 |
|
Carbon sinks: Issues, markets, policy
September 29, 2008With reducing carbon emissions on the national agenda, a group of expert panelists will discuss methods, markets, testing and policy issues on how carbon sinks or carbon sequestration may be used to reduce atmospheric CO2.
Carbon sequestration is the process through which carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere is absorbed by trees, plants and crops through photosynthesis, and stored as carbon in biomass (tree trunks, branches, foliage and roots) and soils. The term "sinks" is also used to refer to forests, croplands, and grazing lands, and their ability to sequester carbon. Agriculture and forestry activities can also release CO2 to the atmosphere. So, a carbon sink occurs when carbon sequestration is greater than carbon releases over some time period.
The keynote symposium, "Carbon Sequestration: Methods, Markets and Policy," includes presentations by six experts. The symposium is being held on Wednesday, 8 Oct from 3:00 to 5:10 pm in the General Assembly Theater Hall C of the George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, TX, as part of the 2008 Joint Annual Meeting of five scientific societies.
According to a National Academy of Sciences 2001 report, "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in the Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise."
In addition to temperature, human-induced climate change may also affect growing seasons, precipitation and the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, such as fire. These changes can influence forests, farming and the health of ecosystems, and thus carbon sequestration.
Speakers at this session will environmental controls on the soil carbon cycle; forest carbon sequestration; testing commercial-scale geologic carbon sequestration; issues with ocean carbon sequestration; and legal and regulatory challenges facing carbon sequestration:
* Ronald Amundson will discuss how nearly 20% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions are from land-use changes, but reducing this loss requires understanding the natural and management-specific impacts on soil carbon. The main control on the soil carbon cycle is climate. Radiocarbon measurements have shown that decomposition accelerates with increasing temperature and that under projected warming scenarios soils should release CO2 and provide a positive feedback to warming.
* Richard Birdsey will discuss how U.S. forests currently offset about 15% of emissions of CO2 from fossil fuels and how this baseline rate could be doubled or more through activities including avoided deforestation, afforestation, improved forest management, and substitution of wood for other materials.
* Brian McPherson will discuss a project designing and deploying several pilot tests to validate the most promising CO2 sequestration technologies and infrastructure concepts, including a major deep saline sequestration demonstration.
* Haroon Kheshgi will discuss how a range of ocean carbon sequestration concepts are compared to other options including other forms of carbon sequestration.
* Putting aside the technical and engineering aspects of carbon capture and sequestration, Allison D. Wood will discuss how legal and policy issues need to be addressed with regard to the issue.
* The symposium will be moderated by Jerry Hatfield, USDA-Agricultural Research Service and Past-President, American Society of Agronomy.
American Society of Agronomy
According to a National Academy of Sciences 2001 report, "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in the Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise."
In addition to temperature, human-induced climate change may also affect growing seasons, precipitation and the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, such as fire. These changes can influence forests, farming and the health of ecosystems, and thus carbon sequestration.
Speakers at this session will environmental controls on the soil carbon cycle; forest carbon sequestration; testing commercial-scale geologic carbon sequestration; issues with ocean carbon sequestration; and legal and regulatory challenges facing carbon sequestration:
* Ronald Amundson will discuss how nearly 20% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions are from land-use changes, but reducing this loss requires understanding the natural and management-specific impacts on soil carbon. The main control on the soil carbon cycle is climate. Radiocarbon measurements have shown that decomposition accelerates with increasing temperature and that under projected warming scenarios soils should release CO2 and provide a positive feedback to warming.
* Richard Birdsey will discuss how U.S. forests currently offset about 15% of emissions of CO2 from fossil fuels and how this baseline rate could be doubled or more through activities including avoided deforestation, afforestation, improved forest management, and substitution of wood for other materials.
* Brian McPherson will discuss a project designing and deploying several pilot tests to validate the most promising CO2 sequestration technologies and infrastructure concepts, including a major deep saline sequestration demonstration.
* Haroon Kheshgi will discuss how a range of ocean carbon sequestration concepts are compared to other options including other forms of carbon sequestration.
* Putting aside the technical and engineering aspects of carbon capture and sequestration, Allison D. Wood will discuss how legal and policy issues need to be addressed with regard to the issue.
* The symposium will be moderated by Jerry Hatfield, USDA-Agricultural Research Service and Past-President, American Society of Agronomy.
American Society of Agronomy
Carbon Sequestration Current Events and Carbon Sequestration News RSSWorld will miss 2010 target to stem biodiversity loss, experts say
The world will miss its agreed target to stem biodiversity loss by next year, according to experts convening in Cape Town for a landmark conference devoted to biodiversity science.
First global scientific conference supporting UN efforts to curb desertification opens in Argentina
As climate change negotiators continue to skirt the role of agricultural land use in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, top scientists working on land management in the world's vast dry areas will gather this week in Buenos Aires, Argentina, determined to make the case that thwarting desertification in drylands is viable and also critical to the success of a new climate deal.
Exotic timber plantations found to use more than twice the water of native forests
Ecologists have discovered that timber plantations in Hawaii use more than twice the amount of water to grow as native forests use.
New genomic model defines microbes by diet -- provides tool for tracking environmental change
In line with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) interest in characterizing the biotic factors involved in global carbon cycling, the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) characterizes a diverse array of plants, microorganisms, and the communities in which they reside to inform options for reducing and stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gases.
Scientists say climate change mitigation strategies ignore carbon cycling processes of inland waters
In the paper, The Boundless Carbon Cycle, published in the September issue of Nature Geoscience, scientists from the University of Vienna, Uppsala University in Sweden, University of Antwerp, and the U.S. based Stroud™ Water Research Center argue that current international strategies to mitigate manmade carbon emissions and address climate change have overlooked a critical player - inland waters.
Researchers link jellyfish, other small sea creatures to large-scale ocean mixing
The ocean's smallest swimming animals, such as jellyfish, can have a huge impact on large-scale ocean mixing, researchers have discovered.
Forest fire prevention efforts will lessen carbon sequestration, add to greenhouse warming
Widely sought efforts to reduce fuels that increase catastrophic fire in Pacific Northwest forests will be counterproductive to another important societal goal of sequestering carbon to help offset global warming.
Scientists track chemical changes in cells as they endure extreme conditions
One of nature's most gripping feats of survival is now better understood. For the first time, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory observed the chemical changes in individual cells that enable them to survive conditions that should kill them.
Pacific Northwest forests could store more carbon, help address greenhouse issues
The forests of the Pacific Northwest hold significant potential to increase carbon storage and help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in coming years, a recent study concludes, if they are managed primarily for that purpose through timber harvest reductions and increased rotation ages.
A new approach to engineering for extreme environments
Composite materials such as fiberglass, which take on a mix of properties of their constituent compounds, have been around for decades. Now, an MIT materials scientist is taking composites to the nanoscale, where entirely new properties, not found in any of the original compounds, can emerge.
More Carbon Sequestration Current Events and Carbon Sequestration News Articles
 |
Carbon Capture and Sequestration Integrating Technology, Monitoring, Regulation by Elizabeth Wilson (Editor), David Gerard (Editor) This book is the first systematic presentation of the technical, legal, and economic forces that must coalesce to deploy carbon dioxide capture and geologic sequestration as a viable technology within a larger carbon dioxide reduction strategy. It synthesizes key engineering data and explains the technological, regulatory, and legal conditions that must be in place for carbon sequestration to be deployed. The book offers a system of carbon management that takes into account regulation, cost, risk analysis, and geological science. The practical information in this book is designed for individuals who need to understand the requirements for achieving carbon dioxide reduction through carbon capture and sequestration technologies. |
 |
2009 Complete Guide to Carbon Sequestration Research, Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies to Fight Global Warming and Control Greenhouse Gases, Government Research Programs (CD-ROM) by U.S. Government (Author) This comprehensive electronic book on CD-ROM provides an up-to-date review of all aspects of carbon sequestration, carbon capture and storage technologies from the Federal Government! To retain fossil fuels as a viable world energy source, carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies must play a central role. By cost-effectively capturing CO2 before it is emitted to the atmosphere and then permanently storing or sequestering it, fossil fuels can be used in a carbon constrained world and without constraining economic growth. Absent binding constraints, CO2 emissions in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries which include the United States, most of Europe, Australia, Korea, New Zealand and Japan are expected to increase at about 1.1 percent per year through... |
 |
Geological Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide, Volume 11: Thermodynamics, Kinetics, and Reaction Path Modeling (Developments in Geochemistry) by Luigi Marini (Author) The contents of this monograph are two-scope. First, it intends to provide a synthetic but complete account of the thermodynamic and kinetic foundations on which the reaction path modeling of geological CO2 sequestration is based. In particular, a great effort is devoted to review the thermodynamic properties of CO2 and of the CO2-H2O system and the interactions in the aqueous solution, the thermodynamic stability of solid product phases (by means of several stability plots and activity plots), the volumes of carbonation reactions, and especially the kinetics of dissolution/precipitation reactions of silicates, oxides, hydroxides, and carbonates. Second, it intends to show the reader how reaction path modeling of geological CO2 sequestration is carried out. To this purpose the... |
 |
Soil Carbon Sequestration and the Greenhouse Effect, 2nd edition by Rattan Lai (Author), Ronald F. Follett (Author) |
 |
60 Minutes - Powered by Coal (April 26, 2009) Airdate 4/26/09 Coal is America's cheapest and most abundant fossil fuel, and it generates nearly half the electricity on earth. But coal is also one of the most polluting sources of energy, and its carbon dioxide emissions are contributing to global warming. Is clean coal possible? If so, can coal emission be eliminated before it's too late to undo the damage to the planet? Scott Pelley reports. This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply. |
 |
Coal & Nuclear: Problem or Solution? Also With: PBS (Producer) |
 |
Carbon Sequestration in Forest Ecosystems by Klaus Lorenz (Author), Rattan Lal (Author) Carbon Sequestration in Forest Ecosystems is a comprehensive book describing the basic processes of carbon dynamics in forest ecosystems, their contribution to carbon sequestration and implications for mitigating abrupt climate change. This book provides the information on processes, factors and causes influencing carbon sequestration in forest ecosystems. Drawing upon most up-to-date references, this book summarizes the current understanding of carbon sequestration processes in forest ecosystems while identifying knowledge gaps for future research, Thus, this book is a valuable knowledge source for students, scientists, forest managers and policy makers. |
 |
Harnessing Farms and Forests in the Low-Carbon Economy: How to Create, Measure, and Verify Greenhouse Gas Offsets by Zach Willey (Editor), Bill Chameides (Editor) As the United States moves to a low-carbon economy in order to combat global warming, credits for reducing carbon dioxide emissions will increasingly become a commodity that is bought and sold on the open market. Farmers and other landowners can benefit from this new economy by conducting land management practices that help sequester carbon dioxide, creating credits they can sell to industry to “offset” industrial emissions of greenhouse gases. This guide is the first comprehensive technical publication providing direction to landowners for sequestering carbon and information for traders and others who will need to verify the sequestration. It will provide invaluable direction to farmers, foresters, land managers, consultants, brokers, investors, regulators, and others... |
 |
21st Century Essential Guide to Carbon Sequestration: Greenhouse Gas and Carbon Dioxide Capture and Pollution Control to Prevent Global Warming, Coal Power Plant Research (CD-ROM) by U.S. Government (Author) This unique electronic book on two CD-ROMs has the finest collection of federal documents and resources available anywhere about carbon sequestration, capturing carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants to help prevent global warming from greenhouse gases. The Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) manages laboratory and field R&D focused on technologies with great potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and controlling global climate change. Most efforts focus on capturing carbon dioxide from large stationary sources such as power plants, and sequestering it using geologic, terrestrial ecosystem, or oceanic approaches. Control of fugitive methane emissions is also addressed. Carbon sequestration work directly implements the President's... |
 |
Economics of Carbon Sequestration in Forestry (Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology) by Roger A. Sedjo (Editor), R. Neil Sampson (Editor), Joe. Wisniewski (Editor) Since the 1992 Earth Summit, there have been increased efforts on an international scale to address global climate change. Reducing the increased levels of CO2 and other "greenhouse gases," which are believed to be contributing to this climatic change, will require major effort on the part of the world's governments. This means that the environmental, economic, social, and political consequences of climate change must be understood, and that strategies to mitigate climate change must also address these issues.The workshop detailed in this book concentrated on how economic principles and analysis could contribute to the planning of forestry projects aimed at affecting terrestrial carbon balances. More than 30 international scientists came together for one week near Stockholm, Sweden and... |
| © 2009 BrightSurf.com |