By now, we’re all familiar with the idea that our lives, from the food we eat to the cars we drive, have carbon footprints. Flying comes under special scrutiny both because jets pump carbon directly into the upper atmosphere and because it is often volitional — we fly for business instead of teleconferencing and jet to (more…)

If natural gas is a “bridge fuel,” what’s on the other side?

This question kept popping up in recent weeks as a series of reports predicted gas would become a growing part of the global energy mix in the coming decades. Gas, while cleaner burning than coal, still falls short of the low-emissions scenarios envisioned by world leaders, (more…)

Fast action on certain pollutants such as black carbon, ground-level ozone and methane may help limit near term global temperature rise and significantly increase the chances of keeping temperature rise below 3.6 degrees F. Protecting the near-term climate is central to significantly cutting the risk (more…)

What if the ever-increasing amounts of carbon dioxide that are heating up the atmosphere could be used to produce an abundant supply of liquid fuels? The U.S. government and private labs are pursuing that Holy Grail of renewable energy — but for now the cost of large-scale production is prohibitive. (more…)

Systems designed to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere will have a “very limited role” in the fight against global warming, according to a new study by the American Physical Society.

While it is technically feasible to pull CO2 from ambient air — as opposed to capturing and (more…)

This finding will leave you breathless. A physiology professor at the University of Milan concluded that four men running, walking and riding bicycles emit more carbon dioxide than hybrid cars. He also compared it to gas and diesel cars, which beat the men in terms of carbon emissions. (more…)

New research suggests that woodlands, forests and other terrestrial ecosystems are able to sequester up to 40% of the US’s carbon emissions that is caused by burning fossil fuels. The study, which was carried out in the 48 lower states provides evidence that these ecosystems can absorb far more carbon than first thought as long as these regions are not subjected to (more…)

Attacks on climate change regulations, thawing permafrost in National Parks, and attempts to cut funding for climate research. Climate change has had some bad news this month. There’s at least one (sort of) bright spot, though: the state of US greenhouse gas emissions. Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency (more…)

Forecasting what the Earth’s climate might look like a century from now has long presented a huge challenge to climate scientists. But better understanding of the climate system, improved observations of the current climate, and rapidly improving computing power are slowly leading to more reliable methods. (more…)

If industrial carbon dioxide emissions continue unabated, atmospheric concentrations of CO2 could by 2100 reach levels not seen in at least 30 million years, when Earth’s average temperature was 25 to 30 degrees F warmer than today, according to an analysis by a U.S. scientist.

Writing in the journal, Science, Jeffrey Kiehl (more…)