All posts tagged: carbon

Why more coal is being burned more than ever as demand in China and India soars despite carbon emissions warnings | Science, Climate & Tech News

Why more coal is being burned more than ever as demand in China and India soars despite carbon emissions warnings | Science, Climate & Tech News

Published by skeptic

The world is set to use more coal than ever before, this year, because of high demand in Asia and despite the warnings over the harm that burning fossil fuels does to the planet, a report has said. Global demand for the fossil fuel is expected to hit a record 8.77 billion tonnes in 2024, and stay near that level for the next three years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday. Growth in renewables is forecast to drive down coal use in the longer term, but this year its impact will be more than offset by strong demand for the carbon-heavy resource in the two Asian giants. Demand in China, by far the world’s largest coal consumer, is likely to grow by 1% in 2024 to reach 4.9 billion tonnes, nearly a third higher than in the rest of the world combined. The country is set to import 500 million tonnes, more than double the previous import record. One in every three tonnes of coal used worldwide is burned at a power plant …

5 Best Carbon Steel Pans For Every Budget (2024)

5 Best Carbon Steel Pans For Every Budget (2024)

Published by skeptic

Sometimes in this wild life you stumble upon a rabbit hole that ends up being more like a vast chasm. Such is the state of interest and appreciation for the world of carbon steel pans. One might think this humble node of cookery might be overlooked in favor of heritage-credited cast iron, utilitarian nonstick, or trending hexagon hybrid pan technologies. You would be wrong; carbon steel is no also-ran, no runner-up. There is an intense, rabid fandom for this style of cookware that shocked even me, and I write about, like, mineral water influencers. From a busy subreddit to a secret world of obsessive home and professional chefs to in-demand artisan carbon steel craftsmen who sell their wares by raffle ticket, the dedication and appreciation to carbon steel runs deep. It is a roaring American foodways subculture that has gone largely uninvestigated by the wider press, and I can only hope to scratch the surface of doing it justice with this guide (after the surface is scratched, of course, I advise reseasoning the pan with …

Energy-hungry AI is already harming health – and it’s getting worse

Energy-hungry AI is already harming health – and it’s getting worse

Published by skeptic

Servers fill a data centre in Texas Paul Moseley/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images As data centres consume even more energy to serve the intensive computing needs of artificial intelligence, they could contribute to an estimated 600,000 asthma cases and 1300 premature deaths per year by 2030 – accounting for more than one third of asthma deaths annually in the US. “Public health impacts are direct and tangible impacts on people, and these impacts are substantial and not limited to a small radius of where data centres operate,” says Shaolei Ren at the University of California, Riverside. “They affect people across the country.” Ren and his colleagues, including Adam Wierman at the California Institute of Technology, developed those estimates based on data centres’ projected electricity demand, which produces additional emissions and contributes to air pollution. For instance, the electricity usage required for training large AI models could produce air pollutants equivalent to driving a passenger car for more than 10,000 roundtrips between Los Angeles and New York City, according to the researchers. To …

Microscopic ‘eating and pooping machines’ are great at sucking up carbon

Microscopic ‘eating and pooping machines’ are great at sucking up carbon

Published by skeptic

The petite poop from the world’s smallest animals might help suck some greenhouse gasses out of the Earth’s atmosphere.  While testing a new experimental method with clay dust in a lab, a team of scientists found that the clay can help zooplankton grab onto more heat-trapping carbon dioxide. The animals could then deposit that carbon in the deepest depths of the ocean where it is stored as feces. The experimental method is not ready to be deployed into the ocean just yet, but is detailed in a study published December 10 in the journal Scientific Reports. The study’s findings will also be presented today at the American Geophysical Union’s annual conference. NEWSLETTER SIGN UP Phytoplankton feeding the zooplankton The new technique begins with large blooms of microscopic plants called phytoplankton. These  phytoplankton blooms remove roughly 150 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year when they perform photosynthesis. They convert the greenhouse gas into organic carbon particulates that they use to eat and flourish.   However, when the phytoplankton die, marine bacteria can eat …

Melting permafrost makes ‘drunken forests’ store less carbon

Melting permafrost makes ‘drunken forests’ store less carbon

Published by skeptic

A drunken forest in Alaska, where trees are tilting or collapsing to the ground due to permafrost melt Global Warming Images/Shutterstock Melting permafrost in Arctic forests may cause trees to tilt to the side in ways that slow their growth, reducing the amount of carbon these “drunken forests” store. The northern hemisphere’s boreal forest is a vast ecosystem that contains up to 40 per cent of all carbon stored on land. Rapid warming of the Arctic due to climate change is already affecting how these forests grow and thus how much carbon they store. It is also melting… Source link

UK expands trading scheme to further reduce carbon emissions

UK expands trading scheme to further reduce carbon emissions

Published by skeptic

The UK will continue to reduce carbon emissions as part of proposals to expand the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which will help the country meet its net zero goals while supporting economic growth. The UK ETS Authority is consulting on proposals to expand the scheme to reduce carbon emissions from the maritime sector and recognise non-pipeline transport methods, such as shipping, road or rail, for moving captured carbon into geological storage. The UK ETS Authority has also confirmed that it will make changes to free allocation rules to ensure participants who permanently cease their operations cannot benefit from surplus free allowances in their final year. The changes include an exemption for sites ceasing activity to decarbonise. This will help support the UK ETS’s objective of incentivising a move to more carbon-efficient production across the UK’s industrial sectors. UK ETS: Helping to reduce carbon emissions across key sectors Launched in 2021, the UK ETS helps the UK reduce carbon emissions across aviation, power, and industry by setting a limit on emissions. The scheme allocates allowances …

Trump’s power plays overshadow global climate summit – POLITICO

Trump’s power plays overshadow global climate summit – POLITICO

Published by Sam

“I think there’s a common understanding and agreement that he’s going to start with Paris and then look at other ideas,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss evolving policy considerations. Mandy Gunasekara, who was chief of staff at the EPA during the last Trump administration, has advocated that Trump follow through this time on leaving the climate framework. “I think people have a clear picture of how the U.N. process is misused to tie the hands of domestic policy,” she said, inaccurately characterizing the non-binding commitments that countries make under the Paris climate agreement. “And that … creates the type of policy motivation necessary to consider withdrawing from the UNFCCC versus just a derivative issue like the Paris Agreement.” The U.S. under Trump may still find ways to participate in global climate conversations, particularly with regard to deploying new technology such as advanced nuclear power or carbon capture, said U.S. Energy Association CEO Mark Menezes, who was No. 2 in Trump’s previous Energy Department. But contributing new sums of money to developing …

Viruses may help store vast amounts of carbon in soil

Viruses may help store vast amounts of carbon in soil

Published by skeptic

A bacteriophage virus can kill microbes, influencing what happens to the carbon their bodies contain nobeastsofierce Science/Alamy Viruses that infect other microbes may influence the movement of more than a billion tonnes of carbon in soil, according to the first attempt at quantifying their role in one of the planet’s main carbon stores. “While there are still gaps, we’re understanding that viruses can have a huge impact on soil carbon,” says Kirsten Hofmockel at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state. Earth’s soils are packed with… Source link

Complex form of carbon spotted outside solar system for first time

Complex form of carbon spotted outside solar system for first time

Published by skeptic

Compounds called pyrenes have been detected in the Taurus molecular cloud ESO A complex form of carbon crucial for life on Earth has been spotted outside the solar system for the first time. Its presence helps show how the compounds needed for life could come from space. The most abundant form of carbon in the universe is that found in carbon monoxide gas, but it is unclear how this turns into the complex compounds found in biological life, which typically contain stronger chemical bonds. Astronomers have spotted asteroids – such as Ryugu – containing compounds with these stronger carbon bonds. It is thought that such space rocks may have delivered the ingredients for life to Earth, but the original source of these carbon-based compounds still isn’t well understood. Now, Brett McGuire at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his colleagues have looked for and detected a complex, carbon-based molecule called pyrene in a star-forming region called the Taurus molecular cloud. At 430 light years away, this is one of the closest such clouds to Earth. …

Plants and Forests Absorbed Almost No Carbon Last Year, Shocking Climate Scientists

Plants and Forests Absorbed Almost No Carbon Last Year, Shocking Climate Scientists

Published by José

“We are lulled into a comfort zone — we cannot really see the crisis.” Sink Collapse The Earth’s natural defenses against carbon emissions could be breaking down. Our planet has historically been home to natural “carbon sinks,” or sites like forests and oceans that naturally remove potentially atmosphere-damaging carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But as The Guardian reports, preliminary data from an international team of researchers shows that 2023 — the hottest year on record — saw an alarming lapse in the Earth’s innate ability to swallow and neutralize carbon, with trees, soil, and plants together absorbing next to no carbon. In other words: in 2023, it seems that some of Earth’s natural carbon sinks stopped working. As The Guardian notes, the study’s findings echo other research, such as a 2023 study on zooplankton, which found that fast-melting ocean glaciers could hinder the ocean’s ability to capture and repurpose carbon. Humankind’s still-overwhelming reliance on fossil fuels has put a huge amount of stress on natural carbon sinks to clean up after us. And while the …