.
Coming out ahead
Ideally, such devices would be powered by non-fossil-fuel-burning sources, such as wind or solar power. Still, even if connected with today’s power grid, which is often driven by fossil fuels, this technology would capture 100 tons of carbon dioxide for every 20 tons natural gas plants emit or 60 tons coal burners give off. “You would still come out ahead,” Zeman told LiveScience.
Given treatment facilities the size of nuclear power plant cooling towers, Zeman estimates 200 towers could tackle the roughly 2.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide the United States transportation sector currently emits annually. But even in the long term, such technology would require $100 or more per metric ton of carbon dioxide captured.
So far, carbon credits — that is, permits to emit carbon dioxide — are sold for $5 to $50 worldwide.
“The price on this technology is going to have to come down a lot — or taxes on carbon go way up — before people think about using it,” said earth scientist Greg Rau at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Lifestyle excuse?
Still, other scientists are working on air capture of carbon dioxide as well. For instance, Columbia University physicist Klaus Lackner, Zeman’s former mentor, is working on commercializing such technology, the specific details of which remain private.
In addition, researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology are developing a technique that uses solar heat to pull carbon dioxide from the compounds they use to absorb the gas from the air. Rau is also in the early stages of researching a method of air capture that relies on electrochemistry instead of solar heat.
One criticism of such work is that it might excuse a lifestyle that furthers global warming. Still, while switching to an economy that runs on hydrogen instead of fossil fuels would cut down carbon dioxide emissions, “you’d have to replace absolutely everything that depended on fossil fuels with something that could handle hydrogen, such as boilers, gas stations and power stations,” Zeman said.
A strategy that employs air capture facilities and replaces fossil fuels use with biofuels could allow countries to use their existing fuel infrastructures while reducing carbon dioxide emissions, Zeman said. However, in the end, “obviously the cheapest thing to do is to increase fuel and energy efficiency to reduce emissions,” he said. “Air capture may be needed, but it’s not the first thing you’d want to do.”
© 2007 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.
Be prepared: It’s better to have, than have not
Almost everyone in America, from the government to your next-door neighbor, has free advice on emergency preparedness. Despite its recent bad publicity following Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security actually has a Web site worth visiting (ready.gov). While you’re at it, have a look at the U.S. Army site (hooah4health.com). Added to those are views of diverse groups such as Boy Scouts of America (www.scouting.org: pack a knife in your emergency kit) and the Mormon church (providentliving.org: keep ready a year’s supply of food). Then there are nonprofit entities like the American Red Cross that will sell you a Deluxe Emergency Preparedness Kit (RC321195, $64.95, plus $13.95 shipping, redcross.org).
Here are PM emergency kits for home and vehicle.
A Basic Emergency Kit
Gather these into a portable, free-standing container such as a large plastic tub:
• Charged cellphone (and a 12-volt cellphone charger for your car).
• Three-day quantity of food, 1 gal. of water per person per day, disposable cups, plates and eating utensils, and a means to cook, such as a camp stove with sufficient fuel.
• Sanitary supplies for three days.
• Nonscented liquid chlorine bleach.
• Rain gear.
• Work gloves.
• Multitool.
• First-aid kit and first-aid manual.
• Battery-powered flashlight.
• Battery-powered radio.
• Spare batteries.
• Light sticks.
• Filtration mask (NIOSH-N95).
• Plastic sheeting.
• Duct tape.
• Whistle.
• Can opener.
• Garbage bags and ties.
• String or twine.
• Paper pad and pencil.
• Printout of key phone numbers.
• Five-day supply of prescription medications.
Long-Term Recovery Gear
In addition to a well-stocked toolbox, working smoke and CO detectors, add the following:
• 50-ft. heavy-duty rope for tying back or pulling away fallen tree limbs. In the worst case, use it to support failed structural members.
• A chain saw (that you’re sure will start) and fuel or a large bow saw and ax.
• An assortment of nails (especially large commons such as 12d) and self-drilling hexhead sheetmetal screws. You can never tell what you’ll have to fasten closed or open.
• Flexible repair clamps to deal with pipes that have burst from freezing and other damage.
• Buckets, rubber gloves, floor squeegee and absorbent materials as backup to a failed sump pump or for plumbing leaks, or leaks through the roof and walls.
• Heavy-duty tarp and ropes capable of covering one-half the roof of your house (roof damage is rarely larger than that).
• Scrap framing lumber and plywood for use in small, makeshift repairs.
Keep in Your Vehicle
Keep these in a plastic tub:
• Road flares, reflectors.
• 12-volt cellphone charger.
• 50 ft. of nylon cord.
• Heavy-duty plastic tarp.
• Jumper cables.
• One-day supply of food, such as energy bars, and water.
• Flashlight.
• Sand for traction in snow and on ice.
• Folding entrenching shovel.
• Emergency blanket in cold climates.
• 3 gal. of potable water in hot climates.
• Multitool.
• First-aid kit.
• Fire extinguisher.
• Tire inflator/sealant.
• Duct tape.
Source: http://men.msn.com/articlepm.aspx?cp-documentid=702632
Carbon dioxide’s share of warming said to be ‘gaining importance’
updated 12:39 p.m. CT, Mon., Nov. 26, 2007
GENEVA – Two of the most important greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere reached a record high in 2006, and measurements show that one — carbon dioxide — is playing an increasingly important role in global warming, the U.N. weather agency said Friday.
The global average concentrations of carbon dioxide, or CO2, and nitrous oxide, or N2O, in the atmosphere were higher than ever in measurements coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization, said Geir Braathen, a climate specialist at the Geneva-based agency.
Methane, the third of the three important greenhouse gases, remained stable between 2005 and 2006, he said.
Braathen said measurements show that CO2 is contributing more to global warming than previously.
CO2 contributed 87 percent to the warming effect over the last decade, but in the last five years alone, its contribution was 91 percent, Braathen said. “This shows that CO2 is gaining importance as a greenhouse gas,” Braathen said.
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose by about half a percent last year to reach 381.2 parts per million, according to the agency. Nitrous oxide totaled 320.1 parts per billion, which is a quarter percent higher than in 2005.
Braathen said it appears the upward trend will continue at least for a few years.
The World Meteorological Organization’s annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin provides widely accepted worldwide data on the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Studies have shown that human-produced carbon dioxide emissions heat the Earth’s surface and cause greater water evaporation. That leads to more water vapor in the air, which contributes to higher air temperatures. CO2, methane and N2O are the most common greenhouse gases after water vapor, according to the meteorological organization.
They are produced by natural sources, such as wetlands, and by human activities such as fertilizer use or fuel combustion.
There is 36.1 percent more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than there was in the late 18th century, primarily because of combustion of fossil fuels, the World Meteorological Organization bulletin said.
A report presented by a U.N. expert panel said last week that average temperatures have risen 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 100 years, and that 11 of the last 12 years have been among the warmest since 1850. Global Warming also led to a sea level increase by an average seven-hundredths of an inch per year since 1961, according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The panel’s report, which said human activity is largely responsible for global warming, noted that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is far higher than the natural range over the last 650,000 years.
The World Meteorological Organization also concluded that “Greenhouse gases are major drivers of global warming and climate change.”
The World Meteorological Organization said it based its findings on readings from 44 countries.
The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecast that by 2020, 75 million to 250 million people in Africa will suffer water shortages, residents of Asia’s large cities will be at great risk of river and coastal flooding, Europeans can expect extensive species loss, and North Americans will experience longer and hotter heat waves and greater competition for water.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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