December 2, 2009
Over 30,000 megawatts of wind energy capacity are installed across the United States and an increasing number of communities are
considering new wind power facilities. Given these developments, there is an urgent need to empirically investigate typical community concerns about wind energy and thereby provide stakeholders involved in the wind project siting process a common base of knowledge. A major new report released today by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory evaluates one of those concerns, and finds that proximity to wind energy facilities does not have a pervasive or widespread adverse effect on the property values of nearby homes.
The new report, funded by the DOE, is based on site visits, data collection, and analysis of almost 7,500 single-family home sales, making it the most comprehensive and data-rich analysis to date on the potential impact of U.S. wind projects on residential property values.
“Neither the view of wind energy facilities nor the distance of the home to those facilities was found to have any consistent, measurable, and significant effect on the selling prices of nearby homes,” says report author Ben Hoen, a consultant to Berkeley Lab. “No matter how we looked at the data, the same result kept coming back - no evidence of widespread impacts.”
The team of researchers for the project collected data on homes situated within 10 miles of 24 existing wind facilities in nine different U.S. states; the closest home was 800 feet from a wind facility. Each home in the sample was visited to collect important on-site information such as whether wind turbines were visible from the home. The home sales used in the study occurred between 1996 and 2007, spanning the period prior to the announcement of each wind energy facility to well after its construction and full-scale operation.
The conclusions of the study are drawn from eight different hedonic pricing models, as well as repeat sales and sales volume models. A hedonic model is a statistical analysis method used to estimate the impact of house characteristics on sales prices. None of the models uncovered conclusive statistical evidence of the existence of any widespread property value effects that might be present in communities surrounding wind energy facilities.
“It took three years to collect all of the data and analyze more than 50 different statistical model specifications,” says co-author and project manager Ryan Wiser of Berkeley Lab, “but without that amount of effort, we would not have been confident we were giving stakeholders the best information possible.”
“Though the analysis cannot dismiss the possibility that individual homes or small numbers of homes have been negatively impacted, it finds that if these impacts do exist, their frequency is too small to result in any widespread, statistically observable impact,” he added.
The analysis revealed that home sales prices are very sensitive to the overall quality of the scenic vista from a property, but that a view of a wind energy facility did not demonstrably impact sales prices. The Berkeley Lab researchers also did not find statistically observable differences in prices for homes located closer to wind facilities than those located further away, or for homes that sold after the announcement or construction of a wind energy facility when compared to those selling prior to announcement. Even for those homes located within a one-mile distance of a wind project, the researchers found no persuasive evidence of a property value impact.
“Although studies that have investigated residential sales prices near conventional power plants, high voltage transmission lines, and roads have found some property value impacts,” says co-author and San Diego State University Economics Department Chair Mark Thayer, “the same cannot be said for wind energy facilities, at least given our sample of transactions.“
Berkeley Lab is a DOE national laboratory located in Berkeley, California. It conducts unclassified scientific research for DOE’s Office of Science and is managed by the University of California.
Image Credit: Berkeley Lab
Source: Berkeley Lab
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November 18, 2009
Researchers from The University of Queensland (Australia) are working with international energy storage company Bicarb Sequestration Pty to study the feasibility of using land-bound salt beds as a medium for isolating carbon dioxide (CO2) as solid carbonates/bicarbonates underground.
UniQuest, the University’s main commercialization company, facilitated the contract for the chemical engineering team to spend six months on establishing a principle for using a solution mining-based process to enable CO2 to be converted into carbonates/bicarbonates (mostly NaH CO3) and then stored underground.
Should the initial research prove successful, the research will be extended to establish the optimum operating conditions and optimum process equipment to allow a preliminary design for a pilot plant to be created and initial economic analysis conducted.
Bicarb Sequestration Pty is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sirius Exploration Plc (AIM: SXX, OTC: SRUXY), a diversified mining and exploration holding company focused on salt and potash deposits in North America and Australia.
Sirius chairman, Richard Poulden, said the company was confident about the potential outcomes of the contract research project.
"We are naturally optimistic that the approach being proposed by our Bicarb Sequestration division will be able to overcome the issues previously encountered when research teams have looked into the possibilities of converting CO2 into carbonates in an onshore environment," Mr Poulden said.
"This program forms part of Sirius’s ongoing research activity to identify second generation commercial applications for our properties that can be deployed after the mining activity has concluded.
"Indeed, we firmly believe that we have the opportunity to identify new approaches that can complement those that have already been proven for using salt beds and caverns as mediums for serving the green energy agenda.
"We are keen to obtain key intellectual property in these new areas to complement our mining activity and this project forms part of those efforts."
The CO2 sequestering project is one of many contracts UniQuest has negotiated to partner with industry on finding solutions to environmental and economic sustainability challenges, Uniquest Managing Director David Henderson said.
"Our Consulting and Research Division has opened up new opportunities for companies in Australia and overseas to connect with Australia’s leading researchers working in specialist and multi-disciplinary teams.
"Companies like Sirius and its subsidiary, Bicarb Sequestration, recognize the value of university-based research and innovation as leverage to boost their market position and contribution to addressing global issues.
"We are pleased to be able to provide access to the resources they need to help them achieve these objectives.”
UniQuest has facilitated more than 600 consultancy, expert witness and research contracts on behalf of University of Queensland researchers this year.
Established by The University of Queensland in 1984, UniQuest is widely recognized as one of Australia’s largest and most successful university commercialization groups, benchmarking in the top tier of technology transfer worldwide. It has created more than 60 companies, and since 2000 UniQuest and its start-ups have raised a quarter of a billion dollars to take UQ technologies to market. Sales of products using UQ technology and licensed by UniQuest are now running at $5.2 billion per year. UniQuest also commercializes innovations developed at the University of Wollongong, University of Technology Sydney, James Cook University, University of Tasmania, the Mater Medical Research Institute and two ARC Centers of Excellence. As well, UniQuest can access thousands of researchers and experts and tailor a consulting or project R&D solution to meet the needs of industry and government. UniQuest is also a leading Australasian provider of international development assistance projects. Working with agencies such as AusAID, NZAID, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank, UniQuest has developed and implemented projects in 45 countries throughout Pacific, South-East Asia, the Indian sub-continent and Africa. For more information about UniQuest, please visit www.uniquest.com.au.
About Sirius and Bicarb Sequestration
Sirius is quoted on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in London and its shares are also traded in North America through the use of an ADR facility. Sirius currently has interests in potash and salt caverns through its subsidiaries Dakota Salts LLC, AusPotash Limited, Adavale Holdings Pty Ltd and Derby Salt Pty Ltd. It also has copper and gold interests in Macedonia and an iron ore interest through its equity position in a CIC Mining Resources Ltd vehicle. For more information, visit www.siriusexploration.com. Bicarb Sequestration, specializing in creating and implementing functional sequestration of bicarbonate for multiple industry uses, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sirius Exploration Plc. Its primary focus is on addressing existing capture opportunities followed by legislatively driven climate change market. For more information visit http://bicarbsequestration.com/
Source: University of Queensland
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February 18, 2009
A zero-carbon home which could become a template for larger-scale production in the UK has been unveiled.
The four-bedroom property, called “Crossway” and situated near Staplehurst, uses a technique borrowed from 600-year-old medieval
architecture to provide what may prove a blueprint for energy-efficient living in the future.
The house is one of the first zero-carbon homes in the UK. It was designed by architect Richard Hawkes, who will be its first occupant, with structural design by Michael Ramage, who is based at the University of Cambridge Department of Architecture, and Philip Cooper, who teaches in the department and is a Director of ScottWilson Engineers.
More than a quarter (27%) of UK carbon emissions come from households, adding considerably to global warming. Only a handful of homes are zero-carbon, however, and many designs are too expensive to merit mass production. The UK government has a target for all new homes to be zero-carbon by 2016.
While more expensive than some conventional homes at the moment, the designers of Crossway believe that its design and technology could ultimately be a prototype for cheaper energy-efficient homes.
“The design is cost-effective in that the home is relatively simple to build and, once you know what you’re doing, it’s quick,” Michael Ramage said. “Many of the costs come from the new technology it uses for energy storage and generation. If those become more widely available, making a similar house cheaply in much larger quantities may be possible.”
The arched building is essentially one large vault spanning 20metres, covered on the outside with earth and plants to camouflage it and help it blend in with the rural surroundings.
Its basic design is adapted from an historic Mediterranean technique called “timbrel vaulting”, which uses thin bricks to create lightweight and durable buildings. The style is a traditional form in Catalonia and was popularized by architects from the region during the 19th century, although the earliest known example comes from Valencia and dates back to 1382.
The vaulting gives the house plenty of structural strength but obviates the need for embodied-energy intensive materials such as reinforced concrete. It also provides it with great thermal mass, enabling the building to retain heat, absorb fluctuations in temperature and reducing the need for central heating or cooling systems.
Any necessary heating comes from the solar energy through the UK’s first example of a combination photovoltaic and thermal heating system, which is more efficient than other solar technology. An 11kW biomass boiler has also been installed to provide energy and electricity if the sun does not appear for days on end. The house is insulated throughout using recycled newspaper.
Where possible, the designers have used locally-sourced materials, such as “Kent peg” roof tiles, which have been made in the area for centuries. The triple-glazed windows, however, were imported from Austria as they are not on the market in the UK. No windows are placed at elevations that can be seen from a distance to preserve the rural darkness of the surrounding area.
“The building demonstrates how contemporary design can celebrate local materials and integrate new technologies to produce a highly sustainable building that sits lightly on the Earth,” Richard Hawkes added.
Image Credit: University of Cambridge
Source: University of Cambridge
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October 29, 2008
An alarming new study to be published in November in the Annual Review of Environment and Resources finds that one-third of the
world’s marine fish catches are ground up and fed to farm-raised fish, pigs, and poultry, squandering a precious food resource for humans and disregarding the serious overfishing crisis in our oceans.
Lead author Dr. Jacqueline Alder, senior author Dr. Daniel Pauly, and colleagues urge that other foods be used to feed farmed animals so that these “forage fish” can be brought to market for larger-scale human consumption. “Forage fish” include anchovies, sardines, menhaden, and other small- to medium-sized fish species which are the primary food for ocean-dwelling marine mammals, seabirds (especially puffins and gulls) and several large fishes.
Currently, catches of forage fish are predominantly used in animal feed, but these species are highly nutritious and well-suited for direct human consumption.
“We need to stop using so many small ocean fish to feed farmed fish and other animals,” Alder said. “These small, tasty fish could instead feed people. Society should demand that we stop wasting these fish on farmed fish, pigs, and poultry.” Although feeds derived from soy and other land-based crops are available and are used, fishmeal and fish oil have skyrocketed in popularity because forage fish are easy to catch in large numbers, and hence, relatively inexpensive.
Entitled “Forage Fish: From Ecosystems to Markets,” the study is a product of the nine-year Sea Around Us Project, a partnership between the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and The Pew Charitable Trusts. The Sea Around Us Project has been primarily funded by the Pew Institute for Ocean Science, which is now the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University. The abstract is available online at http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/toc/energy/33/1.
“It defies reason to drain the ocean of small, wild fishes that could be directly consumed by people in order to produce a lesser quantity of farmed fish,” said Dr. Ellen K. Pikitch, executive director of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science and a Professor at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. “Skyrocketing pressure on small wild fishes may be putting entire marine food webs at great risk.”
Forage fish account for a staggering 37 percent (31.5 million tonnes) of all fish taken from the world’s oceans each year, and 90 percent of that catch is processed into fishmeal and fish oil. In 2002, 46 percent of fishmeal and fish oil was used as feed for aquaculture (fish-farming), 24 percent for pig feed, and 22 percent for poultry feed. Pigs and poultry around the world consume more than double the seafood eaten by Japanese consumers and six times the amount consumed by the U.S. market.
Despite this large-scale extraction, few management plans have been created to guide the sustainable removal of these fish, and little is known about the role of forage fish in the marine ecosystem and how fishing impacts them. The most intensive commercial use of these fish is for farmed-animal feed, but there is also a growing demand for human fish oil supplements. In some areas of the world, especially developing countries, almost all of the small fish used as farm feed are, or once were, eaten by people. These include the Peruvian and European anchovy, capelin, Japanese pilchard, round sardinella, and European anchovy. “The use of forage fish for animal husbandry competes directly with human consumption in some areas of the world,” the authors write. Excessive removal of forage fish could also hurt populations of seabirds and marine mammals that rely upon them as food.
“We must find a better way to manage forage fisheries before we cause irreversible damage to the broader ocean environment which depends on them as a food source,” said Joshua Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment Group. “Human beings are not the only, or necessarily, the most important consumer of these fish. Whatever people take out of the sea needs to be carefully calibrated to ensure that sufficient fish are left to sustain populations of other fish, seabirds and marine mammals which all play a major role in the healthy functioning of the world’s oceans.”
This fall the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University will launch the Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force, a team of preeminent scientists and policy experts from around the world that will address this escalating environmental dilemma. The Task Force will be chaired by Dr. Pikitch and funded by the Lenfest Ocean Program. Task force members will by 2010 develop scientific approaches to sustainably manage forage fisheries using “ecosystem-based fisheries management,” which emphasizes the interconnectedness of species and habitats and breaks from traditional species-by-species management.
The Sea Around Us Project was established in 1999 at the University of British Columbia to study the impact of fishing on the world’s marine ecosystems. Project scientists have collected and organized data on the world’s fish catches dating back to 1950, mapping and comparing global catches over time. The massive database for forage fisheries includes information on calculated landings in the past six decades, the changes in species composition of fishmeal, and consumption by seabirds in different world regions. Visit www.seaaroundus.org/project.htm
The Institute for Ocean Conservation Science conducts scientific research about critical threats to oceans and their inhabitants, providing the foundation for smarter conservation policy. The Institute is a major research program of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and was founded as the Pew Institute for Ocean Science in 2003.
Image Caption: Mounds of harvested fish awaiting transport to a processing facility in Kakinada district, Andrea Pradesh, India
Image Credit: Stony Brook University
Source: Stony Brook University
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October 23, 2008
Compound used in manufacture of flat panel televisions, computer displays, microcircuits, solar panels is 17,000 times more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide
A powerful greenhouse gas is at least four times more prevalent in the atmosphere than previously estimated, according to a team of 
researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
Using new analytical techniques, a team led by Scripps geochemistry professor Ray Weiss made the first atmospheric measurements of nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), which is thousands of times more effective at warming the atmosphere than an equal mass of carbon dioxide.
The amount of the gas in the atmosphere, which could not be detected using previous techniques, had been estimated at less than 1,200 metric tons in 2006. The new research shows the actual amount was 4,200 metric tons. In 2008, about 5,400 metric tons of the gas was in the atmosphere, a quantity that is increasing at about 11 percent per year.
“Accurately measuring small amounts of NF3 in air has proven to be a very difficult experimental problem, and we are very pleased to have succeeded in this effort,” Weiss said. The research will be published Oct. 31 in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
Emissions of NF3 were thought to be so low that the gas was not considered to be a significant potential contributor to global warming. It was not covered by the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions signed by 182 countries. The gas is 17,000 times more potent as a global warming agent than a similar mass of carbon dioxide. It survives in the atmosphere about five times longer than carbon dioxide. Current NF3 emissions, however, contribute only about 0.15 percent of the total global warming effect contributed by current human-produced carbon dioxide emissions.
Nitrogen trifluoride is one of several gases used during the manufacture of liquid crystal flat-panel displays, thin-film photovoltaic cells and microcircuits. Many industries have used the gas in recent years as an alternative to perfluorocarbons, which are also potent greenhouse gases, because it was believed that no more than 2 percent of the NF3 used in these processes escaped into the atmosphere.
The Scripps team analyzed air samples gathered over the past 30 years, working under the auspices of the NASA-funded Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) network of ground-based stations. The network was created in the 1970s in response to international concerns about chemicals depleting the ozone layer. It is supported by NASA as part of its congressional mandate to monitor ozone-depleting trace gases, many of which are also greenhouse gases. Air samples are collected at several stations around the world. The Scripps team analyzed samples from coastal clean-air stations in California and Tasmania for this research.
The researchers found concentrations of the gas rose from about 0.02 parts per trillion in 1978 to 0.454 parts per trillion in 2008. The samples also showed significantly higher concentrations of NF3 in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere, which the researchers said is consistent with its use predominantly in Northern Hemisphere countries. The current observed rate of increase of NF3 in the atmosphere corresponds to emissions of about 16 percent of the amount of the gas produced globally.
In response to the growing use of the gas and concerns that its emissions are not well known, scientists have recently recommended adding it to the list of greenhouse gases regulated by Kyoto.
“As is often the case in studying atmospheric emissions, this study shows a significant disagreement between ‘bottom-up’ emissions estimates and the actual emissions as determined by measuring their accumulation in the atmosphere,” Weiss said. “From a climate perspective, there is a need to add NF3 to the suite of greenhouse gases whose production is inventoried and whose emissions are regulated under the Kyoto Protocol, thus providing meaningful incentives for its wise use.”
“This result reinforces the critical importance of basic research in determining the overall impact of the information technology industry on global climate change, which has already been estimated to be equal to that of the aviation industry,” added Larry Smarr, director of the California Institute for Telecommunications at UCSD, who was not involved in the Scripps study.
Michael Prather is a UC Irvine atmospheric chemist who predicted earlier this year that based on the rapidly increasing use of NF3, larger amounts of the gas would be found in the atmosphere. Prather said the new Scripps study provides the confirmation needed to establish reporting requirements for production and use of the gas.
“I’d say case closed. It is now shown to be an important greenhouse gas,” said Prather, who was not involved with the Scripps study. “Now we need to get hard numbers on how much is flowing through the system, from production to disposal.”
Co-authors of the paper are Scripps researchers Jens Mühle, Peter Salameh and Christina Harth.
Image Caption: Scripps geoscientists Ray Weiss (green shirt) and Jens Muehle amid collection cylinders used to collect air samples from a variety of locations around the world. Weiss and Muehle led a study that found that the greenhouse gas nitrogen trifluoride, used in the manufacture of flat-panel monitors, escapes to the atmosphere at levels much higher than previously assumed.
Image Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography/UC San Diego
Source: Scripps Institution of Oceanography/UC San Diego
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September 22, 2008
Under Embargo Till:16:00 UTC Sept. 22, 2008
Posted: 16:00 UTC 09/22/2008
A potentially deadly fungus that can kill frogs and toads was inadvertently introduced into Mallorca by a captive breeding program that 
was reintroducing a rare species of toad into the wild, according to a new study published today in the journal Current Biology.
The study, by researchers from Imperial College London and international colleagues, reveals that captive Mallorcan midwife toads released into the wild in 1991 were infected with the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Measures to screen the health of the toads did not pick up the fungus, because at the time it was not known to science.
The chytrid fungus, which lives in the water and on the skin of host amphibians such as frogs, toads, salamanders and newts, has been known to cause amphibian population extinctions in Europe. Globally, the disease has been found in over 87 countries and has driven rapid amphibian declines in areas including Australia and Central America, pushing some species to extinction. Bd is currently rare in the UK, having only been detected in three locations.
The new study suggests that an endangered species of frog from South Africa, Xenopus gilli, which was housed in the same room as the Mallorcan midwife toads, was responsible for spreading the infection to them.
The captive breeding and reintroduction program for the Mallorcan midwife toad has been highly successful in increasing the numbers of the rare toad on the island. Over half of all the current populations on Mallorca are derived from reintroduction’s.
Although the chytrid fungus can be deadly, toads appear to be doing well in three out of the four populations in Mallorca infected with the chytrid fungus. This finding suggests that there are unidentified factors that are preventing these populations from extinction. The situation is being closely monitored by the Mallorcan conservation authorities.
Global efforts to save amphibians from extinction hinge on species being taken into captivity and bred until they can be reintroduced to the wild. The researchers behind the new study say their findings reveal the risks of reintroducing species into the wild even when health screening is carried out, and highlight the need to ensure that species bred in captivity do not become infected with pathogens from other species.
As soon as Bd was discovered in the late 1990s, screening for the disease was incorporated into amphibian conservation plans. Zoos are now moving towards breeding threatened frogs in strictly quarantined, biosecure facilities in an effort to prevent the disease spreading in captivity.
The chytrid fungus has also been added to a list of diseases that need to be quarantined compiled by the World Organization for Animal Health. It is hoped that these quarantine measures will help those involved in conservation efforts to stop Bd from spreading further, by controlling the international trade in infected animals.
Dr Mat Fisher, one of the authors of the study from the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London, said: “Our study has shown that species reintroduction programs can have unpredicted and unintended effects. However in this case we believe that the toads are going to survive the infection. The global conservation community is united in its goal of saving species from the effects of Bd and we now have international legislation which should prevent this disease being accidentally introduced into the wild.”
The researchers reached their conclusions after comparing the specific genotype of Bd from infected wild toads from across Mallorca, and infected toads from mainland Spain, the UK and the rest of the world. They found that the disease in all Mallorcan toads was of the same genotype, and that this was a different genotype from those on mainland Europe and elsewhere.
Bd infects amphibians’ skin and is thought to interfere with their ability to absorb water. Over 257 amphibian species are known to be affected by Bd. Some species are very susceptible and die quickly while others, which are more resistant, are carriers of the pathogen.
Image Caption: Mallorcan midwife toad
Source: Imperial College London
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September 9, 2008
A University of Colorado at Boulder team working at 16,400 feet in the Peruvian Andes has discovered how barren soils uncovered by retreating glacier ice can swiftly establish a thriving community of microbes, setting the table for lichens, mosses and alpine plants.
The discovery is the first to reveal how microbial life becomes established and flourishes in one of the most extreme environments on Earth and has implications for how life may have once flourished on Mars, said Professor Steve Schmidt of CU-Boulder’s ecology and evolutionary biology department. The study also provides new insights into how microorganisms are adapting to global warming in cold ecosystems on Earth.
A paper on the subject was published online Aug. 27 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the United Kingdom’s national academy of science. Co-authors included CU-Boulder’s Sasha Reed, Diana Nemergut, Stuart Grandy, Andrew Hill, Elizabeth Costello, Allen Meyer, Jason Neff and Andrew Martin as well as the University of Montana’s Cory Cleveland and the University of Toledo’s Michael Weintraub.
The researchers found that three species of a photosynthetic microbe known as cyanobacteria colonized the soil within the first year, either by dropping in from tiny pockets of dirt wedged in the receding glacier or blowing in as spores. Just three years later there were 20 different species of bacteria, growing by snatching gaseous forms of carbon and nitrogen from the atmosphere, Schmidt said.
“The most startling finding was how much the diversity increased in just four years in what was seemingly barren soil,” said Schmidt, whose study was funded by the National Science Foundation’s Microbial Observatories Program. The CU-Boulder team conducted their research from 2000 to 2005 on the Puca Glacier in Peru — which is receding uphill about 60 feet a year — by collecting samples and measuring soil chemistry and strength.
In 2005, Schmidt’s group was awarded a five-year, $1.75 million NSF grant to identify and analyze a potpourri of microbes new to science residing in harsh, cold climates around the world. The team is using a novel technique that extracts DNA from the soil to pinpoint new groups of microbes and polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, to amplify and identify them, providing a snapshot of the microscopic diversity in high alpine regions.
Another unexpected finding on the Puca Glacier was how microbes stabilized the soil and prevented erosion on the slope by using their filament-like structure to weave soil particles together in a matrix, Schmidt said. The CU-Boulder researchers also found the microbes excrete a glue-like sugar compound to further bond soil particles.
In addition, they discovered that nitrogen fixation rates — the process in which nitrogen gas is converted by bacteria into compounds in the soil like ammonia and nitrate — increased by about 100-fold in the first five years. “Overall, our results indicate that photosynthetic and nitrogen-fixing bacteria play important roles in acquiring nutrients and facilitating ecological succession in soils near some of the highest-elevation receding glaciers on Earth,” wrote the team in Proceedings of the Royal Academy.
Global climate change has accelerated the pace of glacial retreat in high latitude and high-elevation environments, exposing lands that have been devoid of vegetation for centuries or millennia, said Schmidt. He likened the high Andes to the harsh Dry Valleys of Antarctica, under study by researchers from NASA’s Astrobiology Institute because of hostile conditions believed to be similar to those on portions of Mars.
“This kind of research should help us understand how the cold regions of Earth function, and how the biosphere will respond to future climate change,” said Schmidt. The research also could lead to the discovery of new antibiotics, as well as industrial enzymes that function at cold temperatures and could be used to drive chemical reactions normally requiring large amounts of heat, he said.
Because of rapid climate change at high elevations, time is of the essence for researchers at CU-Boulder and elsewhere working on tiny organisms in extreme environments. “We are racing to identify new species and archive them in the laboratory before bigger changes occur and they disappear,” said Schmidt.
Source: University of Colorado, Boulder
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April 28, 2008
In America, even the smallest footprints are large
Whether you live in a cardboard box or a luxurious mansion, whether you subsist on homegrown vegetables or wolf down imported steaks, whether you’re a jet-setter or a sedentary retiree, anyone who lives in the U.S. contributes more than twice as much greenhouse gas to the atmosphere as those living in the rest of the world.
An MIT class has estimated the carbon emissions of Americans in a wide variety of lifestyles–from the homeless to multimillionaires, from Buddhist monks to soccer moms–and compared them to those of other nations. The somewhat disquieting bottom line is that in the United States, even the people with the lowest usage of energy are still producing, on average, more than double the global per-capita average. And those emissions rise steeply from that minimum as people’s income increases: The class estimated Bill Gates’ impact as about 10,000 times the average.
“Regardless of income, there is a certain floor below which the individual carbon footprint of a person in the U.S. will not drop,” says Timothy Gutowski, professor of mechanical engineering, who taught the class that calculated the rates of carbon emissions.
The results will be presented this May 19-20 at the IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment in San Francisco.
While it may seem surprising that even people whose lifestyles don’t appear extravagant–the homeless, monks, children–are responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions, one major factor is the array of government services that are available to everyone in the United States. These basic services-including police, roads, libraries, the court system and the military-were allocated equally to everyone in the country in this study. Other services that are more specific, such as education or Medicare, were allocated only to those who actually make use of them.
The students conducted detailed interviews or made detailed estimates of the energy usage of 18 lifestyles, spanning the gamut from a vegetarian college student and a 5-year-old up to the ultra-rich-Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates. The energy impact for the rich was estimated from published sources, while all the others were based on direct interviews. The average annual carbon dioxide emissions per person, they found, was 20 metric tons, compared to a world average of four tons.
But the “floor” below which nobody in the U.S. can reach, no matter what their energy choices, turned out to be 8.5 tons, the class found. That was the usage calculated for a homeless person who ate in soup kitchens and slept in homeless shelters. The person with the lowest energy usage was a Buddhist monk who spent six months of every year living in the forest and had total annual spending of $12,500. His carbon footprint was 10.5 tons.
The analysis was carried out by Gutowski and 21 students in his 2007 class “Environmentally benign design and manufacturing.” They derived a system for making such comparisons, which they call ELSA-Environmental Life Style Analysis.
Unlike some other attempts to quantify people’s carbon emissions, Gutowski and his students took great care to account for often-overlooked factors such as the “rebound effect.” That’s when someone makes a particular choice-for example, buying a hybrid car instead of a gas-guzzler-but then uses the money saved from their reduced gasoline costs to do something else like taking a long trip by airplane. The net impact, in such a case, may actually be an overall increase in carbon emissions.
“When you save energy, you save money,” Gutowski explains. “The question is, how are you going to spend that money?”
The students looked at the factors within each person’s control that might lead to a reduction in their carbon output. They found that achieving significant reductions for the most part required drastic changes that would likely be unacceptable to most people. As a result, they said, “this all suggests to us very significant limits to voluntary actions to reduce impacts, both at a personal level and at a national level.”
In a continuation of the class this semester, another group of students are exploring this question in more detail, looking at just what kinds of things people really can do to limit their environmental impact. The question they are addressing, Gutowski says, is “can average Americans tighten their belts” in a way that would make a significant difference. Once again, the class will be interviewing people living in a wide variety of ways, including an Amish farmer. Then, after analyzing the results and possible changes, they will go back to the same people and ask, “would you consider these alternatives?”
In general, spending money on travel or on goods that have substantial energy costs in their manufacture and delivery adds to a person’s carbon footprint, while expenditures on locally based labor-intensive services-whether it’s going to a therapist, taking an art class, or getting a massage-leads to a smaller footprint.
But the biggest factors in most people’s lives were the well-known obvious energy users: housing, transportation and food. “The simple way you get people’s carbon use down is to tax it,” Gutowski says. “That’s a hard pill to swallow-politicians don’t like to step up” to support such measures. Absent such national actions, he says, it is important to study “what role consumer choices can play” in lowering the nation’s carbon emissions.
If nothing else, the members of this class got a whole new perspective. “The students really got into it,” Gutowski says. “It raised everybody’s awareness about the issues.”
Source: MIT / David Chandler
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April 10, 2008
The University of Bristol is planning to develop two state-of-the-art energy centers that will cut its carbon emissions by nearly a quarter and dramatically increase its energy efficiency.
The centers will house ultra-modern ‘tri-generation’ units. These will not only create electricity and permit heat from the generators to be recovered, but will also allow chilled water to be produced through a heat conversion system.
This means that environmental benefits will be available all year round, whether the demand is for warmth or for cooling.
One of the energy centers is set to be developed during 2009 behind the Faculty of Arts buildings on Woodland Road; the other during 2012 between St Michael’s Hill and the University’s Medical School. Both centers are subject to planning permission from Bristol City Council.
Professor Selby Knox, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University, said: “We are keen to operate in a way that is environmentally responsible and that also makes economic sense. These centers should keep Bristol at the forefront of carbon reduction within the higher education sector.”
Last year the University won the Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Development award in the national Times Higher awards. Since it adopted its environmental policy in 2003, the University has reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 24 per cent, water use by 35 per cent and waste-to-landfill by over half.
Source: University of Bristol
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April 8, 2008
Cohousing offers a low-carbon lifestyle, and developers are poised for a market that could soon burgeon in the US, according to a new study. Until now, cohousing has occupied a niche market in the US, but the paper by Dr Jo Williams at UCL (University College London) suggests the situation is changing. Cohousing not only helps to halve energy use, it offers health and social benefits for families and older people seeking secure and affordable homes.
Cohousing in the US typically comprises private living units (houses or flats) with shared spaces such as a gym, office space, workshops, laundry facilities and a cafe. Those living in cohousing consume nearly 60 per cent less energy in the home, and operate car-sharing and recycling schemes that greatly reduce the pollution from travel and landfill. Having facilities such as office space, workshops and gym within the community also reduces travel and associated emissions. Resident’s direct involvement in the management and maintenance of these communities has also led to the adoption of more energy-efficient systems and renewable sources of energy.
In a paper published in Futures Journal, Dr Jo Williams of the UCL Bartlett School of Planning says that until recently, cohousing has occupied a niche market in the US, largely because the development model adopted has been resident-led. The time, money and effort required to invest in such a project, along with the associated risks, has very much restricted market interest. It takes a minimum of five years to develop a cohousing project, the drop-out rate is high and projects can be expensive.
However, new development models have emerged in the US that reduce resident involvement, risk and cost — namely, partnership, speculative and retrofit models. Developers are beginning to finance and build cohousing both in partnership with prospective residents and speculatively. Residents are also forming their own cohousing communities in existing neighborhoods, by taking down fences, creating communal facilities and taking on the responsibility for general management and maintenance.
Dr Jo Williams of the UCL Bartlett School of Planning says: "The emergence of new models of development has expanded the market for cohousing in the US, particularly in California, Massachusetts, Colorado and Washington DC. The number of households living in retrofit communities has tripled in the last 10 years and the number living in partnership projects has nearly quadrupled. The coverage and diversity of the market has also increased. Re-sale values for properties in cohousing communities are higher than the market average, suggesting they are now desirable places to live. Developers, architects and realtors have recognized the market potential for cohousing and are setting up support services."
"With concerns about carbon emissions and energy savings, there has never been greater impetus for housing that offers low-carbon lifestyles. If the development models emerging in the US were adopted in the UK, the market for cohousing could be substantially expanded here. This could add to our options for shrinking our carbon footprint as well as meeting social needs, such as safe homes for an ageing population and local childcare facilities for parents who work."
Source: University College London
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considering new wind power facilities. Given these developments, there is an urgent need to empirically investigate typical community concerns about wind energy and thereby provide stakeholders involved in the wind project siting process a common base of knowledge. A major new report released today by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory evaluates one of those concerns, and finds that proximity to wind energy facilities does not have a pervasive or widespread adverse effect on the property values of nearby homes.
