I thought asphalt was the ground material with the most give other than dirt, but scientists overseas have been working on cement with some "green" properties; carbon absorber properties to be exact.
Novacem, a fresh new startup company has actually concocted a cement that eats up carbon as it hardens! Novacem's revolutionary technology is based on magnesium silicates rather than limestone (calcium carbonate) as is used in traditional Portland cement.
The company has raised 1 million pounds ($1.7 million) to fund its work, underscoring the growing interest in eco-friendly construction ventures.
Novacem, a spin-out from Imperial College London, is one of a number of young companies tapping new technologies to reduce the cement industry's notoriously large carbon footprint.
Stuart Evans, Chairman of Novacem, said: "We are delighted to welcome our new shareholders. They will help us position the company as a dominant provider of carbon negative cement to the construction industry. We are assembling a world-class team and these funds will help us grow the team, complete an initial pilot plant before the end of 2009 and accelerate development and commercialisation."
"Forests, grasslands and oceans are absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere faster than ever but they are not keeping pace with rapidly rising emissions," says CSIRO scientist and co-chair of the Global Carbon Project, Dr Mike Raupach.
"While these natural CO2 sinks are a huge buffer against climate change, which would occur about twice as fast without them, they cannot be taken for granted."
Dr. Raupach and Swiss scientist, Dr Nicolas Gruber, co-chaired one of 43 sessions at the conference - Climate Change, Vulnerability of Carbon Sinks.
Dr. Raupach says concern about the vulnerability of carbon sinks is based on identifying several mechanisms that could cause the present stabilizing role of oceans and land to be weakened or even reversed.
"Such a change would have drastic consequences for the predicted magnitude or speed of climate change occurring and scientists will meet in Copenhagen to review and question the latest research from which advice can ultimately be provided to decision-makers."
Anthropogenic CO2 emissions have been growing about four times faster since 2000 than during the previous decade, despite efforts to curb emissions in a number of Kyoto Protocol signatory countries. Emissions from the combustion of fossil fuel and land use change reached 10 billion tones of carbon in 2007. Natural CO2 sinks are growing but slower than the atmospheric CO2 growth, which has been increasing at 2 ppm since 2000 or 33% faster than the previous 20 years.
Annual mean growth rate of atmospheric CO2 was 2.2 ppm per year in 2007 (up from 1.8 ppm in 2006), and above the 2.0 ppm average for the period 2000-2007. The average annual mean growth rate for the previous 20 years was about 1.5 ppm per year. This increase brought the atmospheric CO2 concentration to 383 ppm in 2007, 37% above the concentration at the start of the industrial revolution (about 280 ppm in 1750). The present concentration is the highest during the last 650,000 years and probably during the last 20 million years. [ppm = parts per million].
The Global Carbon Project (GCP) was established in 2001. The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes.
The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle. The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases.
The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, the World Climate Programme, the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas, under the Earth Systems Science Partnership.
One of the ideas was to Trap CO2 in Carbon Scrubbers...
Further intrigued am I.
Researchers at Columbia University say that soon they may have a working carbon scrubber which could take one ton of CO2 out of the air per day.
Which immediately made me wonder where they would then put the CO2. To which I found a response from the Columbia University researchers. "Klaus Lackner, a physicist at Columbia University in New York, and his colleagues have a few ideas, which they outlined in their patent application: the scrubber could be connected to greenhouses, where the CO2 would boost plant growth; or use it to grow algae, which could be used for fertilizer, food or fuel." It seems these folks have the answers.
The problem is that this scrubber costs $200,000 to make. And we all know how much money is floating around these days, or lack-there-of rather.
This particular machine is up for the $25K prize to be won at the Virgin Earth Challenge.
In other carbon related news, the city of Philadelphia is launching a new Carbon Offset Website. The site was built by The Energy Coordinating Agency which is a private, non-profit corporation dedicated to ensuring that low and moderate income people have access to safe, affordable and reliable sources of energy and water.
Plans to build a third runway at London's congested Heathrow Airport hit a snag Tuesday when Greenpeace and other environmental activists announced they had purchased a substantial plot of land where the planned runway would be built.
The group, which includes Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson and prominent comedian Alistair McGowan, announced Tuesday it had purchased a plot of land on ground earmarked for a proposed third runway at Europe's busiest airport.
Thompson, one of Britain's best-known actress, said she had joined the group that purchased the land because it was "hypocritical" for the government to promise to reduce greenhouse gases while greatly increasing air traffic capacity.
"I don't understand how any government remotely serious about committing to reversing climate change can even consider these ridiculous plans," she said, vowing that the new owners would move to the property and defend it if necessary.
John Sauven, director of Greenpeace, has this to say, "The legal owners of the site will block the runway at every stage through the planning process and in the courts," he said. "They will never sell the land to Spanish-owned airport operator BAA, and if it comes to it many thousands of people will be prepared to peacefully defend their field in person, standing in front of bulldozers and blocking construction."
Advocates say the new project would allow Heathrow to maintain its prominence as an international hub while opponents say it would scuttle Britain's ambitious plans to cut carbon emissions.
San Fransisco is installing a network of wireless sensors in the asphalt based on the "smart dust" technology to come out of UC Berkeley. Once in place, battery-operated "bumps" will not only relay information about open parking spots to drivers via street signs and smart phones, they'll also convey real-time information about congestion and traffic and flow to city planners.
Parking policy might seem like a minor matter, but the numbers tell a different story. Professor Donald Shoup, the godfather of parking reform, has conducted research showing that drivers cruising for parking are responsible for up to 30% of traffic in central business districts. In one small area studied, cruising burned an additional 47,000 gallons of gasoline per year.
Price increases inevitably encounter resistance from consumers. But if the promises of variable-price parking live up to the hype - reduced traffic, improved city services, and less time spent hunting for spots - this could end up being a change that residents demand.
The Energy Information Administration reported yesterday:
U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels increased by 1.6 percent in 2007. Factors that drove the emissions increase included weather conditions that increased the demand for heating and cooling services and a higher carbon intensity of electricity supply.
Total U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions have grown by 19.4 percent since 1990. Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions account for over 80 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
I found these stats to me particularly interesting and alarming. Though I will admit you cannot always believe what you read. Statistic especially can be skewed depending on the target audience and the presenter.
Even more interesting is what President Bush said about this topic last year after the EIA released data for 2006, "We are effectively confronting the important challenge of global climate change through regulations, public-private partnerships, incentives, and strong economic investment." lol.
Ann DeLaVergne spent time making her own, reusable envelopes via a sewing machine to help in preserving trees and using less paper. She eventually went on to patent ecoEnvelopes with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).
The envelopes zip closed, eliminate the need for a separate reply envelope, and are manufactured with paper from managed forests and contain up to 100 percent post-consumer waste content.
DeLaVergne used to be an organic farmer and beekeeper. The environment has always been important to her and she has spent a huge portion of her life devoted to being "green." The ecoEnvelope sort of became a passion and she took it under her wing, perfecting it and sharing it with the world. She received grants from the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance and the Eileen Fisher Foundation and won supporter after supporter, including the former CEO of one of the largest envelope manufacturers in the U.S.
The main objective of these envelopes is so businesses need not enclose an envelope inside your mailed bills and such. If you're not comfortable going paperless with billing then the least you can do is push for companies you deal with to use the environment friendly envelopes. As it stands right now 80 billions "reply" envelopes are sent each year in the U.S. alone and that is just unacceptable.
On February 20, 2008 the USPS finally decided they are going to take this green initiative and legally push the bill. The ecoEnvelopes have received a key National Customer Ruling from the U.S. Postal Service and this is VERY important. "The USPS National Customer Ruling is issued after an official testing and approval process. The ruling provides customers with increased confidence that ecoEnvelopes' unique designs meet the most stringent qualifications for use in the US mail."
"Eliminating return envelopes saves energy, water, and forest resources and reduces the carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Every one million ecoEnvelopes used saves an estimated 250 million BTUs of energy and 37,000 pounds of greenhouse gasses. All ecoEnvelopes are manufactured on certified papers from managed forests using up to 100% recycled content."
According to new data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft...
"Cassini has mapped about 20 percent of Titan's surface with radar. Several hundred lakes and seas have been observed, with each of several dozen estimated to contain more hydrocarbon liquid than Earth's oil and gas reserves. The dark dunes that run along the equator contain a volume of organics several hundred times larger than Earth's coal reserves."
The dark dunes that run along the equator contain a volume of organics several hundred times larger than Earth's coal reserves.
They only have 300 students. There is only one major to study. But don't be fooled, they are doing big things. The College of the Atlantic, in Bar Harbor is the first college to be carbon neutral.
According to CNN, "The private college said it has offset emissions of 2,488 tons over the past 15 months by investing in a greenhouse gas reduction project in Oregon. The cost: about $25,000." The plan in Oregon optimizes traffic lights to reduce car emissions while on the road, which I think is pretty amazing.
What does it mean to be carbon neutral? I had no idea until I read this article. But apparently if you are carbon neutral than you are offsetting carbon by as much as you release. So you are trying to reduce you total greenhouse gas footprint to zero.
The College of the Atlantic has been an inspiration to other educational institutions. There are now over 450 colleges and universities participating in "net-zero" pledges.
Just how porous is cement? 
