In the past several decades, global plankton populations have declined due to climate change. Because human life depends on the presence of these oxygen-producing creatures, marine biologist Chris Bowler is working to study plankton as much as possible before they disappear. Bowler and a team of other scientists have been collecting plankton samples across the world for the past 2 1/2 years as part of the Tara Oceans expedition.

The expedition was a massive effort along a 62,000 mile journey, visiting 32 countries with a total 196 people who took turns aboard (126 scientists, 24 journalists, 7 artists, 8 cooks, 23 sailors, 3 customs officials, 1 doctor, 4 guests). The expedition cost about 9 million euros.

An ideal study of climate change impact on plankton populations would involve monitoring the same location over a period of time, watching what happens to the various species of microorganisms as time passes. The Tara Oceans team, however, collected samples from around the world, and will use that data to determine which plankton are likely to migrate, thrive or go extinct as certain conditions arise in waters across the globe. The expedition has collected approximately 27,000 samples, which the team will study to determine which varieties of plankton prefer particular habitats (more polluted, more acidic, etc.) and have a better understanding of which species will be able to survive forecast conditions.

The team has discovered up to one million new species of microorganisms. It will take years to sift through all of the samples, by which point some species may already be extinct. Hopefully, however, the research will show a great enough population of plankton will be able to live in warm, acidic waters.

Main image: plankton mix from scientific station 146. Credit: C. Sardet/CNRS/Tara Oceans

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The report, by the humanitarian organization DARA, finds that climate change already causes an average of 400,000 deaths each year, mostly due to hunger and communicable diseases in developing countries. Meanwhile, there are 4.5 million carbon-related deaths due to causes including indoor smoke and air pollution. That adds up to nearly 5 million deaths a year, and the number will rise to nearly 6 million by 2030.

In economic terms, the report finds that climate change cost the world $700 billion — or close to 1 percent of global GDP — in lost potential for economic development in 2010. Combined with costs related to the carbon-intensive economy, the total was more than $1.2 trillion.

As temperatures rise, the economic impact of climate change is estimated to more than double, reaching 2.5 percent of global GDP by 2030, and additional carbon economy costs will bring the total impact to more than 3 percent.

Developing countries will suffer the most in terms of both mortality and money. The report says least developed countries face an average of more than 10 percent forgone GDP in 2010 because of climate change and the carbon economy. Over 90 percent of deaths from both sets of causes, and more than 98 percent of those caused by climate change, will occur in developing countries.

The report calls for action to reduce climate change and carbon dependence and estimates that shift would cost 0.5 percent of GDP this decade. Other studies have found a higher cost — 2 percent of Global GDP in one case, according to Reuters.

Along with reducing the impact of climate change and carbon-intensive energy, the DARA report says the international community must work to mitigate key risks like food security, smoke and air pollution and diseases that are associated with the environmental damages.

Main photo credit: Bidgee/Wikimedia Commons

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Named NOTT-300, the new porous yet absorbent material is made from mix of water, aluminum nitrate salt, and cheap organic materials, and is non-toxic compared to the ammonia-based carbon capture materials currently used in the process. According to the research published in the journal Nature Chemistry, the NOTT-300 material requires less energy to regenerate and reuse once carbon saturates it and is removed for storage.

“I feel this can been viewed as a revolution to a certain degree,” said Sihai Yang from Nottingham University. “There is promising potential to overcome the traditional amine material on both environmental and economic grounds.”

Lab experiments with the new material captured close to 100 percent of the carbon dioxide it was exposed to and the scientists say it should maintain at least a 90 percent success rate in real world conditions. The material picks up harmful gases like sulphur dioxide yet shows no adsorption of hydrogen, methane, nitrogen and oxygen. For commercial applications, the team believes the material could be used in a series of interchangeable filters which can be removed, cleaned, and put back into service repeatedly, making it even more efficient (and cheaper) than systems currently in development.

Carbon capture is not without naysayers, including those who are right to point out that we are not sure what will happen to all that CO2 stored underground for long periods of time. But for the time being, until we are willing to make real substantial cuts in emissions, we need a stopgap measure to slow the release of CO2 into our atmosphere before it tips the scales too far. NOTT-300 may be just the material to help us do that.

[via Yahoo News]

Image Credit: Public Domain Photos

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Alexandre Guertin-Pasquier of the University of Montreal presented his research in Toronto this weekend at the Canadian Paleontology Conference. Guertine-Pasquier states the fossilized forest on Bylot Island is similar to current forests in southern Alaska. He points to similar plant diversity between the two environments, including willow, pine and spruce trees. Pollen found in the site also suggests the ancient forest flourished in a climate with an average temperature of 32 degrees Fahrenheit, significantly warmer than Bylot Island’s current average temperature of 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

The scientists were able to estimate the forest was at its peak between 2.6 million and 3 million years ago, a range determined through examination of the forest’s ancient sediment, particularly the soil’s magnetic particles. The Earth’s magnetic field affects movement of magnetic sediment in rocks, making them turn to the magnetic poles like a compass, so scientists were able to date the site’s sediment using the well-known history of the poles’ movement.

While forecasts predict that the climate on the Canadian Arctic’s Bylot Island won’t support a forest until the year 2100, there is a separate obstacle: Seeds must be brought to the area before any trees can grow. Migration is much easier for animals than plants, which must rely on creatures, wind and water to move a seed from place to place. For trees, it all depends on whether seeds are dispersed and taken to their new environment.

“Although it would of course take time for a whole forest to regrow, the findings show that our grandchildren should be able to plant a tree and watch it grow,” said Guertin-Pasquier.

Bylot Island is not the only place where warming temperatures could breathe new life into ancient forests. Drilling in the seabed off Antarctica revealed a 52-million-year-old rainforest that may also see revival. Scientists concluded that “without drastic changes,” the planet could be headed back to the temperatures that made possible.

Photo: View from the study site in June 2010. Credit: Alexandre Guertin-Pasquier

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“We are now in uncharted territory,” said NSIDC Director Mark Serreze. “While we’ve long known that as the planet warms up, changes would be seen first and be most pronounced in the Arctic, few of us were prepared for how rapidly the changes would actually occur.”

Arctic sea ice grows in the winter when the sun sets, and shrinks in the summertime. In the past, the ice commonly survived for several years, but in recent years it has become more common for large areas of ice to completely melt away in the summertime. This year, following record retreats in June and July, sea ice fell to the lowest extent ever on record on Aug. 26. That record low — of 4.10 million square kilometers — was broken again on Sept. 4, when the extent of ice fell below 4.00 million square kilometers. On Sept. 16, it fell again to 3.41 million square kilometers.

The changes are unprecedented. It’s very unusual for melting to happen this late in the season, and the researchers note that it’s possible the melting could continue. The fact that melting has occurred in late August and September demonstrates how unusually thin the ice is. The researchers had predicted the ice would refreeze much earlier.

The melting of the ice will itself increase global warming, helping to speed more melting. What’s next? It’s possible it won’t be long before the ice is almost gone.

“Twenty years from now from now in August you might be able to take a ship right across the Arctic Ocean,” said Serreze.

Image of arctic sea ice extent on Sept. 16 by NASA.

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A New Polluting Industry Takes Flight

Space tourism officially began in 2001, when businessman Dennis Tito paid a reported $20 million to take a ride to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. By 2004, SpaceShipOne, the world’s first privately funded and operated space vehicle, had been successfully tested. Space Adventures Inc. has been taking reservations for space flights since 1998. But it’s only now that space tourism — also known as “personal spaceflight,” or “citizen space exploration” — is taking off on a larger scale.

In southern New Mexico, Virgin’s new launch base, Spaceport America, is getting ready for its first commercial flights. Virgin Galactic already has more than 500 reservations for the flights, which will take customers higher than 60 miles above the surface of the Earth, where the planet’s atmosphere ends and space begins. Each spaceplane, attached to a jet-powered mothership, flies faster than 2,400 miles per hour. When customers reach space, they’ll have six or seven minutes to float weightlessly in the cabin and view Earth below; then the spaceplane will begin its return to Earth.

Virgin is not alone. XCOR, based in the Mojave desert in California, is developing a spacecraft that can take off and land like a plane. Unlike Virgin’s spaceplane, which seats six passengers, XCOR’s flights will seat just one customer each. They’ve also already booked more than 500 customers. Trials will start this year, and commercial launches are set to begin in 2014. SpaceX was recently cleared for its first standard cargo flight to the International Space Station. In Texas, Armadillo Aerospace is developing a rocket that will take sub-orbital flights, and eventually full-orbital flights. International space tourism companies include Orbital Technologies, a Russian company that is building a four-room guesthouse where customers can stay for several days.

The SpaceX Dragon approaches the International Space Station in May. Image by NASA.

In total, the industry estimates that 13,000 people will have been space tourists by 2021. That pales in comparison to the number of passengers on ordinary airplanes — in the U.S. alone, there will be more than 700 million air passengers in 2012, and by 2024, there will be one billion per year. But the impacts from one rocket flight are so much worse that total airplane and spaceplane travel may be roughly equal contributors to climate change in a decade.

Bringing Soot to Space

Though spaceplanes create carbon dioxide, the biggest impact will come from black carbon, or, as it’s more commonly known, soot. While commercial rockets run on kerosene and liquid oxygen, companies like Virgin Galactic plan to use “hybrid” rocket engines. Not to be confused with hybrid cars, these engines have nothing to do with electricity — they run on synthetic hydrocarbon and nitrous oxide. The engine makes the spaceplanes cheaper to run than typical rockets, but the new spacecraft also emit substantially more black carbon.

Closer to ground, other sources of black carbon are also major contributors to global warming. In the developing world, for example, smoke from open cooking fires is responsible for as much as one-fifth of all human sources of climate change globally. While soot rising from Earth poses serious challenges, the impacts are slightly lessened because rain and other weather helps wash black carbon particles out of the atmosphere. Even black carbon from jets stays in the atmosphere for only days or weeks. In the stratosphere, where there is no rain, particles can remain as long as ten years.

Soot pours off a very different type of rocket—in this case, a toy. Black carbon (the main ingredient of soot) is formed from the incomplete combustion of fuel. Image by Steve Jurvetson/Flickr.

The impacts of black carbon in the stratosphere will be significant. In a 2010 study funded by NASA and the Aerospace Corporation, researchers Martin Ross, Michael Mills and Darin Toohey modeled a potential scenario based on the amount of space traffic expected in coming years. Their computer model examined what would happen if 600 metric tons of black carbon were sent into the atmosphere at Spaceport America in Las Cruces, N.M., where Virgin Galactic will be basing its flights.

Though the black carbon emissions only came from one location, the model showed global impact. The soot stayed within a 10 degree latitude of the launch site, and the majority also stayed in the Northern Hemisphere. But the model showed climates everywhere changed as a result: temperature increased at the poles between 0.2 and 1° Celsius, melting ice caps 5-15 percent; temperature decreased in the tropics and subtropics; and the ozone layer changed in both regions. Globally, the net effect in the model was increased solar energy reaching the Earth. According to the study, effects from the black carbon will far outpace climate change contribution from the spacecrafts’ carbon dioxide emissions (CO2 emissions, according to Virgin Galactic, are roughly similar to an airplane flight across the Atlantic, per passenger).

The study was the first detailed look at how space tourism will impact climate change. Surprisingly, despite the scale of the problem, no further studies have followed. Virgin Galactic has indicated that it thinks the study was inconclusive.

“The report is from a well-respected source and looks at an area of potential environmental impact which is certainly important to study,” the company states on its website. “However it is also an early stage, speculative discussion paper by and for the scientific research community. The lack of any real data and the many unknowns mean that the range of uncertainty in the models is enormous.”

Ross, Mills and Toohey agree that further research is needed. “Overall, these results should not be taken as a precise forecast of the climate response to a specific launch rate of a specific rocket type,” the study states. Instead, the authors say, the simulation should be used to demonstrate how sensitive the atmosphere is to black carbon coming from rockets. Though the numbers from the simulation may end up being different than data from actual rockets, it seems clear that they will have a significant impact.

No Progress After Study’s Results

What are companies doing now to address the challenge? It’s a little surprising that Virgin Galactic isn’t doing more, since the company appears committed to improving sustainability as a whole. The company’s mission includes “transformation in safety, cost and environmental impact of access to space.”

“Virgin Galactic is concerned about the whole environmental impact of space access,” a company representative said. “Using 21st century design and technologies to transform what has been a relatively dirty industry, has been one of our key objectives.”

Virgin Galactic has sought innovative solutions for other environmental challenges; for example, by using a carbon composite material instead of steel, they’ve cut the weight of launch aircraft and spaceships by 75 percent, drastically reducing energy requirements. By launching spacecraft from the air, Virgin has avoided polluting ground-based rocket booster systems. They’ve even built their facilities to LEED standards. But the challenge of black carbon remains to be solved.

Virgin Galactic’s hanger for SpaceShip Two, located in Mojave, Calif., is LEED certified. Image by Virgin Galactic.

The company points out that in comparison to the Space Shuttle, which uses 2.5 million pounds of solid fuel, SpaceShip Two uses only 15,000 pounds of fuel and therefore is responsible for far fewer emissions. But the difference is frequency. The Space Shuttle, which costs around $450 million for each launch, flew only three or four times per year. As space tourism becomes accessible and more common, it could potentially reach 1,000 flights a year or more, making a significant difference in total emissions.

“While the stratospheric emissions from a single suborbital rocket will be small compared to an orbital rocket, total suborbital fleet emissions could become comparable to present day rocket emissions within a decade,” Ross, Mills and Toohey concluded in their 2010 study.

Is six minutes in space, for a handful of very wealthy individuals, worth the potential costs to our atmosphere? Virgin argues that there are some climate benefits to the launch of SpaceShip Two, saying that their vehicles “will provide a unique and near perfect environmental research platform to capture the currently unavailable data that would help the whole industry better understand the effects black carbon as well as many other environmental issues. We have already seen high levels of interest from the science community, including NASA, for SpaceShipTwo as a research platform and it is not unreasonable to expect that work will be undertaken in the early years of commercial flights to help us understand the environmental impact of  black carbon emissions.”

It does not appear that Virgin is actively seeking a solution to reduce black carbon, though they say that their vehicles will continue to improve in terms of environmental performance.

“We are happy that the vehicles we currently have under development represent a major step forward in cleaning up access to space,” said a Virgin representative. “We fully expect the vehicles to evolve over time and improving overall environmental efficiency will certainly be one of the key drivers in that respect for Virgin Galactic.  As explained above – we think our principle initial contribution to the black carbon debate will be to provide the means to make it one that is more informed. Understanding the issue more fully will help the whole industry to seek appropriate solutions.”

Though personal spaceflight companies don’t yet have a solution for black carbon emissions, and there is no new research in the area, study co-author Toohey remains hopeful.

“I trust that these companies, which are headed by highly intelligent, socially responsible entrepreneurs, will demonstrate a high degree of integrity and transparency when it comes to disclosing their environmental footprint,” Toohey said. “I look forward to the eventual release of high-quality observations directly within exhaust plumes in the upper atmosphere that will demonstrate these activities have a negligible impact on the environment.”

Main photo credit: Virgin Galactic

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The study looked at 40 years of data on otters and kelp from the Pacific Ocean off the coasts of Canada and Alaska. They found that the otters and kelp can remove so much CO2 that if it were valued on the European Carbon Exchange, it would be worth $205-$408 million. The authors suggested that the carbon be sold to help protect otters and reintroduce them in certain areas.

Otters feed on kelp-eating urchins, allowing kelp forests to grow larger and absorb more carbon dioxide than in areas with small otter populations.

Like other plants, kelp absorbs CO2 through photosynthesis — but kelp happens to be especially good at it. When sea otter populations are too low, sea urchins tend to eat too much kelp. A healthy sea otter population keeps everything in check.

Other animals have an influence on the carbon cycle, too, according to the study’s authors. In some cases, the impact may be large. But right now, animals aren’t included in climate change models. While increasing animal populations won’t solve the problem of global warming, the role that animals play is important. Restoring and protecting animal populations can help ecosystems sequester carbon more effectively.

The paper, written by scientists from University of California Santa Cruz, San Diego State University, University of Washington and University of Alaska, will be published in the October issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. Funding came from the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Main photo credit: mikebaird/Flickr; secondary photo credit: jimg944/Flickr

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Research led by Carnegie’s Ken Caldeira and published in the journal Nature Climate Change on September 9 shows that by combining ground-level and high-altitude atmospheric wind turbines, we could provide for 100 times the current power demands of the entire world. Combining surface-level wind turbines generating 400 TW of power and turbines floated high into the atmosphere on kites capable of generating 1,800 TW means that we could extract a whopping 2,200 terrawatts of power from the wind. Today the whole world uses just 18 TW of power, meaning that wind could provide all the energy we need for the foreseeable future.

Using models to study the effects of drag on turbines and how many could be placed in formation before winds slowed too much to generate any more electricity, the researchers set out to find the point at which energy extraction was at its highest. They also showed that there could a 0.1 degree Celsius rise rise in surface temperatures due to attempts to harvesting so much wind power, but contrary to some studies the overall effect on the environment would be very minor, especially considering that all our energy would then be from a clean, renewable source.

“Looking at the big picture, it is more likely that economic, technological or political factors will determine the growth of wind power around the world, rather than geophysical limitations,” Caldeira said.

We recently mentioned that wind turbines could solve the world’s water crisis and now it looks like if we set our efforts to it, energy derived from the wind could also power our entire world for hundreds of years. Just what are we waiting for?

[via Science Daily]

Image Credit: jinterwas/Flickr

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According to the Indiegogo fundraising page, more than 2 billion people still cook indoors over wood-burning fires. These inefficient wood fires contribute to deforestation, climate change and the aforementioned premature deaths.

But how can the PlanetStove help?

The creators of this stove, Dylan Maxwell and Olivier Kolmel, say that the PlanetStove can help both people and the environment in the following ways:

1. Reduce indoor cooking smoke to a minimum.
2. Mitigate airborne soot, which is responsible for 5-10 percent of man-made global warming.
3. Reduce deforestation by increasing stove efficiency; villages reported using roughly 1/3 less wood than with traditional stoves.
4. Sequester carbon (in the form of biochar) within the soil.
5. Improve the soil structure and drought resistance.
6. Improve the financial situation and living conditions of rural populations.

How does the PlanetStove work?

It is a TLUD stove, which stands for “Top-Liti Updraft.” Basically, you light kindling on top of a vertical tube full of densely packed wood. That vertical tube is nested inside a larger vertical tube. The fire on the top heats the wood and resulting hydrogen and carbon monoxide rise toward the top where they meet with oxygenated air drawn through the space between the tubes.

The stove essentially gasifies the wood. The resulting charcoal can then be returned to the earth in the form of biochar — which still contains at least 50 percent of the carbon that was in the original wood.

How can you help?

At the time of this writing, the PlanetStove Indiegogo project has received $4,053 worth of the $25,000 it needs to fund the campaign, with 34 days left remaining.

The lowest level of contribution is $25 and will basically subsidize the cost of a PlanetStove for a family in the developing world. You’ll get a photo of the family that received the stove, as well as a follow up with that family after a year of using the stove. Obviously, other contribution levels are available, so hit up the PlanetStove fundraising page and see if it strikes a chord with your passions.

Main image credit: Novotera

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A new study by the Zoological Society of London and the International Union for Conservation of Nature found that human impacts contributing to the rising pH levels of the oceans, also known as ocean acidification, and increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could be particularly harmful for species with external skeletons that can erode. Other problems affecting invertebrates include agricultural runoff, habitat loss and industrial waste.

The report assessed 12,000 species in the IUCN’s Red List of endangered species. However, the list only covers 1 percent of all described marine invertebrate species and even fewer (0.3 percent) of all described land invertebrates, so the threat could be significantly higher than the study determined.

These invertebrates are particularly helpful to humans in that many of them are insects that pollinate flowers or marine animals that help with water filtration, scientists say.

Spineless creatures have been largely ignored by human conservation efforts, scientists say. Conservation spending has historically focused on more iconic species such as eagles and polar bears. But this study proves that smaller, more prolific invertebrates like jellyfish and butterflies are just as vulnerable to pollution and our warming climate.

The report includes calculated worths of some of the potentially threatened invertebrates identified by the report. For example, the estimated worth of honeybees to the British economy was £200 million in 2007. Many people do not think about how integral insects and other invertebrates are to the economy, but their existence is worth billions of dollars each year across the globe.

Featured photo credit: Shutterstock.com

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