Anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere make
airborne carbon a material in the wrong place, at the wrong dose and wrong duration.
Aerial CO2 fertilization is the reason for the increase in plant growth, crop yield, and presumably tree growth for the recent past, where some trees grow at faster rates than others by increasing
airborne carbon dioxide concentrations.
[19]
The airborne carbon stock is about 850 Gt - C (2014) and the absorption by ocean and vegetation is 170 Gt - C / year.
The sentence I just quoted implies pretty strongly that, in the presence of efficient (or for that matter inefficient) large - scale capture and storage of
airborne carbon, carbon emissions that have already occurred or will occur in the near future might not result in a commitment to climate change that is irreversible on timescales of centuries to millennia and longer.
If we are incorrect then the down side will be reduced Health Care cost associated with
airborne carbon pollution, asidification of the Oceans and end contamination of Fresh water supplies with sewage!
Specifically, they say: «The implication is that, in the absence of efficient, large - scale capture and storage of
airborne carbon (emphasis mine), carbon emissions that have already occurred or will occur in the near future result in a commitment to climate change that will be irreversible on timescales of centuries to millennia and longer.»
Often, hydrogen power simply traded the emission of
airborne carbon at the consumer end for precisely the same emissions at the production end — hardly a great leap forward.
Not exact matches
And to assess environmental conditions, the city put 150 detectors for
airborne particles and
carbon dioxide into taxis and buses.
Unlike ice sanitizing technologies that use UV light or other sources that create ozone, which can be hazardous to health, the patent - pending BPi200 uses a small electrical housing and
carbon - fiber brushes to release
airborne positive hydrogen and negative oxygen ions throughout the ice machine without creating ozone.
Particulate matter is an
airborne pollutant that can be controlled relatively easily, compared to pollutants like
carbon dioxide.
The theory of dangerous climate change is based not just on
carbon dioxide warming but on positive and negative feedback effects from water vapor and phenomena such as clouds and
airborne aerosols from coal burning.
The team integrated
airborne laser mapping technology using the Carnegie
Airborne Observatory with field data, and coupled them with publicly available satellite imagery to scale
carbon inventories up to the national level.
The gamma rays would produce
airborne radioactive isotopes such as
carbon - 14 and beryllium - 10, which would fall to the ground.
The
carbon - packed constituents are ubiquitous in
airborne particulates, coming from sources as diverse as pine trees and diesel trucks.
But while it's
airborne, black
carbon can interact with clouds in various ways.
Empirical data for the CO2 «
airborne fraction», the ratio of observed atmospheric CO2 increase divided by fossil fuel CO2 emissions, show that almost half of the emissions is being taken up by surface (terrestrial and ocean)
carbon reservoirs [187], despite a substantial but poorly measured contribution of anthropogenic land use (deforestation and agriculture) to
airborne CO2 [179], [216].
Using our
carbon cycle model we calculate that if we extract 100 ppm of CO2 from the air over the period 2030 — 2100 (10/7 ppm per year), say storing that CO2 in carbonate bricks, the atmospheric CO2 amount in 2100 will be reduced 52 ppm to 358 ppm, i.e., the reduction of
airborne CO2 is about half of the amount extracted from the air and stored.
Accordingly, the «
airborne fraction» of
carbon is on the rise — it just has no where else to go.
Indoor air quality is defined by the concentrations of various pollutants, including
carbon dioxide (CO2), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), moulds, dusts and
airborne fungi.
In focussing on CO2 rather than
carbon, it requires the capture and sequestration of 3.664 times the gigatonnage of material for a given impact on
airborne CO2 stock.
The
airborne fraction of new
carbon added to the system drifts down from 15 - 25 % after equilibration between the atmosphere and the ocean but before neutralization by the CaCO3 cycle and ultimate recovery by the silicate weathering CO2 thermostat.
Researchers have developed incredibly thin
carbon - based electronics that could be applied to virtually any surface to detect
airborne toxins and collect other environmental data.
Soot, microscopic
airborne particles that are also known as black
carbon, is the second - leading cause of global warming after
carbon dioxide, and it's entirely preventable.
A demonstration plant powered by geothermal has been running in Iceland since 2011, using a novel low - temp & low pressure technology to process electrolytic hydrogen and
carbon from
airborne CO2, to provide 2.5 % of the national liquid fuel requirement cut with petrol.
New data show that the balance between the
airborne and the absorbed fraction of
carbon dioxide has stayed approximately constant since 1850, despite emissions of
carbon dioxide having risen from about 2 billion tons a year in 1850 to 35 billion tons a year now.
«New remote sensing approaches using light detection and ranging (Lidar) and radio detection and ranging (radar) from
airborne sensors have been successful in providing high - resolution estimates of forest
carbon density for small areas,» he wrote in a paper published in May by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.
A potential weakness of CRFS in addressing the issue of around 170 ppm of
airborne and marine (re-emitted) CO2 is the lead - time for native coppice afforestation of non-farmland for charcoal - feedstock, plus the oceans» thermal inertia timelag on the
carbon sequestration's cooling effect.
Despite the predictions of coupled climate -
carbon cycle models, no trend in the
airborne fraction can be found.
Assessment of fossil fuel
carbon dioxide and other anthropogenic trace gas emissions from
airborne measurements over Sacramento, California in spring 2009
The change of emission rate in 2000 from 1.5 % yr - 1 to 3.1 % yr - 1 (figure 1), other things being equal, would have caused a sharp increase of the
airborne fraction (the simple reason being that a rapid source increase provides less time for
carbon to be moved downward out of the ocean's upper layers).
A bigger concern might be the presence of
airborne particulates from coal - fired power plants, which are the U.S.'s biggest emitters of
carbon dioxide.
«The proportionality of warming to cumulative emissions depends in part on a cancellation of the saturation of
carbon sinks with increasing cumulative emissions (leading to a larger
airborne fraction of cumulative emissions for higher emissions) and the logarithmic dependence of radiative forcing on atmospheric CO2 concentration [leading to a smaller increase in radiative forcing per unit increase in atmospheric CO2 at higher CO2 concentrations; Matthews et al. (2009)-RSB-.
Empirical data for the CO2 «
airborne fraction», the ratio of observed atmospheric CO2 increase divided by fossil fuel CO2 emissions, show that almost half of the emissions is being taken up by surface (terrestrial and ocean)
carbon reservoirs [187], despite a substantial but poorly measured contribution of anthropogenic land use (deforestation and agriculture) to
airborne CO2 [179], [216].
They do correctly note (rounding generously though) that about a quarter of present day
airborne CO2 is anthropogenic (about 100 ppm out of 380 ppm) and that about half of human emissions end up in sinks (the oceans, soil
carbon from increased plant growth etc..).
Note that ppm and delta13C are not the same at all altitudes and evolve progressively, as illustrated by the
airborne measurements of Nakazawa et al., Time and space variations of the
carbon isotopic ratio, Tellus, 1993.
If a warming climate increases the amount of N2O and CH4 in the air, the required
carbon source for a given global warming is reduced, because the amount of
carbon in
airborne CH4 is negligible.
He has said in various places that he finds it hard to imagine albedo - enhancement being carried out consistently for a millennium or more; but he finds it easy to imagine
airborne -
carbon reduction consistently not being tried for similar periods.)
Given that the PETM
carbon injection occurred over a period of a few millennia,
carbon cycle models suggest that about one - third of the
carbon would be
airborne as CO2 following complete injection [21].
As I've understood it from McGribben's explanation back in» 89, the tipping point occurs when the combined CO2e output of all feedbacks exceeds the
carbon sinks» capacity, after which their outputs are inevitably adding to
airborne GHG stocks and warming and are thus effectively self - reinforcing.
Given the uncertainty in the
airborne fraction of CO2 and possible non-CO2 gases, we can not rule out the two - thirds Russell sensitivity, but the full Russell sensitivity fits plausible PETM
carbon sources much better, especially if the PETM warming is actually somewhat more than 5 °C (see figure 10 for quantitative implications).
These problems are compounded by crop damage from ozone partly produced by cookstove emissions, and from surface dimming that results as
airborne black
carbon intercepts sunlight.
• Climate change alone will tend to suppress both land and ocean
carbon uptake, increasing the fraction of anthropogenic CO2 emissions that remain
airborne and producing a positive feedback to climate change.
Human impacts on the climate system include increasing concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases (e.g.,
carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons and their substitutes, methane, nitrous oxide, etc.), air pollution, increasing concentrations of
airborne particles, and land alteration.
More
airborne CO2 lets plants reduce the size of their stomata, little holes in leaves that plants use to inhale
carbon dioxide building blocks.
He has pioneered new methods for investigating tropical deforestation, degradation, ecosystem diversity, invasive species,
carbon emissions, climate change, and much more using satellite and
airborne instrumentation, coupled with on - ground fieldwork.
By integrating satellite mapping,
airborne - laser technology, and ground - based plot surveys, scientists from the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, with colleagues from the World Wildlife Fund and in coordination with the Peruvian Ministry of the Environment (MINAM), have revealed the first high - resolution maps of
carbon locked up in tropical forest vegetation and emitted by land - use practices.
Approximately 55 % of human CO2 emissions currently remain
airborne (the remainder is absorbed by
carbon sinks), and each 7.8 Gt CO2 emitted corresponds to roughly 1 part per million by volume (ppmv) increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration.