carbon emissions

A lot of the climate change debate may focus on how to cut carbon dioxide emissions to prevent global temperature rise, but many nations are already struggling with the consequences of local climate change--rising sea levels, water shortages and agricultural problems. Now the European Union has promised over $10 billion over the next three years for a "fast start" fund to help the poorest nations adapt to climate change.

Talk about a Eureka moment. Scientists at Sandia National Labs, seeking a means to create cheap and abundant hydrogen to power a hydrogen economy, realized they could use the same technology to "reverse-combust" CO₂ back into fuel. Researchers still have to improve the efficiency of the system, but they recently demonstrated a working prototype of their "Sunshine to Petrol" machine that converts waste CO₂ to carbon monoxide, and then syngas, consuming nothing but solar energy.

Even before a single ounce of natural gas gets burned in a home or power plant, massive amounts of CO2 have already been released. The process of extracting natural gas releases carbon dioxide pent up in the same wells as the gas, thus adding to the climate-changing impact of the fuel.

To help lower the global warming impact of one of the world's largest natural gas fields, General Electric has supplied Chevron, Exxon Mobile and Shell with enough compression "trains"--the pumps and turbines that do the sequestering--to create the world's largest carbon sequestration project. The trains will pump 3.3 million tons of CO2 released from natural gas mining back into the ground every year. That's the equivalent of taking 630,000 cars off the road.

Car maker Ford has revealed new details about its new fuel efficient turbo diesel, the Fiesta ECOnetic, which puts it directly on a collision course with the industry’s current green leader, the Toyota Prius. While the Prius has a fuel efficiency of 3.9 litres of petrol per 100km, the ECOnetic gets by on 3.7 litres – making it the most fuel-efficient car in the country.

However, that doesn’t mean it’s the greenest. The Prius still comes out on top when it comes to CO2 emissions at 89 grams per kilometre, as compared to the ECOnetic’s 98 grams per kilometre.

A recent Herald/Nielsen poll has found that one in two Australians believe the government should consider the use of nuclear power as a means of reducing carbon pollution. The same poll found that 43 per cent of Australian oppose the use of nuclear power outright. The results of this poll signals a landmark shift in Australian popular opinion, which has traditionally been in strong opposition to the use of nuclear power.

Curtin University of Technology’s Professor Robert Amin has developed a more efficient and cost-effective way of removing contaminants from natural gas streams.
His innovation is the winner of the 2009 Curtin Commercial Innovation Awards announced on 21 August 2020.

“Forty per cent of the world’s natural gas reserves are contaminated with hydrogen sulphide and/or carbon dioxide that must be removed before the gas can be used,” he said.

Monash University's Australian Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) has launched a major research project into the benefits of 'carbon farming' -- the planting of trees to offset carbon emissions.
The five-year $4.9 million project will assess how effective and efficient carbon farming is at providing environmental benefits when compared to traditional farming, particularly during times of drought. Researchers will use the 2.4 million hectare Goulburn Broken catchment near Shepparton as an environmental case study.

Mounting evidence that human activity is changing the world’s oceans in profound and damaging ways is outlined in a new scientific discussion paper released today.

Man-made carbon emissions “are affecting marine biological processes from genes to ecosystems over scales from rock pools to ocean basins, impacting ecosystem services and threatening human food security,” the study by Professor Mike Kingsford of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University and colleague Dr Andrew Brierley of St Andrews University, Scotland, warns.

A Monash University pilot study has found 'eco driving' -- a technique that emphasises smoother driving behaviour -- has the potential to dramatically cut fuel consumption and carbon emissions in heavy vehicles, and that the lessons can be adopted by all motorists.

Wow - Panasonic just threw down a massive gauntlet. They just wheeled out on stage a 150-inch plasma. That's 42 inches bigger than the last record-holder (Sharp's 108-inch LCD), or like nine 50-inch TVs. The resolution is 2k by 4k, or four times today's highest high definition. No word on price, but I'd go buy a couple of lottery tickets today.

More from the Panasonic press conference after the jump.

Federal scientists released some of the annual average temperature data for 2007, revealing that this year registers as the eighth warmest since 1895, when records were first kept. The average temperature was 54.3 degrees Fahrenheit in the U.S. Worldwide, that number is slightly higher, and the preliminary details of the annual report suggest that 2007 was the fifth warmest year on a global scale. Seven of the eight warmest years have occurred since 2001. Armed with ever more convincing data, not to mention projections that suggest how grave events could become in the future should our current practices continue, scientists are also suggesting that we not only make a greater effort to cut carbon emissions, but work harder to remove existing carbon from the air.—Gregory Mone