CO2

Centers, Projects & Initiatives

 

Researchers

Name Title Fields of interest
Juerg M. Matter Adjunct Senior Research Scientist Carbon Sequestration, Hydrogeophysics, Flow and Transport in Saturated Media
Wade McGillis Lamont Associate Research Professor
takahashi.jpg Taro Takahashi Ewing Lamont Research Professor CO2 cycling through oceans and atmosphere; industrial CO2 accumulation.
 

News items

  • Turning CO2 to Stone
    October 24, 2016

    Earth has limits to the amount of carbon dioxide in its atmosphere before the environment as we know it starts to change. Too much CO2 absorbed by the oceans makes the water more acidic. Too much in the atmosphere warms the planet. With emissions from our carbon-based economies rising, scientists at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory are developing way to prevent CO2 produced by power plants and industries from ever entering the atmosphere, and they are exploring ways to take CO2 out of the environment.

  • In a First, Iceland Power Plant Turns Carbon Emissions to Stone
    June 09, 2016

    Scientists and engineers working at a power plant in Iceland have shown for the first time that carbon dioxide emissions can be pumped into the earth and changed chemically to a solid within months—radically faster than anyone had predicted. The finding may help address a fear that so far has plagued the idea of capturing and storing CO2 underground: that emissions could seep back into the air or even explode out. 

  • Scientists Say Many Plants Don't Respond to Warming as Thought
    March 21, 2016

    Researchers have predicted that as the planet is warmed by human-produced CO2, plants may add to the emissions and amplify the warming. Now, the most comprehensive global study of its kind yet suggests that this effect has limits, and that increases in plant respiration may not be as big as previously estimated. It shows that rates of increase slow in an easily predictable way as temperatures mount, in every region of earth, from tropics to tundra.

  • Climate in the Peruvian Andes: From Early Humans to Modern Challenges
    June 06, 2013

    Twice humans have witnessed the wasting of snow and ice from Peru’s tallest volcano, Nevado Coropuna—In the waning of the last ice age, some 12,000 years ago, and today, as industrial carbon dioxide in the air raises temperatures again. As in the past, Coropuna’s retreating glaciers figure prominently in the lives of people below.

     

  • Tundra, Microbes and World Climate
    January 26, 2010

    O. Roger Anderson is a microbiologist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory who studies bacteria, amoebas, fungi and other microorganisms. Lately he has been thinking about how tiny organisms that inhabit the vast northern tundra regions could contribute to changing climate, since, like humans, they breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide.

  • Stalled Economy or Not, Record Year for CO2 Emissions
    November 17, 2009

    Each person on the planet produced 1.3 tons of carbon last year—an all-time high--despite a global recession that slowed the growth of fossil fuel emissions for the first time this decade, according to a report published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience. Emissions grew 2 percent last year, to total 8.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

  • Sea Change
    September 15, 2009

    The world’s oceans are growing more acidic as carbon emissions from the modern world are absorbed by the sea. A new film, “A Sea Change,” explores what this changing chemistry means for fish and the one billion people who rely on them for food. This first-ever documentary about ocean acidification is told through the eyes of a retired history teacher who reads about the problem in a piece in The New Yorker and is inspired to find out more. His quest takes him to Alaska, California, Washington and Norway to talk with oceanographers, climatologists and others.

  • CO2 Higher Today Than Last 2.1 Million Years
    June 18, 2009

    Researchers have reconstructed atmospheric carbon dioxide levels over the past 2.1 million years in the sharpest detail yet, shedding new light on its role in the earth’s cycles of cooling and warming.

  • Fighting Global Warming by Turning CO2 into Stone
    June 16, 2009

    A power plant in Iceland is set to become the first in the world to try turning carbon dioxide emissions into solid minerals underground, starting this September.

    In an $11 million pilot project, Reykjavik Energy will capture CO2 from its plant, dissolve the gas in water and inject it deep into volcanic basalt nearby. Over the nine-month study, some 2,000 tons of greenhouse gas will be treated.

  • Geologists Map Rocks to Soak CO2 From Air
    March 05, 2009

    6,000 Square Miles in U.S. Might Turn Emissions to Harmless Solids

    To slow global warming, scientists are exploring ways to pull carbon dioxide from the air and safely lock it away.

  • Rocks Could Be Harnessed To Sponge Vast Amounts Of Carbon Dioxide From Air
    November 05, 2008

    Proposed Method Would Speed Natural Reactions a Million Times

    Scientists say that a type of rock found at or near the surface in the Mideast nation of Oman and other areas around the world could be harnessed to soak up huge quantities of globe-warming carbon dioxide.

  • Amazon Outflow is Found to Power Ocean Capture of Carbon Dioxide
    July 23, 2008

    Nutrients washed out of the Amazon River are powering huge amounts of previously unexpected plant life far out to sea, thus trapping atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to a new study.

  • Climate Swings Have Brought Great CO2 Pulses Up From the Deep Sea
    May 14, 2007

     A study released on May 11, 2007 provides some of the first solid evidence that warming-induced changes in ocean circulation at the end of the last Ice Age caused vast quantities of ancient carbon dioxide to belch from the deep sea into the atmosphere. Scientists believe the carbon dioxide (CO2) releases helped propel the world into further warming.

  • Release of Carbon Dioxide From the Equatorial Pacific Ocean Intensified During the 1990s
    October 30, 2003

    The atmosphere and the oceans carry on an exchange of carbon dioxide (CO2), a major greenhouse gas. This is particularly significant in the equatorial Pacific Ocean because it is one of the most important yet highly variable natural source areas for the emission of CO2 to the atmosphere.

 

Videos

Turning CO2 into Stone The CarbFix Project in Iceland
Natural Variability and Anthropogenic Trends in the Ocean Carbon Sink
Ingassing and Outgassing of Terrestrial Carbon Earth Science Colloquium
Stashing CO2 In Rocks NPR Science Friday, Jan. 11, 2010
Igneous Rock Could Hold CO2 Clean Skies Network, LLC
Links between CO2 and Climate throughout Earth History Lamont Doherty's Earth Science Colloquium
Carbon Sequestration Research at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory
Carbon Sequestration in Deep-Sea Basalt Lamont Doherty's Earth Science Colloquium
scifribasalt.jpg Turning Carbon Dioxide Into Stone NPR Science Friday, July 18, 2008
 

 

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