carbon dioxide and othergreenhouse gases in earth’s ... Vulcan Project uses geo-referenced, hourly...
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Learn about environmental issues, their effect on your community and actions for your involvement. Reconnect with your environment SP19371 Check out these websites to learn more: www.esrl.noaa.gov/ www.scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/ www.climate.gov/#education www.seagrant.psu.edu/extension/ climatechange.htm www.sos.noaa.gov/datasets/ Long-term data is invaluable in studying and understanding how organisms will respond to present-day abrupt climate change. Studies that have recorded data over the last several decades, and in some cases centuries, allow scientists to make comparisons with data collected today. Newspapers share lots of data every day of the year. Find examples of information that can be useful for comparing future events to those that happened today. Can solar panels provide ener- gy for your home even in cloudy Erie? Students that attended the Earth Action Sustainable Energy Youth Training Day held recently at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center now know that they cer- tainly can. They also know answers for many other questions about en- ergy; this information can lead to better choices than fossil fuels, which are finite and add too much CO2 to the earth’s natural carbon cycle upsetting the balance. Stu- dents also learned about other renewable energy sources like wind, geothermal and biofuels. Each school that attended the event made up five trivia questions on information they had learned that day and then were divided into two groups of schools with six teams compet- ing in each division to answer the questions. JoAnna Connell Elementary School students were the victors in their division. ANNA MCCARTNEY, a communications and education specialist for Pennsylvania Sea Grant, can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]. Student teams compete on energy knowledge CONTRIBUTED PHOTO JoAnna Connell students win trivia competition about sustainable energy. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/NOAA NOAA engineer Paul Fukumura-Sawada captures air near NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, using one of the many methods to measure carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in earth’s atmosphere. Scientists have continuously monitored and collected data related to climate change since the 1950s at this site when Keeling began his measurements. An impeccable half-century record that measures the steep rise of carbon dioxide in our at- mosphere stands unchallenged. In 1958, a young researcher named Charles David Keeling started measuring CO2 to answer the question many scientists had been asking: Did the increasing use of fossil fuels cause a rise in atmospheric CO2? Scientists knew that CO2 was produced whenever humans burned wood, coal, oil and gas. What was not clear was what happened to all the extra CO2 produced by a car- bon source that had been buried for millions of years. Since no instruments were available to accurately mea- sure this colorless gas, Keeling designed them and developed the techniques that allowed him to achieve great precision in his measurements. Until his death in 2005, Keeling spent his life working for the Scripps In- stitution of Oceanography, mea- suring steadily increasing levels of worldwide CO2 and learning about its effect on our climate and ocean systems. The daily measurements be- gun by Keeling at a weather sta- tion atop Hawaii’s Mauna Loa became known as the Keeling Curve. Among his most insight- ful discoveries and one of the many indicators of the Keeling Curve’s sensitivity and accuracy was the data that showed CO2 levels drop slightly during the northern hemisphere spring and summer and go back up in the fall and winter. Keeling explained this de- tailed seasonal “breathing” of the planet. Plants take up CO2 as they sprout leaves and grow over the summer, but as the plants shed their leaves and grow dor- mant in the winter they give off CO2. Research is painstaking His work ranks very high among the achievements of 20th- century science because it trans- formed scientific understanding of humanity’s relationship with the earth. Keeling is unforgetta- ble because his painstaking years of research and innovation show that the peak level of CO2 grew higher each year since he began taking measurements, and that it was rising quickly. Chemical tests conducted by Keeling and others proved the increase was caused by human combustion of fossil fuels. While many people have nev- er heard of Keeling or his son, Ralph, who has taken over his father’s research, the trend of rising carbon dioxide is undeni- able. Climatologists around the world use his trustworthy mea- surements to explain the carbon cycle and the dangerous changes caused by too much CO2. Isolated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean at more than 11,000 feet above sea level, the site is an ideal location to measure atmo- spheric CO2. Keeling positioned the CO2 sensors at Mauna Loa to sample incoming breezes directly from the ocean, unaffected by hu- man activities, vegetation or oth- er factors on the island. There are no local influences such as facto- ries or forests that might boost or drop carbon dioxide within this vicinity. While volcanoes are consider- able sources of carbon dioxide, the sampling location was chosen to be normally upwind of Mauna Loa’s vent. Keeling also perfected methods to detect and correct for intervals when the wind blew the wrong way. Trends confirmed Measurements at about 100 other worldwide monitoring sites confirm the long-term trend shown by the Keeling Curve, but none have a record as long as Mauna Loa. Without Keeling’s longer record, awareness of glob- al change would have come more slowly. And sudden events, such as the marked fluctuations in global CO2 uptake after the 1991 volcanic eruption of Mount Pina- tubo, may have looked very dif- ferent in the context of a 15-year rather than a 50-year record. By the 1970s, the relationship between rising CO2 levels and fossil-fuel burning was firmly es- tablished. Simple and unambigu- ous, Keeling’s work changed our view of the world. And once he had established the importance of CO2 measurements, the gov- ernment began making its own, in the early 1970s. Today, both Na- tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Scripps op- erate a monitoring program at Mauna Loa and other sites. Each of these records of measurements serves as a quality check on the other. Researchers have been able to put the Keeling measurements into a broader context. Bubbles of ancient air trapped by glaciers and ice sheets have been tested, and they show that over the past 800,000 years, the amount of car- bon dioxide in the air fluctuates between roughly 200 and 300 parts per million. Just before the Industrial Revolution, the level was about 280 parts per million and had been there for several thousand years. Heed scientists’ research Keeling’s earliest measure- ments of the air in the mid-1950s show the background level for carbon dioxide by then was about 310 parts per million. Today the levels have grown to 390 parts per million. The Keeling Curve provides indirect evidence that a little less than half of the hu- man-produced carbon dioxide emissions remain in the sky and about a third enters the oceans, dissolving into seawater at the ocean surface. In 1996, Keeling and his Scripps’ colleagues showed that the amplitude of the Northern Hemispheric atmospheric CO2 seasonal cycles has been increas- ing, providing independent sup- port for the conclusion that the growing season is beginning earlier, perhaps in response to global warming. This unlikely hero and thou- sands of scientists around the world at Scripps, NOAA and other organizations have been working tirelessly for little pay or recognition to do the research and sound the alarms that the rest of the population needs to understand and take seriously. Unless we listen to these scien- tists and their warnings, we will remain ill equipped to combat the problems caused by an ever- growing population that remains dependent on fossil fuels. ANNA MCCARTNEY, a communications and education specialist for Pennsylvania Sea Grant, can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]. Ahead of the Curve Scientist’s work links fossil fuels, carbon emissions By ANNA MCCARTNEY Contributing writer Although carbon dioxide is invisible, the Vulcan Project, directed by Dr. Kevin Gurney at Purdue University, has created a tool to help visualize it. In the image above, shades of white mark the density of CO2 emitted from electric power in the U.S. on June 17, 2007. The animated version of the graphic covers a week’s worth of emis- sions; they cycle up and down as electricity demand rises during the day and drops at night. The image clearly shows more CO2 emissions from power plants in the central and eastern US, where much more coal is burned than in the western U.S. More than 80 percent of CO2 emissions associated with electric power generation in the U.S. are due to coal burning. The Vulcan Project uses geo- referenced, hourly CO2 emis- sions from all major emitting sources to model the nationwide pattern. The CO2’s dispersion into the atmosphere is simulat- ed using a meteorology model developed at Colorado State University (RAMS, the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System). From 1000 A.D. to about 1750 AD, carbon dioxide levels in the atmospherehoveredbetween275 and 285 parts per million (ppm), and then began to increase. Ini- tially, the increase was largely due to the burning of coal, which was the primary energy source for the Industrial Revolution. Since then, oil and natural gas, the other major fossil fuels, have also become sources of growing CO2 levels. Fossil fuel burning remains the predominant source of the historical increase in atmo- spheric CO2 concentrations which added about 100 ppm (36 percent) over the last 250 years to the CO2 levels of the preindus- trial era. But other factors contribute as well. For example, the wide- spread deforestation in some ar- eas adds CO2 to the atmosphere if the trees are burned. Like fos- sil fuels, they release this green- house gas. Trees left to rot also release CO2, albeit more slowly. And because living trees absorb CO2 in the process of photosyn- thesis, the cutting of forests elim- inates a source of CO2 removal, so the gas builds up more quickly than it might otherwise. Some manufacturing pro- cesses also add CO2 to the atmo- sphere. Cement manufacturing is one; it not only requires energy, which often comes from fossil- fuels, but the chemical reactions involved in its manufacture re- lease this greenhouse gas to the atmosphere. ANNA MCCARTNEY, a communications and education specialist for Pennsylvania Sea Grant, can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]. Find out where, when levels of CO2 increase By ANNA MCCARTNEY Contributing writer By ANNA MCCARTNEY Contributing writer What: Presque Isle After Dark:Take a winter night hike on a full moon night. For ages 10 and older. Where: Meet at the PineTree Pavilion parking lot, beach 9 When: Jan. 19 at 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Cost: No fees or registration For more information, contact: Ray Bierbower at 833-0793 LEARN MORE This page brought to you by: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/Climate Central The “Keeling Curve,” a record of carbon dioxide concentrations started by the Charles Keeling in 1958, is probably one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the 20th century. It provided the first clear evidence that CO2 was accumulating in the atmosphere as the result of mankind’s use of fossil fuels. The small annual zigzag visible on the curve is timed with the seasons. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/Climate Central CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Charles Keeling with his son Ralph in 1989. Many committed scientists like the Keelings are unsung and underfinanced, but their work brings us important discoveries about how the world is changing under the increasingly global influence of humans. Tuesday, January 11, 2011 | Erie Times-News | GoErie.com | 3D
Transcript of carbon dioxide and othergreenhouse gases in earth’s ... Vulcan Project uses geo-referenced, hourly...
Learn about environmental issues, their effect on your community and actions for your involvement.
Reconnect with your environmentSP19371
Check out these websitesto learn more:
www.esrl.noaa.gov/www.scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/www.climate.gov/#educationwww.seagrant.psu.edu/extension/
climatechange.htmwww.sos.noaa.gov/datasets/
Long-term data is invaluable in studying and understanding howorganisms will respond to present-day abrupt climate change. Studies thathave recorded data over the lastseveral decades, and in some casescenturies, allow scientists to makecomparisons with datacollected today.
Newspapers share lots ofdata every day of the year. Findexamples of information thatcan be useful for comparingfuture events to those thathappened today.
Cansolarpanelsprovideener-gy for your home even in cloudyErie? Students that attended theEarthActionSustainableEnergyYouthTrainingDayheldrecentlyattheTomRidgeEnvironmentalCenter now know that they cer-tainly can.
They also know answers formany other questions about en-ergy; thisinformationcanleadtobetter choices than fossil fuels,whicharefiniteandaddtoomuchCO2totheearth’snaturalcarboncycle upsetting the balance. Stu-dents also learned about other
renewable energy sources likewind, geothermal and biofuels.
Each school that attendedthe event made up five triviaquestions on information theyhad learned that day and thenwere divided into two groups ofschools with six teams compet-ing in each division to answerthe questions.
JoAnna Connell ElementarySchool students were the victorsin their division.
A N N A M C C A R T N E Y, acommunications and educationspecialist for Pennsylvania SeaGrant, can be reached by e-mail [email protected].
Student teams competeon energy knowledge
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
JoAnna Connell students win trivia competition about sustainableenergy.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/NOAA
NOAA engineer Paul Fukumura-Sawada captures air near NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, using one of the many methods to measurecarbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in earth’s atmosphere. Scientists have continuously monitored and collected data related to climatechange since the 1950s at this site when Keeling began his measurements.
An impeccable half-centuryrecord that measures the steeprise of carbon dioxide in our at-mosphere stands unchallenged.
In 1958, a young researchernamed Charles David KeelingstartedmeasuringCO2toanswerthequestionmanyscientistshadbeen asking: Did the increasinguse of fossil fuels cause a risein atmospheric CO2? Scientistsknew that CO2 was producedwheneverhumansburnedwood,coal, oil and gas. What was notclear was what happened to alltheextraCO2producedbyacar-bonsourcethathadbeenburiedfor millions of years.
Since no instruments wereavailable to accurately mea-sure this colorless gas, Keelingdesigned them and developedthe techniques that allowedhim to achieve great precisionin his measurements. Until hisdeath in 2005, Keeling spent hislife working for the Scripps In-stitution of Oceanography, mea-suringsteadilyincreasinglevelsof worldwide CO2 and learningabout its effect on our climateand ocean systems.
The daily measurements be-gun by Keeling at a weather sta-tion atop Hawaii’s Mauna Loabecame known as the KeelingCurve. Among his most insight-ful discoveries and one of themany indicators of the KeelingCurve’s sensitivity and accuracywas the data that showed CO2levels drop slightly during thenorthern hemisphere springand summer and go back up inthe fall and winter.
Keeling explained this de-tailed seasonal “breathing” oftheplanet.PlantstakeupCO2astheysproutleavesandgrowoverthe summer, but as the plantsshed their leaves and grow dor-mant in the winter they give offCO2.
Research is painstaking
His work ranks very highamong the achievements of 20th-century science because it trans-formed scientific understandingof humanity’s relationship withthe earth. Keeling is unforgetta-blebecausehispainstakingyearsof research and innovation showthat the peak level of CO2 grewhigher each year since he begantaking measurements, and thatit was rising quickly. Chemicaltests conducted by Keeling andothers proved the increase wascaused by human combustion offossil fuels.
While many people have nev-er heard of Keeling or his son,Ralph, who has taken over hisfather’s research, the trend of
rising carbon dioxide is undeni-able. Climatologists around theworld use his trustworthy mea-surements to explain the carboncycleandthedangerouschangescaused by too much CO2.
Isolated in the middle of thePacificOceanatmorethan11,000feetabovesealevel, thesiteisanideal location to measure atmo-spheric CO2. Keeling positionedthe CO2 sensors at Mauna Loa tosampleincomingbreezesdirectlyfromtheocean,unaffectedbyhu-man activities, vegetation or oth-erfactorsontheisland.Therearenolocal influencessuchasfacto-riesorforests thatmightboostordrop carbon dioxide within thisvicinity.
While volcanoes are consider-able sources of carbon dioxide,thesamplinglocationwaschosen
to be normally upwind of MaunaLoa’svent.Keelingalsoperfectedmethodstodetectandcorrectforintervalswhenthewindblewthewrong way.
Trends confirmed
Measurements at about 100other worldwide monitoringsitesconfirmthelong-termtrendshown by the Keeling Curve, butnone have a record as long asMauna Loa. Without Keeling’slongerrecord,awarenessofglob-alchangewouldhavecomemoreslowly. And sudden events, suchas the marked fluctuations inglobal CO2 uptake after the 1991volcaniceruptionofMountPina-tubo, may have looked very dif-ferent in the context of a 15-yearrather than a 50-year record.
By the 1970s, the relationshipbetween rising CO2 levels andfossil-fuel burning was firmly es-tablished.Simpleandunambigu-ous, Keeling’s work changed ourview of the world. And once hehad established the importanceof CO2 measurements, the gov-ernment began making its own,intheearly1970s.Today,bothNa-tional Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration and Scripps op-erate a monitoring program atMauna Loa and other sites. Eachoftheserecordsofmeasurementsserves as a quality check on theother.
Researchershavebeenabletoput the Keeling measurementsinto a broader context. Bubblesofancientairtrappedbyglaciersand ice sheets have been tested,and they show that over the past800,000 years, the amount of car-bon dioxide in the air fluctuatesbetween roughly 200 and 300partspermillion.JustbeforetheIndustrial Revolution, the levelwas about 280 parts per millionand had been there for severalthousand years.
Heed scientists’ research
Keeling’s earliest measure-ments of the air in the mid-1950sshow the background level forcarbondioxidebythenwasabout310 parts per million. Today thelevels have grown to 390 partsper million. The Keeling Curveprovides indirect evidence thata little less than half of the hu-man-produced carbon dioxideemissions remain in the sky andabout a third enters the oceans,dissolving into seawater at theocean surface.
In 1996, Keeling and hisScripps’ colleagues showed thatthe amplitude of the NorthernHemispheric atmospheric CO2seasonalcycleshasbeenincreas-ing, providing independent sup-port for the conclusion that thegrowing season is beginningearlier, perhaps in response toglobal warming.
This unlikely hero and thou-sands of scientists around theworld at Scripps, NOAA andother organizations have beenworking tirelessly for little payor recognition to do the researchand sound the alarms that therest of the population needs tounderstand and take seriously.Unless we listen to these scien-tists and their warnings, we willremain ill equipped to combatthe problems caused by an ever-growingpopulationthatremainsdependent on fossil fuels.
A N N A M C C A R T N E Y, acommunications and educationspecialist for Pennsylvania SeaGrant, can be reached by e-mail [email protected].
Ahead of the CurveScientist’s work links fossil fuels, carbon emissions
By ANNA MCCARTNEYContributing writer
Although carbon dioxide isinvisible, the Vulcan Project,directed by Dr. Kevin Gurney atPurdue University, has createda tool to help visualize it.
In the image above, shades ofwhite mark the density of CO2emitted from electric power inthe U.S. on June 17, 2007. Theanimated version of the graphiccovers a week’s worth of emis-sions; they cycle up and down aselectricity demand rises duringthe day and drops at night.
TheimageclearlyshowsmoreCO2emissionsfrompowerplantsin the central and eastern US,wheremuchmorecoalisburnedthan in the western U.S. Morethan80percentofCO2emissionsassociated with electric powergeneration in the U.S. are dueto coal burning.
The Vulcan Project uses geo-referenced, hourly CO2 emis-sions from all major emittingsourcestomodelthenationwidepattern. The CO2’s dispersioninto the atmosphere is simulat-ed using a meteorology modeldeveloped at Colorado StateUniversity (RAMS, the RegionalAtmospheric Modeling System).
From 1000 A.D. to about 1750AD, carbon dioxide levels in theatmospherehoveredbetween275and 285 parts per million (ppm),and then began to increase. Ini-tially, the increase was largelyduetotheburningofcoal,which
was the primary energy sourcefor the Industrial Revolution.Since then, oil and natural gas,theothermajorfossil fuels,havealso become sources of growingCO2 levels.
Fossil fuel burning remainsthe predominant source of thehistorical increase in atmo-spheric CO2 concentrationswhich added about 100 ppm (36percent) over the last 250 yearstotheCO2levelsofthepreindus-trial era.
But other factors contributeas well. For example, the wide-spreaddeforestationinsomear-eas adds CO2 to the atmosphereif the trees are burned. Like fos-sil fuels, they release this green-house gas. Trees left to rot alsorelease CO2, albeit more slowly.And because living trees absorbCO2 in the process of photosyn-thesis, thecuttingofforestselim-inates a source of CO2 removal,sothegasbuildsupmorequicklythan it might otherwise.
Some manufacturing pro-cesses also add CO2 to the atmo-sphere.Cementmanufacturingisone; it not only requires energy,which often comes from fossil-fuels,butthechemicalreactionsinvolved in its manufacture re-lease this greenhouse gas to theatmosphere.
A N N A M C C A R T N E Y, acommunications and educationspecialist for Pennsylvania SeaGrant, can be reached by e-mail [email protected].
Find out where, whenlevels of CO2 increaseBy ANNA MCCARTNEYContributing writer
By ANNA MCCARTNEYContributing writer
What: Presque Isle After Dark: Take a winter night hike on a fullmoon night. For ages 10 and older.Where: Meet at the Pine Tree Pavilion parking lot, beach 9When: Jan. 19 at 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.Cost: No fees or registrationFor more information, contact: Ray Bierbower at 833-0793
LeArn more
This page brought to you by:
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/Climate Central
The “Keeling Curve,” a record of carbon dioxide concentrationsstarted by the Charles Keeling in 1958, is probably one of the greatestscientific discoveries of the 20th century. It provided the first clearevidence that CO2 was accumulating in the atmosphere as the result ofmankind’s use of fossil fuels. The small annual zigzag visible on thecurve is timed with the seasons.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/Climate Central
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Charles Keeling with his son Ralph in 1989. Many committedscientists like the Keelings are unsung and underfinanced, but theirwork brings us important discoveries about how the world is changingunder the increasingly global influence of humans.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 | Erie Times-News | GoErie.com | 3D
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