How much CO2 from human activity enters the ocean?
LACOP measures levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at several observation sites.
Sequestration of CO2 generated by power plants by injection into deep aquifers (geological sequestration) has been proposed as a possible alternative for the reduction of excessive green
| Name | Title | Fields of interest | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juerg M. Matter | Adjunct Senior Research Scientist | Carbon Sequestration, Hydrogeophysics, Flow and Transport in Saturated Media | |
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Taro Takahashi | Ewing Lamont Research Professor | CO2 cycling through oceans and atmosphere; industrial CO2 accumulation. |
| Wade McGillis | Lamont Associate Research Professor |
Scientists and staff from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the Earth Institute share some of the ways they’re shrinking their carbon footprints.
A new website provides an interesting and easy-to-understand primer on the carbon cycle.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Turning CO2 into Stone | The CarbFix Project in Iceland |
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Natural Variability and Anthropogenic Trends in the Ocean Carbon Sink | |
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Ingassing and Outgassing of Terrestrial Carbon | Earth Science Colloquium |
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Stashing CO2 In Rocks | NPR Science Friday, Jan. 11, 2010 |
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Igneous Rock Could Hold CO2 | Clean Skies Network, LLC |
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Links between CO2 and Climate throughout Earth History | Lamont Doherty's Earth Science Colloquium |
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Carbon Sequestration Research | at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory |
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Carbon Sequestration in Deep-Sea Basalt | Lamont Doherty's Earth Science Colloquium |
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Turning Carbon Dioxide Into Stone | NPR Science Friday, July 18, 2008 |
