The energy giant BP and Martek Biosciences, a Maryland based company that uses micro algae to produce oil-based nutritional and dietary supplements, signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) earlier this month to produce microbial oils for biofuels applications.

Under this agreement, BP will provide the cash — up to $10 million for just the first phase — and Martek will provide the research expertise in algae fermentation technology. The idea is to develop a cost effective method of converting basic sugars derived from biomass into lipids, or microbial oils, with fermentation microorganisms. Chemical and thermocatalytic processes would then convert the oils into various types of biofuels.

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They are everywhere. We can’t see them, but little by little they are destroying our way of life. But for the first time ever, they are being caught red-handed. They are greenhouse gases. And today Deutsche Bank unveiled the world’s first real-time carbon counter to measure these microscopic murderers.

Deutsche Bank’s 70-foot-tall digital billboard was unveiled today at 33rd Street and 7th Avenue in the heart of New York City. It stands right outside Madison Square Garden and Penn Station, displaying the running total of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Kevin Parker, Global Head of Deutsche Bank’s Asset Management division (DeAM) and a member of Deutsche Bank’s Group Executive Committee, switched on the counter at a ceremony this morning.

The belief that information acts as a catalyst for action plays the muse for the Carbon Counter’s creation. The number displayed on the scientifically-valid Counter is based on measurements that come from scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The measurements track all long-lived greenhouse gases covered under the Kyoto and Montreal Protocols (24 gases excluding ozone and aerosols).

“It will be a huge task to bring global emissions under control and my hope is that putting this data in the public view will spur both governments and markets to move us more quickly to a low-carbon economy,” said Parker.

“The Carbon Counter is a bold new experiment in communicating climate science to the public,” said Ronald Prinn, Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT. “With climate change in the news around the world, it is useful to have an up-to-date estimate of a single integrating number expressing the trends in the long-lived greenhouse gases contributing to that change. This number can help convey how fast these greenhouse gases are increasing, and the progress, or lack thereof, in slowing the rate of increase. The number on the Counter is based on global measurements. It shows the total estimated tonnage of these gases expressed as their equivalent amounts of carbon dioxide, with seasonal and other natural cyclical variations removed to more clearly reveal the underlying long term trends driven by human and other activity. It is indeed a number to watch.”

With carbon in the atmosphere reaching an 800,000 year high, it is indeed a number to watch. The number on the counter shows that the current quantity of long-lived greenhouse gases is 3.64 trillion metric tons. And that number is increasing by approximately 2 billion metric tons per month, a frightening amount.

“The science shows that unless this trend is addressed now there is a growing likelihood of increased warming and more severe disruptions for economies and societies,” said Parker. Scientists tend to agree with Parker. Scientists predict that if this trend continues there is an increasing probability of macro-climatic shifts that will create a self-sustaining cycle of rapid climate change.

This post contains additional media. Click here to view the full post.

The process of tracking current carbon levels relies on regular measurement of long-lived greenhouse gas concentration data from equipment operated in dozens of locations around the world by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA’s Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment. The total is re-calibrated every month as new data is brought in.

Because the goal of the Counter is to raise awareness and decrease carbon emissions, the Counter is carbon neutral. It uses low-risk carbon credits (CERs) to offset its energy use while the digital numbers are generated by 40,960 low-energy light emitting diodes (LEDs). It is possible track the number 24/7 at know-the-number.com and to receive Carbon Counter updates via twitter. A widget is also available for download.

In 2008 Deutsche Bank set a target to reduce its global carbon emissions by 20 percent annually and is committed to being carbon-neutral from 2013 onward.

Photo by Brandon Barrett, courtesy of Deutsche Bank

Tar sand, a source of non-conventional oil, consists of bitumen, a sticky, tar-like form of petroleum which is so thick and heavy that it must be heated or diluted before it will flow. Harvesting tar sand requires huge amounts of energy and water.

In addition to heavy water use, extraction of Alberta’s Athabasca oil sands also involves clear-cutting of the Boreal Forest, formation of toxic “tailings” lakes, habitat destruction of iconic species such as the woodland caribou, and up to five times higher greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil extraction. All of these factors lead Canada’s Environmental Defence to label tar sand development “the most destructive project on Earth.”

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What’s the problem?

J. Paul Padgett and collegues at Vanderbilt University and the University of Washington analysed the results obtained using 10 carbon footprint calculators from credible organisations including; American Forests, Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF), CarbonCounter,The Conservation Fund and the Environmental Impact Agency (EPA). Their results are published in the Environmental Impact Assessment Review 28 (2008). They identified the massive range refered to above, that ammounts to a difference of  180% between the lowest and highest figures and concluded that “Given their prevalence and potential influence, CO2 calculators can provide even greater public benefit by providing greater consistency and clarity.

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Monday evening, the UN’s top Climate Scientist, Rajendra Pachuari, will speak in London at a meeting organized by Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), urging people to fight global warming by taking meat off their menu.

Dr. Pachuari has recently been re-appointed to his second, six-year term as chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC collects and evaluates climate data for governments around the world, and was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in 2007, along with Al Gore. Dr. Pachuari told the BBC: “I want to highlight the fact that among options for mitigating climate change, changing diets is something one should consider.”

UN data says that meat production accounts for about 18% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, topping even transportation, which accounts for 13% of worldwide emissions. The UN included all aspects of meat production, when arriving at the 18% figure: clearing land, creation and transportation of fertilizers, burning fuels in farm vehicles, and the emissions coming directly from cows and sheep.

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Instead of acting upon it or even printing copies to president George Bush and his handlers, they tossed it in a cyber trash bin called Spam folder as if that was the only green thing to do.

Many months after Scott McClellan quit spinning for Dubya, climate watchers are crying foul that he never ever touched the seemingly hot subject in his recently released book, What Happened. But in his famous spins, he had blamed human activity - you and me - as responsible for global warming on more than one occasion.

Spin can be clever tomfoolery sometimes but the White House stance on global warming is well known and George W. Bush has never disappointed with his public statements that smack verily of official ignorance or pretense on the subject as an inconvenient truth.

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Aw, c’mon, pull my finger!

You’ve probably had that one pulled (pardon the pun) on you at least once in your life, and the old guy got a good laugh out of your response. It’s ok, old guys do strange things, I know.

Well, this isn’t about old guys, but sheep, cattle, deer and goats, the premier emitters of methane gas in the world. In this case, nature is “pulling the finger.”

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Image:   colros on Flickr under a  Creative Commons license

“The Carbon Counter is a bold new experiment in communicating climate science to the public,” said Ronald Prinn, Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT. “With climate change in the news around the world, it is useful to have an up-to-date estimate of a single integrating number expressing the trends in the long-lived greenhouse gases contributing to that change. This number can help convey how fast these greenhouse gases are increasing, and the progress, or lack thereof, in slowing the rate of increase. The number on the Counter is based on global measurements. It shows the total estimated tonnage of these gases expressed as their equivalent amounts of carbon dioxide, with seasonal and other natural cyclical variations removed to more clearly reveal the underlying long term trends driven by human and other activity. It is indeed a number to watch.”

With carbon in the atmosphere reaching an 800,000 year high, it is indeed a number to watch. The number on the counter shows that the current quantity of long-lived greenhouse gases is 3.64 trillion metric tons. And that number is increasing by approximately 2 billion metric tons per month, a frightening amount.

“The science shows that unless this trend is addressed now there is a growing likelihood of increased warming and more severe disruptions for economies and societies,” said Parker. Scientists tend to agree with Parker. Scientists predict that if this trend continues there is an increasing probability of macro-climatic shifts that will create a self-sustaining cycle of rapid climate change.

This post contains additional media. Click here to view the full post.

The process of tracking current carbon levels relies on regular measurement of long-lived greenhouse gas concentration data from equipment operated in dozens of locations around the world by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA’s Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment. The total is re-calibrated every month as new data is brought in.

Because the goal of the Counter is to raise awareness and decrease carbon emissions, the Counter is carbon neutral. It uses low-risk carbon credits (CERs) to offset its energy use while the digital numbers are generated by 40,960 low-energy light emitting diodes (LEDs). It is possible track the number 24/7 at know-the-number.com and to receive Carbon Counter updates via twitter. A widget is also available for download.

In 2008 Deutsche Bank set a target to reduce its global carbon emissions by 20 percent annually and is committed to being carbon-neutral from 2013 onward.

Photo by Brandon Barrett, courtesy of Deutsche Bank

The announcement came in an email released by Public Employees forEnvironmental Responsibility (PEER), saying Johnson has bowed to a Congressional request for the information, following the controversy sparked by his controversial decision.

PEER’s Executive Director Jeff Ruch is quoted as saying: “What made Johnson’s decision so striking is that for months he said he was basing it on the scientific and legal merits and then did the precise opposite. One employee told me ‘I am ashamed to admit that I work at EPA’ and another asked ‘What am I supposed to tell my children when they ask me what I am doing to fight global warming?’”

Johnson has said he will not attend a field hearing of Senator Barbara Boxer’s (D-CA), Senate Environment & Public Works Committee on January 10th in Los Angeles. His appearance before Congress, however, promises to be contentious at best.

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You can now buy a camera that can detect greenhouse gases. Infrared-imaging company FLIR Systems recently revealed the GasfindIR-LW, a thermal imaging camera that can detect sulfur hexalfouride SF6 and 20 other environmentally perilous gasses. If you ever wanted to hunt down acetylchloride; allyl flouride; or Freons 11, 12, 112, 113, or 114, the GasfindIR-LW is just the device you need.

Continue reading: Crave Cnet

Random Good Stuff

Editor's note: If I remember correctly, sulfur hexafluoride was my high school chemistry teacher's favorite prank (other than dribbling a bowling ball in the classroom). It does the opposite of helium when you inhale it; your voice gets very deep and scary. Not that he wasn't scary anyway…

“The Carbon Counter is a bold new experiment in communicating climate science to the public,” said Ronald Prinn, Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT. “With climate change in the news around the world, it is useful to have an up-to-date estimate of a single integrating number expressing the trends in the long-lived greenhouse gases contributing to that change. This number can help convey how fast these greenhouse gases are increasing, and the progress, or lack thereof, in slowing the rate of increase. The number on the Counter is based on global measurements. It shows the total estimated tonnage of these gases expressed as their equivalent amounts of carbon dioxide, with seasonal and other natural cyclical variations removed to more clearly reveal the underlying long term trends driven by human and other activity. It is indeed a number to watch.”

With carbon in the atmosphere reaching an 800,000 year high, it is indeed a number to watch. The number on the counter shows that the current quantity of long-lived greenhouse gases is 3.64 trillion metric tons. And that number is increasing by approximately 2 billion metric tons per month, a frightening amount.

“The science shows that unless this trend is addressed now there is a growing likelihood of increased warming and more severe disruptions for economies and societies,” said Parker. Scientists tend to agree with Parker. Scientists predict that if this trend continues there is an increasing probability of macro-climatic shifts that will create a self-sustaining cycle of rapid climate change.

This post contains additional media. Click here to view the full post.

The process of tracking current carbon levels relies on regular measurement of long-lived greenhouse gas concentration data from equipment operated in dozens of locations around the world by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA’s Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment. The total is re-calibrated every month as new data is brought in.

Because the goal of the Counter is to raise awareness and decrease carbon emissions, the Counter is carbon neutral. It uses low-risk carbon credits (CERs) to offset its energy use while the digital numbers are generated by 40,960 low-energy light emitting diodes (LEDs). It is possible track the number 24/7 at know-the-number.com and to receive Carbon Counter updates via twitter. A widget is also available for download.

In 2008 Deutsche Bank set a target to reduce its global carbon emissions by 20 percent annually and is committed to being carbon-neutral from 2013 onward.

Photo by Brandon Barrett, courtesy of Deutsche Bank