Cool, dry winds of death

The scientific community has generally accepted the fact that exhaust emissions contribute to global warming, but a new study shows they might actually impair green power solutions like wind-turbine power-by slowing down the wind. A group of researchers at Stanford University and NASA found that the aerosol particles from vehicle exhaust and other pollutant emissions absorb and scatter enough solar radiation to significantly cool the Earth’s surface. This reduces the atmospheric convection that helps power low-altitude winds. Dr. Mark Z. Jacobson, a co-author of the study, determined that this effect reduces wind speed over California by about eight per cent. Wind power accounts for 1.5 per cent of California’s energy generation, according to a Standford press release. Slower winds and cooler ground temperatures also reduce water evaporation, meaning fewer rain clouds form. When they do, the water tends to condense onto airborne pollutant particles instead of gathering into large enough raindrops to fall. Jacobson warns that, in the state of California alone, the annual rainfall lost to the effects of aerosol pollutants is enough to flood Prince Edward Island under one foot of water.

-André Bovee-Begun

When red ‘meats’ green

Juicy, tender, and succulent cuts of meat are the delight of every carnivore. But scientists are reporting stats that will make your meat-lover’s heart break. Livestock production accounts for nine per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions that are related to human consumption. Most meat and meat products come from large-scale operations where animals either graze off the land or are enclosed and given processed feed. Neither method is particularly good for the environment. Of all the land on earth, grazing takes up 26 per cent, and producing crops to feed livestock takes up another third of all arable land. Rather than using crops to feed humans directly, forests are being cleared to support livestock, a problem that is particularly extreme in the Amazon Basin, where 70 per cent of forested land has been cleared for livestock. Deforestation results in a number of regional problems: land degradation, pollution in water and air, and a dramatic loss of biodiversity. But there’s more. Manure from livestock operations account for 67 per cent of human-related emissions of nitrous oxide-a potent greenhouse gas. Interestingly, the collective digestive systems of cattle and other animals alone contribute 37 per cent of human-related methane gas emissions. Yes, cows are changing our climate, one fart at a time.

Source: Stanford University news service

-Sandy Huen

Fiery ice: handle with caution

The U.S. Department of Energy has possibly come across a untapped source of fossil fuels: gas hydrate, ice that has trapped methane gas within its molecular structure. Under Alaska’s permafrost and seabeds lie an estimated 200,000 trillion cubic feet of this material, dubbed “ice that burns.” Should technology render the methane within the crystals useable, this resource would more than double the U.S.’s natural gas resources. But the dangers of extracting the gas hydrate include landslides, increasing levels of methane in the atmosphere from escaped gas, displacing breathable oxygen, and endangering nearby populations.

Source: National Energy Technology Laboratory news service

-S.H.