CO2

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels now stand at 387 parts per million.

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Ben Grumbles, Assistant Administrator for Water, Environmental Protection Agency, is interviewed about the linkages between energy, water and climate change. That includes, particularly, a regulation EPA has proposed aimed at protecting drinking water around the areas where carbon dioxide would be stored underground through future carbon sequestration technology.

As climate change become a more central issue for people and governments around the globe, a lot of people are looking for solutions - fast solutions. If there were a quick and inexpensive way to dramatically reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, we should go for it right?

If you can believe it, Shell Oil company provides two plausible future scenarios in which oil supply drops in either case. No surprise there. The biggest surprise is the fact that such a company would release these scenarios to the public to help usher in more renewable energy. Perhaps that is no surprise either. Take a look!

These days, many experts are saying that we’re not going to be able to stop climate change just by decreasing emissions. To dig our way out of this hole, they say, we’re actually going to need to take carbon dioxide out of the air. A new breed of entrepreneur has sprung up, saying "If we have this CO2, why don't we do something useful with it!?"

Maybe it was the martinis I had already drunk, or the beers he had already drunk, or maybe it’s just plain impossible to have a discussion about Biofuels without getting heated. But boy, did I have a doozy on Friday.

Somehow the discussion then veered away from Biofuels specifically and towards agriculture and GHG emissions in general. At which point, he presented his most sensational argument yet...

Many of the things that we do increase the emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Whenever we burn a fossil fuel to drive our car, heat our homes, make hot water, or provide the electricity, we inject it into the atmosphere. Other industrial activities, such as manufacturing cement, emit significant amounts as well. What if we could take the CO2 from a power plant, and sequester it into commonly used, and quite resilient, products?

All it takes is a smokestack spewing CO2, and some algae. Read all about it.

Heavy oils, in abundant supply, are no doubt going to make up a large part of our oil consumption in the not so far future. They are very hard to produce, and generally require heat to mobilize the sticky, tar-like substance. The most commonly used method is steam flooding, where steam is injected into the oil reservoir. But it takes energy to create the steam, which is typically produced by burning gas. Voila: a large carbon footprint.

Leonardo DiCaprio is getting into the act, promoting a new green credit card. Do you know what your options are when it comes to green credit cards?

Allen Schaefer, Executive Director, Diesel Technology Forum, is interviewed on advancements in clean diesel transportation, advantages of clean diesel as a fuel source and the differences between clean diesel and biodiesel.

While it's true that many organisations are looking to reduce their carbon footprint, it's also the case that much of the green hype is unfounded. Besides, there's plenty of evidence that planting-a-tree missions are a misguided approach to reducing carbon emissions.

In preparation for the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) Policy and Technical Group Business Meetings to be held in Cape Town, South Africa on April 13-17, 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy provides a briefing to interested parties on current CSLF activities and the U.S. position on CSLF issues.

New evidence explains how biofuel production is often resulting in an increase in carbon emissions compared to fossil fuels - not a decrease. Could biofuels be causing more problems than they solve?

Washington, DC - Eric Schaeffer, President, Environmental Integrity Project, is interviewed about an analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data, which finds carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants saw the largest rise in a decade.