Students Share Ideas About Climate Change

Posted on | February 24, 2009 | Comments Off

from the EPA

PHILADELPHIA – What do kids think about conserving water? Do they understand the power of public transportation? How do you pack a waste-free lunch?

These days our children probably know more about protecting the environment than adults do. And EPA wants to encourage them — not only to learn more about taking actions to reduce their own personal energy use — but to share their thoughts and ideas with each other through a new EPA blog.

“Young people have been the motivation behind recycling efforts and they can play an equally important role with climate change,” said William T. Wisniewski, acting regional administrator for EPA’s mid-Atlantic region. “EPA’s blog is a great way to learn more and to write about what they are doing at home and in school to protect the planet.”

The blog, written by Michelle Gugger, an AmeriCorps VISTA who is working with EPA’s regional Water Protection Division, and Loreal Crumbley, an intern at EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection in Washington, D.C., will present a new topic each week. The website will also include other tools such as a carbon calculator for students to evaluate their energy use, and daily action steps.

The first discussion – scheduled to start this week – will focus on recycling CDs and DVDs. On the current blog entry, Gugger and Crumbley introduce themselves.

Check out EPA’s climate change for students website at: http://blog.epa.gov/blog/category/studentsforclimateaction/

The US and China to Fight Global Warming?

Posted on | February 23, 2009 | Comments Off

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton focused on human induced climate change on her first trip to China in her new position.

She said global warming is “one of the most important issues that has ever, ever faced humanity.”

“What we hope is that you won’t make the same mistakes we made because I don’t think either China or the world could afford that.”

“It is essential that the United States and China have a cooperative, positive relationship.”

Orbiting Carbon Observatory

Posted on | February 23, 2009 | Comments Off

from NASA

The Orbital Sciences Taurus XL rocket set to launch NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory is in place at Launch Complex 576-E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Liftoff is scheduled for Feb. 24 at 1:51:30 a.m. PST (4:51:30 a.m. EST).

The OCO is a new Earth-orbiting mission sponsored by NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder Program. The spacecraft will collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth’s atmosphere. Scientists will analyze OCO data to improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important greenhouse gas. This improved understanding will enable more reliable forecasts of future changes in the abundance and distribution of CO2 in the atmosphere and the effect that these changes may have on the Earth’s climate.

NASA-Funded Carbon Dioxide Map of U.S. Released on Google Earth

Posted on | February 20, 2009 | 1 Comment

from NASA

Interactive maps that detail carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion are now available on the popular Google Earth platform. The maps, funded by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy through the joint North American Carbon Program, can display fossil fuel emissions by the hour, geographic region, and fuel type.

A science team led by researchers at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., integrated seven primary data sets, including imagery of Earth’s surface captured by the NASA-built Landsat 5 satellite, fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy, and population data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Researchers from the project, named “Vulcan” for the Roman god of fire, constructed an unprecedented inventory of the carbon dioxide that results from the burning of 48 different types of fossil fuel. The data-based maps show estimates of the hourly carbon dioxide outputs of factories, power plants, vehicle traffic and residential and commercial areas.

First released to the scientific community in April 2007, the emissions data have now been integrated into an image-based format that has become a standard online viewing tool for content that spans broad geographic areas.

“The release of the Vulcan inventory on Google Earth brings this information into the living room of anyone with an Internet connection,” said Kevin Gurney, an assistant professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue and leader of the Vulcan Project. “From a societal perspective, Vulcan provides a description of where and when society influences climate change through fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions.”

“Users can see their county or state in relation to others, and see what aspects of economic activity are driving fossil-fuel emissions,” Gurney added. “Vulcan could help demystify climate change and empower people in the same way as seeing the miles-per-gallon number on the dashboard of a hybrid car.”

The new Vulcan maps assimilate fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions data that was previously available from disparate sources and in different formats into one comprehensive data product. The fine level of detail offers more accuracy for estimating the fossil fuel contribution to the global carbon budget, the balance of carbon absorbed by Earth and released into the atmosphere. The Vulcan data product provides new scientific opportunities to assess the relationship between fossil fuel emissions and climate in the atmosphere and to see what future variability and extremes may bring.

“One of the goals of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program is to assist with scientifically based formulation of policy and decision making,” said Peter Griffith, director of the Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and coordinator of the North American Carbon Program. “By allowing non-specialists to see changes in carbon dioxide emissions in time and across broad areas, we’re helping them to understand critical information for climate change policy decisions.”

Vulcan Project data and maps will complement observations from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on NASA’s Aqua spacecraft and the upcoming Orbiting Carbon Observatory, which is set to launch next week. This mission will use space-based instruments to precisely make the first global measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide with the accuracy and geographic coverage required to improve estimates of the sources and sinks of the greenhouse gas.

Gurney and colleagues now have a second phase of NASA-funded work underway to create similar inventories of carbon dioxide emissions for Canada and Mexico.

NASA Carbon Emissions Map