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Greenhouse grass: Do lawns make global warming worse?

January 19th, 2010, 11:56 am by

Keeping our lawns green in Southern California increases greenhouse gas emissions, rather than absorbing them, a new UC Irvine study shows. townsend-smallgoc

The finding contradicts the hopeful notion that all those expanses of grass might help curb climate change by acting as a “sink” for greenhouse gas emissions, mainly carbon dioxide.

“Even though an area might be the color green, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily good for the environment,” said Amy Townsend-Small, a UC Irvine Earth System Science researcher and lead author of the turf grass study. “The color and the concept are not the same.”

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Posted in: Climate change • Green at home • pollution • • | 4 Comments »

Is the ocean choking on greenhouse gas?

January 13th, 2010, 4:00 pm by
primeauuci

Francois Primeau; UC Irvine photo by Steve Zylius

Earth’s oceans may be losing their ability to absorb carbon dioxide, the worst of the human-generated greenhouse gases believed to drive global warming, according to a new study co-authored by a UC Irvine scientist.

If the study’s conclusions are right, implications for climate change could be serious. The oceans normally act as a giant sponge, mopping up excess carbon from the atmosphere; reducing that ability could, under some scenarios, hasten the planet’s rise in temperature, which scientists say is already being accelerated by human emissions.

“If we keep burning fossil fuels at the same rate, a bigger fraction will accumulate in the atmosphere,” said UC Irvine physical oceanographer Francois Primeau. “The ocean becomes more acidic, diminishing the ocean’s ability to take up the carbon.”

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Posted in: Climate change • • | 3 Comments »

Climate question? A UCI scientist answers

January 11th, 2010, 12:12 pm by
prather2

Michael Prather

We’ve been inviting readers to send us their questions about climate change, and seeking answers from climate scientists at UC Irvine. Michael Prather, who specializes in climate modeling and for years has been an author of reports from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, answers a question about greenhouse gases from Jim Craig (blog name Jack Kreg).

Craig, 59, is an aeronautical engineer who lives in Lake Forest. His question focuses on man-made vs. natural carbon dioxide, or CO2.

Please send us your questions about climate change by commenting on this blog post or e-mailing reporter Pat Brennan directly at pbrennan@ocregister.com.

Question: We are led to believe that global warming is caused by man made CO2, yet CO2 and other greenhouse gases are also produced in nature. EPA is careful to skirt this issue by using the term “man-made greenhouse gas emissions.” They pass right over the fact that GH gases are naturally produced. It is said that GH gases are in fact produced and consumed in nature, like plant life converting CO2 into O2, e.g. CO2 consumption. Doesn’t the ocean absorb huge amounts of CO2?

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Posted in: Climate change • • • • | 6 Comments »

Climate questions? Scientists answer

December 22nd, 2009, 1:52 pm by

Assertions of human-driven climate change are fraught with enough political, cultural and legal questions to fuel a parallel universe of blog and e-mail warfare. Sometimes obscured by these angry exchanges is the science itself — a quest to explain an incredibly intricate and dynamic system, earth’s climate, and its behavior over thousands, even millions, of years. Decades End Climate

We’ve asked researchers at UC Irvine’s acclaimed Earth System Science department to provide answers to readers’ questions about the science behind global warming. But we need your help.

Please send us your questions, either by commenting at the end of this article or sending an e-mail to pbrennan@ocregister.com. Each week, we’ll ask the scientists to answer one of the more interesting science-based questions we receive.

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Posted in: Climate change • • | 15 Comments »

Chapman team finds diversity, protests at climate summit

December 14th, 2009, 12:37 pm by

For one member of a team from Chapman University, the first impression of a climate summit in Copenhagen was one of human diversity. DENMARK CLIMATE SUMMIT

“Delegates from 192 countries are here, and the place looks like a mini-United Nations, with folks in saris, robes, Native American garb and all sorts of national headgear mingling with the business suits,” wrote Mary Platt, communications director for Chapman who is attending the climate summit with six professors. The group is keeping a blog of their experiences.

The team’s first full day at the conference, Platt reported Monday, included listening to a presentation from one of the professors, Menas Kafatos, who was a panelist at a side event held by the Korea Green Foundation. Kafatos is Chapman’s vice chancellor for special projects and dean of Chapman’s Schmid College of Science.

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Posted in: Climate change • Green events • Green politics • • | Comments Off

2009 called one of top 10 warmest years

December 8th, 2009, 11:42 am by

Federal climate watchers say 2009 is on track to be one of the top 10 warmest years ever recorded, with global surface temperatures “well above average.” noaaustempsgoc1

The just-released analysis by scientists at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., also shows that temperatures in the United States alone also will be above average for 2009.

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Posted in: Climate change • • | 28 Comments »

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