Monat: August 2017

Phys.org: Biofuel breakthroughs bring negative emissions a step closer

„We must aim for „negative emissions“. This means removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and ideally returning to pre-industrial atmospheric CO₂ levels. This is a daunting task: the present atmospheric concentration is 410 parts per million (ppm), compared with around 280ppm before the Industrial Revolution. Intriguingly, recent breakthroughs (see below) in biofuel research have brought this prospect a step closer. To understand why, we must first know a little about biofuel production.“

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Keller, David P.; et al. (2017): The Carbon Dioxide Removal Model Intercomparison Project (CDR-MIP). Rationale and experimental design

Keller, David P.; Lenton, Andrew; Scott, Vivian; Vaughan, Naomi E.; Bauer, Nico; Ji, Duoying et al. (2017): The Carbon Dioxide Removal Model Intercomparison Project (CDR-MIP). Rationale and experimental design. In Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., pp.[nbsp]1–72. DOI: 10.5194/gmd-2017-168.

At present, there is little consensus on the impacts and efficacy of the different types of proposed CDR. To address this need the Carbon Dioxide Removal Model Intercomparison Project (or CDR-MIP) was initiated. This project brings together models of the Earth system in a common framework to explore the potential, impacts, and challenges of CDR. Here, we describe the first set of CDR-MIP experiments that are designed to address questions concerning CDR-induced climate „reversibility“, the response of the Earth system to direct atmospheric CO2 removal (direct air capture and storage), and the CDR potential and impacts of afforestation/reforestation, as well as ocean alkalinization.

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Call for Papers: Towards a 1.5°C World: The Ocean Response

Deadline: 06. September 2017

„This session welcomes abstracts exploring the response of the ocean under scenarios aiming towards a 1.5oC world and how it may feed back to the other components of the Earth system. Relevant issues may include hysteresis effects in ocean circulation or sea-ice, the response of the ocean carbon and other biogeochemical cycles, ecological impacts, and potential unanticipated impacts of geoengineering measures.“

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The Union Edge: If we learn to control the weather, can we stop climate change?

Radio broadcast (min 20:00). „Geo engineering is the deliberate large-scale manipulation of an environmental process that affects the earth’s climate, in an attempt to counteract the effects of global warming. Is this a good idea? Dr. Patricia DeMarco invites Wil Burns to discuss the potential benefits and risks, as well as the moral, ethical and political considerations of this budding technology.“

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University of Melbourne: The Great Barrier Reef is dying. Is it time to engineer the climate?

„In the absence of a sudden and rapid reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions, recovery options are few and tenuous.[nbsp] In fact, that’s a generous assessment.[nbsp] We have basically reached the point where anything that provides a glimmer of hope is “worth a crack”. One such proposal is to cool the ocean around the reef by “brightening” clouds overhead. [nbsp]Modelling and measurements indicate that increasing cloud cover and density would reduce water temperatures around the reef, although whether the effect is sufficient to arrest coral bleaching is uncertain.“

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