The Green Optimistic

Researchers concluded that the release of just a fraction of the methane held in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf sediments could lead to a sudden warming of the climate.

UCLA scientists, led by professor Omar M. Yaghi have created three-dimensional, synthetic DNA-like crystals which are capable of storing carbon dioxide: We have taken organic and inorganic units and combined them into a synthetic crystal which codes information in a DNA-like manner.

The much-feared ozone layer hole over the Antarctic is slowly but steadily closing, but scientists realized that while it had been open, it kept the carbon-induced heat from melting the Antarctic glaciers.

Mass production of biochar could capture and sock away carbon that otherwise would wind up in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. Their report appears in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology, a bi-weekly journal.

Using a newly developed method of producing glass nanofibers with materials, a team of scientists from the University of Vigo, Rutgers University in the U.S. and Imperial College London, have been able to make bioglass nanofibers. These could be used in carbon sequestration and other purposes.

Scientists at the University of California San Diego have discovered new plant enzymes that can allow plants to save water while consuming more CO2 from the atmosphere. The enzyme causes the plants to react to CO2 and change how they use their pores and by modifying the enzyme, scientists believe that could be developed more CO2- and drought-tolerant crops.

Carbozyme, a NJ-based company is trying to mimic a phenomenon that happens when you breathe: capturing CO2 via a naturally occurring blood enzyme. Our body captures about two pounds of carbon dioxide per day – scaled-up industrial systems could do a lot more if put up properly.

Every year, scientists learn something new about the power of lightning. With the helps of the satellites they have created a lightning map for the globe, which shows that Rwanda has the most flashes per square kilometer, while the flashes at the polar regions occur rarely. Every year, 1,2 million flashes occur around the world.

Hog farms, where thousands of animals are raised, look really horrible and they pollute rivers, poison groundwater supplies and releaseclouds of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Earlier this year, it has almost been said that cow burps are the root of all evil regarding global warming, the emissions of methane gases and, overall, an enemy of our humble existence on this planet. Well, recent “discoveries” reveal the fact that a well-managed cow could actually help reduce methane emissions.

The coal based power plant located in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin in Kenosha County called Pleasant Prairie Power Plant has generated approximately 1,226 MW of electricity in 2006, being one of the largest generating stations in Wisconsin.

Researcher Leonard Ornstein has come up with a simple plan to stop global warming. He proposes that turning Sahara and the Australian outback into vast, shady forests, could draw down about 8 billion tons of carbon a year, nearly as much as people emit from burning forests and fossil fuels today.

The process of separating CO2 from its source is called capturing (CO2). The new method discovered by the scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory might replace all the existing Carbon Dioxide capturing devices and improve a lot their performance and stability.

Accidental discoveries have always been the most groundbreaking discoveries in the entire history of science, because magnificent things were found without us thinking of them, not taking the usual way to see things, and therefore unleashing new possibilities.

Some people check every possibility to reduce pollution, to make us live our lives in a clean and healthy environment. At a press conference about climate change solutions in Manchester, Tim Kruger, a former management consultant, announced that lime and salt water could stop or reverse CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere.

Capturing CO2 is one of the many tasks trees have been doing for ages. Now, though, with all the CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere and the trees being cut off, the existing forests are not able to keep up with the ongoing pollution.

Columbia University has announced the development of a structure that could capture carbon 1,000 times faster than a real tree. Klaus Lackner said, as the “tree” could be used for capturing carbon which has been already emitted into the air by car gasoline or airplain fuel.

A recent study reveals shocking figures telling that, basically, traveling by train pollutes the environment more than traveling by airplane. How can that be?

In the late 1980s, during the Montreal Protocol that set rules for the chlorofluorocarbon emissions, methyl bromide was about to become a target, to reduce it for saving the ozone layer. So, from a poplar compound used in agriculture, it became an “outlaw”.

Certain bright minds say we should throw trillions of mirrors into space to slow global warming. It doesn’t seem like a bad idea at a first glance, but other enlightened thoughts say we should release chemicals into the air to do just that.