Speaker Thursday April 3

The next lecture features Mr. Tom Boden, Director of the World Data Center for Atmospheric Trace Gases and of the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center of the Environmental Sciences Division in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After graduating from the Institute of Environmental Sciences with a concentration in Applied Ecology, Mr. Boden and his family moved to Tennessee where he began work with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His professional interests include archival, analysis, documentation, and distribution of global climate-change-related databases, or the trends in atmospheric trace gas concentrations and CO2 emissions resulting from fossil fuel burning. The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center is the primary climate-change data and information analysis center of the U.S. Department of Energy. CDIAC's data holdings include records of the concentrations of carbon dioxide and other radiatively active gases in the atmosphere; the role of the terrestrial biosphere and the oceans in the biogeochemical cycles of greenhouse gases; emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere; long-term climate trends; the effects of elevated carbon dioxide on vegetation; and the vulnerability of coastal areas to rising sea level. Mr. Boden’s lecture serves as continuation of the in-depth analysis and discussion of the topic of global climate change which has been at the forefront of recent Institute of Environmental Sciences’ events such as the Willeke Frontiers in Environmental Sciences’ lecture held last year whose guest lecturer was IPCC panelist, Dr. Neil Adger, and this past week’s Focus the Nation event during which nine Miami professors from seven different departments discussed climate change from the perspective of his or her discipline.

Discussion of Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle"

NEW DATE: Tuesday, April 22, 7:00pm King Library 320.

On Earth Day we will discuss "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" from Barbara Kingsolver and Steven Hopp, and Camille Kingsolver. This book chronicles one family's year long endeavor to eat only locally grown foods.

Join us for a lively discussion of the issues raised in this book. Can eating locally have an impact on global climate change? Will eating locally result in better health?

FREE BOOKS are available to those who participate in the discussion. A limited amount of copies are available, and they will go to those who request them early.

Join the Discussion and Request a Free Book
Borrow a copy of the book from OhioLINK (if free copies are no longer available)

More about Barbara Kingsolver
The "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" website

Focus The Nation Event

Miami University will be hosting its Focus the Nation teach-in on the last Friday of March, the schedule of speakers can be found here. Prior to the teach-in, Thursday night at 6 pm in 112 Pearson Hall, the Climate Expert for Duke Energy, Kevin Leahy, will come to speak about the research and work being done in alternative energies and how many large corporations and companies are making an effort to "go green."

The original Focus the Nation event took place across the US on January 31st when schools, colleges, universities, religious organizations, non-profit groups and private companies spent the day providing a "teach-in" for their communities about Climate Change.


For more information, visit the official website: http://focusthenation.org/ or contact the student organizers for the "Focus Miami" event, Teresa Zaffiro, zaffirtb@muohio.edu or Kay Reichenbach, reicheke@muohio.edu.

Discussion of Michael Crichton's State of Fear

On February 26th at 7:00pm, we will be discussing Michael Crichton's State of Fear. Free books are available to those who wish to participate...just let Eric know.

Book info from Amazon
Info from Crichton's site

Kangaroos to combat global warming?

A different possibility for animal gas..... (Full article from BBC)

BBC NEWS kangaroos offer clue to global warming .Internet on-line. Available from <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2023371.stm>. [12/7/2007, 2007].

By Richard Black BBC science correspondent

Scientists in Australia are investigating whether kangaroos could help combat global warming.

Australia's sheep and cattle produce huge amounts of methane, an important greenhouse gas - but kangaroos do not.

Researchers believe it might be possible to use bacteria found in the stomachs of kangaroos to reduce methane output from cows and sheep.

Methane emissions from farm animals account for about 15% of Australia's greenhouse gas production.

Yet kangaroos, feeding on the same sorts of grass, produce no methane at all.

Nature hosts Climate Change speakers in Second Life

To coincide with the UN Climate Change Conference, Nature is hosting a series of speakers in Second Life. Four speakers will talk about Climate issues in the next two weeks, including:

Tues 4th Dec, 6pm GMT, 10am PST, SLT
Tara LaForce, Imperial College, on her research into carbon capture and storage

Thurs 6th Dec, 6pm GMT, 10am PST, SLT
Professor Euan Nisbet, Royal Holloway College, London

Tues 11th Dec, 6pm GMT, 10am PST, SLT
Dr Simon Buckle, Director of Policy at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change

Thur 13th Dec, 5pm GMT, 9am PST, SLT
George Monbiot, Guardian Columnist and author of Heat: How we can stop the planet burning

See http://network.nature.com/blogs/user/joannascott for more info.

Baking Soda to curb warming?

Baking soda could help save planet - CNN.com.Internet on-line. Available from <http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/11/29/climate.change.soda/index.html>. [11/29/2007, 2007].

By Megan Miller

(PopSci.com) -- In recent months, PopSci has covered various scientists' plans to curb global warming through carbon sequestration, mainly by feeding it to algae to make biofuel, or burying it underground.

Skymine uses the carbon dioxide emitted from smokestacks to make baking soda.

Today, a company called Skyonic announced a novel new system, Skymine, which uses the carbon dioxide emitted from smokestacks to make baking soda. According to Skyonic CEO Joe David Jones, the system will be powered by waste heat from factories, and will produce food-grade baking soda.

Last year, the utility company Luminant installed a pilot version of the system at its Big Brown Steam Electric Station in Fairfield, Texas.

There's still quite a bit of work to be done to make the current system viable on a large scale, but the baking soda idea offers solutions to some of the economic problems posed by other carbon sequestration methods.

For starters, according to Jones, the stuff can be sold for home or industrial use or buried harmlessly in landfills or abandoned mines.

Jones apparently got the idea for the SkyMine system while watching a Discovery Channel show with his kids. He pulled out an old college science textbook and immediately turned to a passage about converting C02 to baking soda. He'd found it interesting years ago and highlighted it for future reference.