carbon dioxide – Desdemona Despair

Approximate depths of subsurface activities. Median (31 m) and 95th (130 m) percentile of water wells (Jasechko & Perrone, 2021); minimum depth of CCS in sedimentary basins (800 m) (Benson & Cole, 2008); shallow limit of oil and gas development (including injection and disposal; 600 m) (Lemay, 2008); geothermal (>2,000 m) (Nardini, 2022). The upper temperature limit for life (80–121°C) (Bar-On et al., 2018; Magnabosco et al., 2018) approximately corresponds to the lowest temperatures required for geothermal power generation (Nardini, 2022; Tester et al., 2021). Circulation of meteoric water occurs up to depths of a few km (McIntosh & Ferguson, 2021) but fluxes are small below 500 m and residence times range from tens of thousands to millions of years (Ferguson et al., 2023; Jasechko et al., 2017; Warr et al., 2021). Graphic: Ferguson, et al., 2024 / Earth’s Future

April 29, 2024

Human activities have an intense impact on Earth’s deep subsurface fluid flow – “We know more about the surface of Mars than we do about water, rocks, and life deep beneath our feet”

By Niranjana Rajalakshmi 23 April 2024 (University of Arizona) – The impact of human activities – such as greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation – on Earth’s surface have been well-studied. Now, hydrology researchers from the University of Arizona have investigated how humans impact Earth’s deep subsurface, a zone that lies hundreds of meters to several […]

Effects of experimental open-top chamber (OTC) warming on ecosystem respiration (ER). Experimental warming increased ER across the tundra biome but the magnitude of the response varied across time and space. Effect of OTC warming on ER Hedges’ SMD calculated as (mean ER of the warmed plots − mean ER of the control plots)/pooled standard deviation across the 136 growing season datasets (that is, unique experiment × ER measurement year combinations). On the top of the graph, a blue diamond shows the mean estimate (est. = 0.57 and 95% CI [0.44–0.70], error bars) of the ER response across the 136 datasets, as well as the Q value testing for heterogeneity and P value from the meta-analysis. Black dots represent ER Hedges’ SMDs of individual datasets and 95% CIs (black error bars) in alphabetical and chronological order. Individual datasets are represented by the experiment ID in black (left) and ER measurement year (right) in a colour scale ranging from dark blue, light blue, orange to red which represents increasingly longer warming duration at the time of ER measurements. Experiments with more than 1 year of ER data are grouped. See Supplementary Tables 1, 2 and 4 for details on the datasets and SMD and CI values. The black dashed vertical line (SMD = 0) represents no change in ER with warming whereas the areas to the right and left of it represent increased (SMD > 0) versus decreased (SMD

April 28, 2024

Understanding climate warming impacts on carbon release from the tundra – “We anticipate an increase in respiration across the whole Arctic and alpine tundra”

By Sara-Lena Brännström 17 April 2024 (Umeå University) – A team of over 70 scientists from different countries used so called open-top chambers (OTCs) to experimentally simulate the effects of warming on 28 tundra sites around the world. OTCs basically serve as mini-greenhouses, blocking wind and trapping heat to create local warming. The warming experiments […]

Global energy-related CO2 emissions and their annual change, 1900-2023. Total energy-related CO2 emissions increased by 1.1 percent in 2023. Far from falling rapidly – as is required to meet the global climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement – CO2 emissions reached a new record high of 37.4 Gt in 2023. This estimate is based on the IEA’s detailed, cutting-edge region-by-region and fuel-by-fuel analysis of the latest official national energy data, supplemented by data on economic and weather conditions. Graphic: IEA

April 28, 2024

IEA: CO2 emissions in 2023 reached record high – Weather effects and continued Covid-19 reopening played a significant role in driving emissions in 2023

March 2024 (IEA) – CO2 Emissions in 2023 provides a complete picture of energy-related emissions in 2023. The report finds that clean energy growth has limited the rise in global emissions, with 2023 registering an increase of 1.1 percent. Weather effects and continued Covid-19 reopening played a significant role in driving emissions in 2023. Advanced economies saw […]

Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2021 and trend since 2000, including inventory-based Land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) CO2 in GtCO2e (top) and Per capita GHG emissions in 2021 and trend since 2000, including inventory-based LULUCF CO2 in tCO2e/capita (bottom). Graphic: UNEP

December 29, 2023

Petrostates planning huge expansion of fossil fuels, says UN report – “These plans throw humanity’s future into question. Governments must stop saying one thing and doing another.”

By Damian Carrington 8 November 2023 (The Guardian) – The world’s fossil fuel producers are planning expansions that would blow the planet’s carbon budget twice over, a UN report has found. Experts called the plans “insanity” which “throw humanity’s future into question”. The energy plans of the petrostates contradicted their climate policies and pledges, the report said. […]

A person points at a stack of trays holding treated limestone, used to absorb CO2 from the air, at Heirloom’s new plant, in Tracy, California, in this handout picture obtained by Reuters on 9 November 2023. Photo: Heirloom Carbon / REUTERS

December 3, 2023

Why carbon capture is no easy solution to climate change – “Not all technologies are going to be possible in all locations”

By Leah Douglas 27 November 2023 (Reuters) – Technologies that capture carbon dioxide emissions to keep them from the atmosphere are central to the climate strategies of many world governments as they seek to follow through on international commitments to decarbonize by mid-century. But they are also expensive, unproven at scale, and can be hard […]

The Bald Mountain Wildfire burns in the Grande Prairie Forest Area in Alberta on 12 May 2023. Government of Alberta Fire Service / Canadian Press / AP

September 10, 2023

Forests are no longer our climate friends – “As extreme as this year’s wildfire emissions have been, they are just the latest escalation in a multi-decade flood of CO₂ pouring out of Canada’s ‘managed’ forests and forestry”

By David Wallace-Wells 6 September 2023 (The New York Times) – Canadian wildfires have this year burned a land area larger than 104 of the world’s 195 countries. The carbon dioxide released by them so far is estimated to be nearly 1.5 billion tons — more than twice as much as Canada releases through transportation, […]

CAMS Daily total cumulative carbon emissions from Canada wildfires in 2023, compared with emissions since 2003. Data for 2023 are current through 28 August 2023. Growth in fire emissions have surpassed 2014 to set a new record for the last two decades. Graphic: Mark Parrington / Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service

September 4, 2023

Wildfires in Canada’s Northwest Territories have released 97 megatons of carbon, 277 times what its people emit – Emissions from wildfires across Canada in 2023 vastly exceed the 2014 record

By Liny Lamberink 28 August 2023 (CBC News) – Wildfires in the N.W.T have emitted 97 megatonnes of carbon into the air so far this year — 277 times more than what was caused by humans in the territory back in 2021. Mark Parrington, a senior scientist working at the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), […]

Estimated energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2021 and 2050 by sector, in billions of metric tons. Data: IPCC AR6 Scenarios Database hosted by IIASA release 1.0 average / IPCC C3: “Likely below 2°C” scenarios; ExxonMobil analysis. Emissions do not contain industry process emissions or land use and natural sinks Graphic: ExxonMobil

September 3, 2023

ExxonMobil predicts climate efforts will fail – “Fossil fuels remain the most effective way to produce the massive amounts of energy needed to create and support the manufacturing, commercial transportation, and industrial sectors that drive modern economies”

By Maggie Harrison 1 September 2023 (Futurism) – According to Exxon Mobil, oil giant and one of the more prominent architects of our planet’s fossil fuel-laden doom, humanity is likely to fail its climate goals of halting a global temperature rise of two degrees Celsius by 2050. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Exxon published its grim prediction in […]

Changes of sea surface temperature (SST) gradient anomalies and the spatial distribution of SST to a changing CO2 pathway. (A) Time evolution of latitudinal gradient of sea surface temperature anomaly (unit: °C) in the SH (pink) from its PD value. (B) Same as (A) but for the NH (black), the North Pacific (NP; 120°E to 90°W, green dotted line), and the North Atlantic (NA; 70°W to 0°E, orange dashed line) sectors with the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) strength anomaly from its PD value (skyblue; unit: Sv). The SST gradient is determined by the SST differences from the tropics (0° to 15°) to the midlatitudes (45° to 60°) in each hemisphere. The AMOC strength is defined by averaging annual-mean Atlantic meridional ocean stream function within the latitudinal band from 35°N to 45°N at a depth of 1000 m. Note that the weakening of AMOC is upwards in the right axis in (B). All values are based on the ensemble mean of 28 members (subjected to an 11-year running mean), with their 1 SD ranges across the ensemble members marked with shading. (C to E) SST changes (unit: °C) for peak (2121–2160) minus early RU (2001–2040) periods, late RD (2241–2280) minus peak periods, and late RD minus early RU periods, respectively. Climatological SST in the PD climate (unit: °C) is contoured in (C) to (E). The hatched regions in (C) to (E) indicate where temperature changes are statistically insignificant at the 95% confidence level. The SH, NP, and NA sectors for the SST gradient in (A) and (B) are denoted by colored boxes in (C) to (E). Graphic: Kim, et al., 2023 / Science Advances

August 5, 2023

Removing carbon from Earth’s atmosphere may not “fix” climate change – Changes to atmospheric circulation caused by global warming may persist for centuries after CO2 concentrations decrease – “We cannot control nature. We cannot reverse the consequences that easily. We cannot fix nature.”

By Tereza Pultarova 28 July 2023 (Space.com) – Removing carbon from Earth’s atmosphere may not reverse devastating changes to weather patterns in vulnerable areas, a new study suggests. In the study, Korean researchers simulated how removing large quantities of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the air might affect the progress of local climate changes […]

Primary energy global consumption (left) and share of global primary energy by source (right), 2000-2022. Primary energy demand growth slowed in 2022, increasing by 1.1 percent, compared to 5.5 percent in 2021, and taking it to around 3 percent above the 2019 pre-COVID level. Consumption increased in all regions apart from Europe (-3.8 percent) and CIS (-5.8 percent). Renewables’ (excluding hydro) share of primary energy consumption reached 7.5 percent, an increase of nearly 1 percent over the previous year. Fossil fuel consumption as a percentage of primary energy remained steady at 82 percent. Graphic: Energy Institute

July 24, 2023

World energy system struggled in face of geopolitical and environmental crises in 2022 – Coal production reached record high – CO2 emissions reached record level – “We are still heading in the opposite direction to that required by the Paris Agreement”

26 June 2023 (EI) – The Energy Institute (EI) and partners KPMG and Kearney today released the 72nd annual edition of the Statistical Review of World Energy, presenting for the first time full global energy data for 2022. Five key themes emerge from the data EI President Juliet Davenport OBE HonFEI said: “The EI Statistical Review […]