International leaders at the G8 summit in Italy pledged last week to keep global temperature increases below 2 degrees -- the limit set by scientists before irreversible damage is done -- but failed to outline actions to achieve this goal, warns an environmental protection group.
What's the Story?
To ensure that global temperatures don't warm more than 2 degrees, G8 countries -- the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom -- plan to reduce their emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050.
The conservation organization WWF "welcomes the leaders' initiative, but the lack of an agreement on ambitious midterm emissions reduction targets, clear financial commitments, and a date for global peak and decline of emissions could turn the 2 degree commitment into an empty statement," says a release on the group's Web site.
"Without setting the path to reduce emissions, the actual obligations of countries will be watered down, and staying below 2 degrees will be impossible," noted Kim Carstensen, the leader of WWF's global climate campaign.
To ensure they are on track to meet the long-term goal, continued WWF, industrialized nations should take immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent in the next 10 years. In addition, said the organization, the G8 should also provide funds to help developing countries adapt to climate change and cut their own emissions. (See the WWF's full statement below.)
G8 Fails on Midterm Emissions Goal
In addition to reducing their own emissions 80 percent by midcentury, the G8 also agreed that total global emissions should be cut in half by 2050. But in the absence of a firm timeline for the next 40 years, advocacy groups are cautioning that a strong foundation has not yet been laid for an effective global climate change treaty, to be concluded at an upcoming meeting in Copenhagen, now just five months away.
"The failure to reach agreement on emissions reductions targets in Italy this week was a timely reminder that in the half-year since President Barack Obama took office, world leaders have made little progress in bridging the key issues that must be resolved in order to achieve an effective climate agreement in Copenhagen," wrote Christopher Flavin, president of the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington-based environmental think tank.
The poverty alleviation organization ActionAid also chastised G8 countries for not making a firmer commitment, calling the twin goals of reducing emissions from the world's wealthiest countries by 80 percent and halving global emissions by 2050 "too little, too late."
"The global target the G8 agreed to...is too far away," said Angela Wauye, ActionAid's food rights coordinator. "Ask the 230 million hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa, who are already suffering the impact of climate change, if they can wait until 2050."
Changing weather patterns are contributing to hunger and food shortages in developing countries around the world. In Bangladesh, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, and Zambia climate change has adversely affected agriculture, causing local food prices to rise, reports ActionAid.
G8 Commits to Food Aid
The G8's announcement last Friday to invest $20 billion over three years in agriculture development was "the only bright spot of the summit," remarked Oxfam's Gawain Kripke.
"There is an urgent need for decisive action to free humankind from hunger and poverty," said the G8 leaders in a joint statement. "Food security is closely connected with economic growth and social progress as well as with political stability and peace."
The UN food and agriculture agency greeted the pledge as an "encouraging policy shift to help the poor and hungry." Some organizations, however, view it as an "old fashioned" way of tackling food issues, reports the development and technology news outlet SciDev.net.
Meanwhile, Action Against Hunger (AAH) is urging the Obama administration not to overlook the immediate crisis of acute malnutrition. Applauding the Obama administration for taking a leadership role on hunger, AAH is calling for funding to scale up existing programs serving people already suffering from food shortages.
"Acute malnutrition is predictable, cost-effective to treat, and simple to prevent; it's a tragedy that should not exist in the 21st century," said the aid group.
'A Long Way to Go'
Some humanitarian organizations remain extremely skeptical that the agreements made by the G8 will have a lasting effect.
According to the anti-poverty agency Mercy Corps, a 2005 G8 pledge to increase yearly international aid by $50 billion by 2010 is well behind schedule.
Similarly, Joanne Green, head of policy for the Catholic relief group CAFOD, lamented:"The G8 has reaffirmed its aid promises to the world's poorest, but let's not forget that that's just saying 'we'll actually do what we said we'd do four years ago'... When the language of the communiqué is so heavily infused with enthusiasm rather than solid action, we have to be skeptical."
"This summit has been a shambles, it did nothing for Africa, and the world is still being cooked," concluded Jeremy Hobbs
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Cars may soon be powered by urine
Could it be possible to run your car
on urine? Well, it may be, if Ohio University scientists are to be believed.
And their confidence stems from the fact that they have found a novel way to produce hydrogen energy from urine. According to Discovery News, the scientists used a nickel-based electrode to make cheap hydrogen from urine. When the research team led by professor Gerardine Botte stuck the electrode into a pool of urine, and applied an electrical current, hydrogen gas was released, which was used in fuel cells. The prototype is about three inches by three inches, and is capable of generating 500 milliwatts of power. The scientists hope to create commercial versions of the technology. Botte expects that the fuel-cell urine-powered car could theoretically travel 90 miles per gallon. "One cow can provide enough energy to supply hot water for 19 houses. Soldiers in the field could carry their own fuel," the New York Daily News quoted him as saying. The researchers focussed their study on urea, a urine by-product. "Urea is a by-product of a lot of cities and farms, but even if you take all the people and all the animals, there's not enough to run the world," said University of Georgia professor John Stickney. He added that though applications using urine won't be available to consumers for quite some time, it's definitely worth developing. "We are going to have to put together a lot of greener ways to collect energy that don't produce greenhouse gases and don't require us to go to war," he added.
on urine? Well, it may be, if Ohio University scientists are to be believed.
And their confidence stems from the fact that they have found a novel way to produce hydrogen energy from urine. According to Discovery News, the scientists used a nickel-based electrode to make cheap hydrogen from urine. When the research team led by professor Gerardine Botte stuck the electrode into a pool of urine, and applied an electrical current, hydrogen gas was released, which was used in fuel cells. The prototype is about three inches by three inches, and is capable of generating 500 milliwatts of power. The scientists hope to create commercial versions of the technology. Botte expects that the fuel-cell urine-powered car could theoretically travel 90 miles per gallon. "One cow can provide enough energy to supply hot water for 19 houses. Soldiers in the field could carry their own fuel," the New York Daily News quoted him as saying. The researchers focussed their study on urea, a urine by-product. "Urea is a by-product of a lot of cities and farms, but even if you take all the people and all the animals, there's not enough to run the world," said University of Georgia professor John Stickney. He added that though applications using urine won't be available to consumers for quite some time, it's definitely worth developing. "We are going to have to put together a lot of greener ways to collect energy that don't produce greenhouse gases and don't require us to go to war," he added.
A grapefruit pill to fight obesity
Tart and tangy with an underlying sweetness, grapefruit has a juiciness which rivals that of the ever popular orange and sparkles with many of the same health promoting benefits.
And, now researchers are on track to develop a pill from a chemical compound in grapefruit, which they claim would help obese people shed the flab and diabetics control their blood sugar levels. Researchers at University of Western Ontario have found that naringenin, the chemical compound that gives grapefruit its bitter taste, has revolutionary effect on the liver making it burn fat instead of storing it after a meal. According to them, this means that without having to change diets or cut out particular foods, a dose of naringenin could prevent weight gain and even help to lose it as well as help those having diabetes to control blood sugar levels. Lead researcher Murray Huff said: "The study shows naringenin, through its insulin-like properties, corrects many of the metabolic disturbances linked to insulin resistance and represents a promising approach for metabolic syndrome." They have based their findings on an analysis of tests which were carried out on mice -- two groups of rodents were both fed the equivalent of a Western diet to speed up their "metabolic syndrome", the process leading to Type 2 diabetes.
And, now researchers are on track to develop a pill from a chemical compound in grapefruit, which they claim would help obese people shed the flab and diabetics control their blood sugar levels. Researchers at University of Western Ontario have found that naringenin, the chemical compound that gives grapefruit its bitter taste, has revolutionary effect on the liver making it burn fat instead of storing it after a meal. According to them, this means that without having to change diets or cut out particular foods, a dose of naringenin could prevent weight gain and even help to lose it as well as help those having diabetes to control blood sugar levels. Lead researcher Murray Huff said: "The study shows naringenin, through its insulin-like properties, corrects many of the metabolic disturbances linked to insulin resistance and represents a promising approach for metabolic syndrome." They have based their findings on an analysis of tests which were carried out on mice -- two groups of rodents were both fed the equivalent of a Western diet to speed up their "metabolic syndrome", the process leading to Type 2 diabetes.
Taiwan creates a Napa Valley of teas
Taiwan, which has earned an international reputation as a tech design center, is quietly reinventing an ancient industry — tea.
The island of just 23 million supplies the world with semiconductors to power cell phones and computers, and oversees the production of iPhones, laptops and GPS systems. But tea-loving Taiwanese have also applied their industrious minds to the refinement of the centuries-old drink, blending tradition with newly developed methods of cultivation.
In doing so, Taiwan has created its own equivalent of Napa Valley for specific varieties of tea. While its overall share of the world's tea production is small — in 2004, it produced just 21 tons of tea,
compared with 835,000 tons grown in mainland China — its quality has few rivals.
"They take their tea-making seriously,"' said Joe Simrany, president of the Tea Association of the U.S.A. "Their oolongs are rated among the best in the world. It's one of the finest-tasting teas out there."
One reason Taiwan's tea expertise has not drawn more international attention is because producers here have more than enough business from local tea connoisseurs eager to pay hundreds of dollars for small batches of the local produce. Local yearly consumption has soared — from just under a pound in 1980 to 31/2 pounds in 2007.
"Every day you get up and drink tea," said Mark Lee, chairman of Taiwan's largest tea company,
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TenRen, founded 56 years ago. "At lunch, you drink tea. When friends visit, you drink the best-label tea. And before you sleep, you drink tea."
Lee, who splits time between Taiwan and the United States, has spent decades promoting the tea culture in the United States. Family-owned TenRen is one of the few Taiwan tea companies selling high-end brew in the United States. It has dozens of stores in North America, including in Cupertino, Fremont, San Francisco and New York City.
TenRen's growth in the United States reflects the fact that Americans are drinking more tea from Asia. Some believe it has health benefits; others simply like the flavors and more soothing caffeine experience compared to coffee's jolt. In the past two decades, tea has grown from a $2 billion industry in the United States to about $7 billion today, according to Simrany. Sales of specialty teas, including those from Asia, have jumped from about $250 million a year to more than $1 billion.
Educating tea drinkers
That growth is due in part to the nearly missionary zeal of merchants like Lee. During the early 1980s, he would travel to different Bay Area supermarkets, set up a table with two chairs and brew tea for shoppers. He would patiently explain to Westerners unaccustomed to Asian tea that their brew, full of complex flavors, does not need milk and sugar.
"We emphasize the aroma, the taste," said Chen Hsuan, deputy director of Taiwan's Tea Research and Extension Station in Yangmei, while sipping high-mountain oolong, the signature Taiwan tea.
The government facility, which employs some 60 researchers, contains tasting rooms, labs and small patches of land lined with neat rows of knee-high tea plants. In addition to providing the latest research on tea cultivation, government scientists are continually developing new strains of the crop.
More than 16,000 Taiwan family farms grow tea, and the average plot size is no more than 21/2 acres. Tea farms in other countries typically are at least 10 times larger, Chen said.
Taiwanese were not always so high-minded about commercial tea production, which dates back hundreds of years to the early Qing Dynasty's rule over the island. During the 1970s and '80s, Taiwan transformed itself from an agricultural society to an industrial one.
Despite the shift to a high-tech economy, the government began promoting competitions to boost interest in the local produce and spur farmers to create quality tea. The tea industry, which struggled to compete with cheap teas from countries like Vietnam and Indonesia, invested in costly cultivation processes to grow crops that catered to the newly affluent citizens. Today, the more expensive oolong and paochong teas are picked and processed by hand.
"There was a tea renaissance," said Steven Jones, a Californian who relocated to Taipei years ago and is now a tea arts instructor at the LuYu Tea Culture Institute, which offers a certificate in master tea brewing that is honored around the globe.
Taiwanese drink tea much like Californians sip wine. They sniff for aroma, slurp for taste and carefully eye the color.
"Tea is the spirit of Taiwan," said Gina Chen, a 30-something professional who was buying $200 worth of tea gifts for friends one recent weekday at a chichi East Taipei tea store.
An upscale experience
Cha Cha The, which Taiwanese fashion designer Shiatzy Chen recently opened, resembles a lounge bar. Customers show up for pricey afternoon tea meals and buy designer tea ware and other expensively packaged gifts. "We see this as a huge market," said store manager Jack Wang, who plans to open similar shops in Beverly Hills, New York City and London.
In China, meanwhile, the Cultural Revolution quashed high-end tea development and interest. "China has very good tea, but it doesn't yet have the technique and experience," Wang said. "The Cultural Revolution slowed down everything, including knowledge in how to make tea."
Just as Taiwanese have invested in China's technology industry, they are now looking too improve its tea production. TenRen, which now operates in China, has set up a tea institute in Fujian Province.
The invasion of coffeehouses on the island in recent years — led by Starbucks — has stirred worries that Taiwan's rich tea heritage could be diluted by the gulp-and-go coffee culture. The new cafes offer Wi-Fi, pop music and cakes — the perfect place for students and young professionals to park their laptops.
"It's foreign. It's trendy," said Jones, who has a tea blog, teaarts.blogspot.com. "In Taiwan, they like to follow the West."
It appears unlikely, though, that residents of the densely packed island will fall out of love with tea. Taiwanese teens line up at colorful tea bars on virtually every corner. Workers use cocktail shakers to make zhen zhu nai-cha — known as pearl milk tea in California — a tea concoction with dollops of tapioca. The ever-expanding menu for adventurous tea fans includes green jelly tea, tea-infused pudding and ice cream drinks. There's even wheat germ milk tea. They all sell for about $1 each.
Convenience stores
The ubiquitous 7-Elevens and other convenience stores offer an array of chilled tea drinks, from oolong in a bottle to cartons of sugared green and black teas. Young Taiwanese drink them on trains heading to and from school every day. Restaurants serve fried tea leave snacks, beef noodle tea dishes and cakes made with tea. There are tea arts shows on television.
On any Sunday, when Taiwanese hit the streets with friends and families, tea stores are full of young people sitting on stools and sampling teas — with no pressure to buy. "When people come here, they are not like customers. They are friends," said Sheng-Ru Wang, whose family operates the venerable Wang's Tea, which processes its own tea in its shop.
Jack Wang at Taipei's Cha Cha The says those new to tea should not be confused by the array of choices — that good tea is easy to identify.
"It's what you feel is good," he said. "You have to decide what is the best tea for you. It's like life."
Contact John Boudreau at 408-278-3496.
Brewing a Taiwanese cup of tea
Amount of tea: About a teaspoon of oolong, green or black tea. For puffy teas, use about three teaspoonfuls.Process: Drop tea into a mug. Then add about eight ounces of fresh filtered boiling water.For green tea: First pour hot water into another mug before pouring it into drinking mug so as to cool it slightly and ease the tea"s bitterness.Brewing: Allow about five minutes for the tea to brew. Then pour it through a strainer into another mug.
The island of just 23 million supplies the world with semiconductors to power cell phones and computers, and oversees the production of iPhones, laptops and GPS systems. But tea-loving Taiwanese have also applied their industrious minds to the refinement of the centuries-old drink, blending tradition with newly developed methods of cultivation.
In doing so, Taiwan has created its own equivalent of Napa Valley for specific varieties of tea. While its overall share of the world's tea production is small — in 2004, it produced just 21 tons of tea,
compared with 835,000 tons grown in mainland China — its quality has few rivals.
"They take their tea-making seriously,"' said Joe Simrany, president of the Tea Association of the U.S.A. "Their oolongs are rated among the best in the world. It's one of the finest-tasting teas out there."
One reason Taiwan's tea expertise has not drawn more international attention is because producers here have more than enough business from local tea connoisseurs eager to pay hundreds of dollars for small batches of the local produce. Local yearly consumption has soared — from just under a pound in 1980 to 31/2 pounds in 2007.
"Every day you get up and drink tea," said Mark Lee, chairman of Taiwan's largest tea company,
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TenRen, founded 56 years ago. "At lunch, you drink tea. When friends visit, you drink the best-label tea. And before you sleep, you drink tea."
Lee, who splits time between Taiwan and the United States, has spent decades promoting the tea culture in the United States. Family-owned TenRen is one of the few Taiwan tea companies selling high-end brew in the United States. It has dozens of stores in North America, including in Cupertino, Fremont, San Francisco and New York City.
TenRen's growth in the United States reflects the fact that Americans are drinking more tea from Asia. Some believe it has health benefits; others simply like the flavors and more soothing caffeine experience compared to coffee's jolt. In the past two decades, tea has grown from a $2 billion industry in the United States to about $7 billion today, according to Simrany. Sales of specialty teas, including those from Asia, have jumped from about $250 million a year to more than $1 billion.
Educating tea drinkers
That growth is due in part to the nearly missionary zeal of merchants like Lee. During the early 1980s, he would travel to different Bay Area supermarkets, set up a table with two chairs and brew tea for shoppers. He would patiently explain to Westerners unaccustomed to Asian tea that their brew, full of complex flavors, does not need milk and sugar.
"We emphasize the aroma, the taste," said Chen Hsuan, deputy director of Taiwan's Tea Research and Extension Station in Yangmei, while sipping high-mountain oolong, the signature Taiwan tea.
The government facility, which employs some 60 researchers, contains tasting rooms, labs and small patches of land lined with neat rows of knee-high tea plants. In addition to providing the latest research on tea cultivation, government scientists are continually developing new strains of the crop.
More than 16,000 Taiwan family farms grow tea, and the average plot size is no more than 21/2 acres. Tea farms in other countries typically are at least 10 times larger, Chen said.
Taiwanese were not always so high-minded about commercial tea production, which dates back hundreds of years to the early Qing Dynasty's rule over the island. During the 1970s and '80s, Taiwan transformed itself from an agricultural society to an industrial one.
Despite the shift to a high-tech economy, the government began promoting competitions to boost interest in the local produce and spur farmers to create quality tea. The tea industry, which struggled to compete with cheap teas from countries like Vietnam and Indonesia, invested in costly cultivation processes to grow crops that catered to the newly affluent citizens. Today, the more expensive oolong and paochong teas are picked and processed by hand.
"There was a tea renaissance," said Steven Jones, a Californian who relocated to Taipei years ago and is now a tea arts instructor at the LuYu Tea Culture Institute, which offers a certificate in master tea brewing that is honored around the globe.
Taiwanese drink tea much like Californians sip wine. They sniff for aroma, slurp for taste and carefully eye the color.
"Tea is the spirit of Taiwan," said Gina Chen, a 30-something professional who was buying $200 worth of tea gifts for friends one recent weekday at a chichi East Taipei tea store.
An upscale experience
Cha Cha The, which Taiwanese fashion designer Shiatzy Chen recently opened, resembles a lounge bar. Customers show up for pricey afternoon tea meals and buy designer tea ware and other expensively packaged gifts. "We see this as a huge market," said store manager Jack Wang, who plans to open similar shops in Beverly Hills, New York City and London.
In China, meanwhile, the Cultural Revolution quashed high-end tea development and interest. "China has very good tea, but it doesn't yet have the technique and experience," Wang said. "The Cultural Revolution slowed down everything, including knowledge in how to make tea."
Just as Taiwanese have invested in China's technology industry, they are now looking too improve its tea production. TenRen, which now operates in China, has set up a tea institute in Fujian Province.
The invasion of coffeehouses on the island in recent years — led by Starbucks — has stirred worries that Taiwan's rich tea heritage could be diluted by the gulp-and-go coffee culture. The new cafes offer Wi-Fi, pop music and cakes — the perfect place for students and young professionals to park their laptops.
"It's foreign. It's trendy," said Jones, who has a tea blog, teaarts.blogspot.com. "In Taiwan, they like to follow the West."
It appears unlikely, though, that residents of the densely packed island will fall out of love with tea. Taiwanese teens line up at colorful tea bars on virtually every corner. Workers use cocktail shakers to make zhen zhu nai-cha — known as pearl milk tea in California — a tea concoction with dollops of tapioca. The ever-expanding menu for adventurous tea fans includes green jelly tea, tea-infused pudding and ice cream drinks. There's even wheat germ milk tea. They all sell for about $1 each.
Convenience stores
The ubiquitous 7-Elevens and other convenience stores offer an array of chilled tea drinks, from oolong in a bottle to cartons of sugared green and black teas. Young Taiwanese drink them on trains heading to and from school every day. Restaurants serve fried tea leave snacks, beef noodle tea dishes and cakes made with tea. There are tea arts shows on television.
On any Sunday, when Taiwanese hit the streets with friends and families, tea stores are full of young people sitting on stools and sampling teas — with no pressure to buy. "When people come here, they are not like customers. They are friends," said Sheng-Ru Wang, whose family operates the venerable Wang's Tea, which processes its own tea in its shop.
Jack Wang at Taipei's Cha Cha The says those new to tea should not be confused by the array of choices — that good tea is easy to identify.
"It's what you feel is good," he said. "You have to decide what is the best tea for you. It's like life."
Contact John Boudreau at 408-278-3496.
Brewing a Taiwanese cup of tea
Amount of tea: About a teaspoon of oolong, green or black tea. For puffy teas, use about three teaspoonfuls.Process: Drop tea into a mug. Then add about eight ounces of fresh filtered boiling water.For green tea: First pour hot water into another mug before pouring it into drinking mug so as to cool it slightly and ease the tea"s bitterness.Brewing: Allow about five minutes for the tea to brew. Then pour it through a strainer into another mug.
Past warming shows gaps in climate knowledge - study
dramatic warming of the planet 55 million years ago cannot be solely explained by a surge in carbon dioxide levels, a study shows, highlighting gaps in scientists' understanding of impacts from rapid climate change.
During an event called the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, global temperatures rose between 5 and 9 degrees Celsius within several thousand years. The world at that time was already warmer than now with no surface ice.
"We now believe that the CO2 did not cause all the warming, that there were additional factors," said Richard Zeebe, an oceanographer with the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
"There may have been an initial trigger," he told Reuters on Wednesday from Hawaii. This could be a deep ocean warming that caused a catastrophic release of methane from hydrate deposits under the seabed.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas but much of it is oxidised into CO2 when it is released from hydrate deposits.
Zeebe and his colleagues estimated the amount of CO2 released during the Palaeocene-Eocene event by studying sediment cores from seabeds around the globe. Their study is published in the latest issue of Nature Geoscience.
They estimated about 3 trillion tonnes of carbon (11 trillion tonnes of CO2) was released over several thousand years from the methane deposits, leading to a 70 percent rise in atmospheric CO2 levels from pre-event levels.
But Zeebe said this could only explain a 1 to 3.5 degree Celsius rise in temperatures, adding that a commonly accepted scientific range for a doubling of CO2 is between 1.5 and 4.5 degrees Celsius.
This meant other factors must have been at work to drive up temperatures between 5 and 9 degrees Celsius.
"If this additional warming which we do not really understand, was caused as a response to the CO2 warming, then there is a chance that also a future warming could be more intense than people anticipate right now," Zeebe said.
He said the study suggested there could be atmospheric or ocean processes as yet unknown or poorly understood that might have accelerated the warming. Possibilities could be changes in ocean currents, a much larger release of methane or even greater impacts from higher CO2 levels than currently thought.
At present, CO2 levels have already risen from 280 parts per million to nearly 390 ppm since the Industrial Revolution and could exceed a 70 percent increase during this century, a rate much faster than the Palaeocene-Eocene event, Zeebe said.
While this would cause initial effects, much worse could follow in the coming decades and centuries as the oceans, land and atmosphere tried to deal with the higher CO2 levels, he said.
"The carbon that we put into the atmosphere right now is going to stay there for a very long time. Much of it will stay there for tens of thousands of years."
During an event called the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, global temperatures rose between 5 and 9 degrees Celsius within several thousand years. The world at that time was already warmer than now with no surface ice.
"We now believe that the CO2 did not cause all the warming, that there were additional factors," said Richard Zeebe, an oceanographer with the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
"There may have been an initial trigger," he told Reuters on Wednesday from Hawaii. This could be a deep ocean warming that caused a catastrophic release of methane from hydrate deposits under the seabed.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas but much of it is oxidised into CO2 when it is released from hydrate deposits.
Zeebe and his colleagues estimated the amount of CO2 released during the Palaeocene-Eocene event by studying sediment cores from seabeds around the globe. Their study is published in the latest issue of Nature Geoscience.
They estimated about 3 trillion tonnes of carbon (11 trillion tonnes of CO2) was released over several thousand years from the methane deposits, leading to a 70 percent rise in atmospheric CO2 levels from pre-event levels.
But Zeebe said this could only explain a 1 to 3.5 degree Celsius rise in temperatures, adding that a commonly accepted scientific range for a doubling of CO2 is between 1.5 and 4.5 degrees Celsius.
This meant other factors must have been at work to drive up temperatures between 5 and 9 degrees Celsius.
"If this additional warming which we do not really understand, was caused as a response to the CO2 warming, then there is a chance that also a future warming could be more intense than people anticipate right now," Zeebe said.
He said the study suggested there could be atmospheric or ocean processes as yet unknown or poorly understood that might have accelerated the warming. Possibilities could be changes in ocean currents, a much larger release of methane or even greater impacts from higher CO2 levels than currently thought.
At present, CO2 levels have already risen from 280 parts per million to nearly 390 ppm since the Industrial Revolution and could exceed a 70 percent increase during this century, a rate much faster than the Palaeocene-Eocene event, Zeebe said.
While this would cause initial effects, much worse could follow in the coming decades and centuries as the oceans, land and atmosphere tried to deal with the higher CO2 levels, he said.
"The carbon that we put into the atmosphere right now is going to stay there for a very long time. Much of it will stay there for tens of thousands of years."
Naveen calls for appropriate tech to prevent pollution
Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today called upon the academia, technocrats, research institutes, professionals, mining houses, and steel makers to adopt appropriate technology, along with suitable pollution prevention and control measures, to ensure minimal adverse impact on the environment and ecology.
Addressing an international convention on ''Clean, Green and Sustainable Technologies in Iron and Steel Making'', Mr Patnaik said the increased use of clean and green technology would help us to reduce the carbon emissions and address the concern of global warming.
The Chief Minister said raw materials with intensive carbon contents that form the primary resource in steel production and mining, a prerequisite to iron and steel making, adversely affect the quality of air, water and soils.
He said Orissa had been able to attract impressive investments in steel making due to its rich mineral wealth. The state had signed 49 MoUs in the steel sector envisaging an output of 90 MTPA after the plants commissioned fully.
Mr Patnaik said the state produced 10 million tonnes of steel of different grades. The latest report of the World Bank on ''Doing business in India'' has ranked Bhubaneswar at Number three in the country beating Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Ahmedabad.
The Chief Minister said a strong policy framework, introduced by the state government over the past few years, ushered in an industrial revolution and promised to continue to effect reforms to reach the top place.
Addressing an international convention on ''Clean, Green and Sustainable Technologies in Iron and Steel Making'', Mr Patnaik said the increased use of clean and green technology would help us to reduce the carbon emissions and address the concern of global warming.
The Chief Minister said raw materials with intensive carbon contents that form the primary resource in steel production and mining, a prerequisite to iron and steel making, adversely affect the quality of air, water and soils.
He said Orissa had been able to attract impressive investments in steel making due to its rich mineral wealth. The state had signed 49 MoUs in the steel sector envisaging an output of 90 MTPA after the plants commissioned fully.
Mr Patnaik said the state produced 10 million tonnes of steel of different grades. The latest report of the World Bank on ''Doing business in India'' has ranked Bhubaneswar at Number three in the country beating Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Ahmedabad.
The Chief Minister said a strong policy framework, introduced by the state government over the past few years, ushered in an industrial revolution and promised to continue to effect reforms to reach the top place.
Global warming fuelling malaria vaccine need
Global warming has led to a rapid increase in the number of malaria cases, thereby fuelling the need for lifesaving vaccinations to those in need, says an expert.
Experts fear that the drastic changes in the climate may further increase
the number of cases in the coming years.
?Forty-one percent of the human race lives in areas of high malaria transmission,? said Dr. Sylvain Fleury, Chief Scientific Officer at Mymetics, a Swiss vaccine biotech currently developing a vaccine with the potential to control malaria in developing countries.
?Because Europe, North America, and North Asia are now significantly colder than regions of high malaria incidence, developed nations have felt immune from the malaria threat, but that sense may soon be upended,? Fleury added.
Studies have shown that even a modest temperature increase can extend the proliferation of malaria-bearing mosquitoes.
Therefore, as temperatures rise, billions of people could find themselves living in regions of high malaria incidence.
?The best way to prevent the spread of malaria into warming areas of the globe is to find a solution before the situation worsens,? said Dr. Fleury.
?If we can begin to curb the spread of malaria in high threat areas, the eventual reach of the disease will be seriously limited,? he added.
Due to global warming malaria has already returned to the areas such as
Peru that had already eradicated the disease forty years ago.
America saw 1,337 cases, including eight deaths, as recently as 2002 – the importance of developing a vaccine for the disease is becoming more and more urgent
Experts fear that the drastic changes in the climate may further increase
the number of cases in the coming years.
?Forty-one percent of the human race lives in areas of high malaria transmission,? said Dr. Sylvain Fleury, Chief Scientific Officer at Mymetics, a Swiss vaccine biotech currently developing a vaccine with the potential to control malaria in developing countries.
?Because Europe, North America, and North Asia are now significantly colder than regions of high malaria incidence, developed nations have felt immune from the malaria threat, but that sense may soon be upended,? Fleury added.
Studies have shown that even a modest temperature increase can extend the proliferation of malaria-bearing mosquitoes.
Therefore, as temperatures rise, billions of people could find themselves living in regions of high malaria incidence.
?The best way to prevent the spread of malaria into warming areas of the globe is to find a solution before the situation worsens,? said Dr. Fleury.
?If we can begin to curb the spread of malaria in high threat areas, the eventual reach of the disease will be seriously limited,? he added.
Due to global warming malaria has already returned to the areas such as
Peru that had already eradicated the disease forty years ago.
America saw 1,337 cases, including eight deaths, as recently as 2002 – the importance of developing a vaccine for the disease is becoming more and more urgent
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