35.5m yr old global cooling caused by sharp decline in CO2

A new research has found that prehistoric global cooling that started in Antarctica about 35.5 million years ago, was caused by a sharp drop in the carbon dioxide (CO2) levels.

Even after the continent of Antarctica had drifted to near its present location, its climate was subtropical. Then, 35.5 million years ago, ice formed on Antarctica in about 100,000 years, which is an "overnight" shift in geological terms.

"Our studies show that just over thirty-five million years ago, 'poof,' there was an ice sheet where there had been subtropical temperatures before," said Matthew Huber, assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue University.


Read the full story : 35.5m yr old global cooling caused by sharp decline in CO2

Cellulosic ethanol: Future Fuel compete with Gas

By 2030 in the U.S. Ethanol will replace gasoline by one-third of annual usage. The Joint study was released on Wednesday by Sandia National Laboratories and General Motors. Its amazing to see that 75 billion gallons of ethanol produced only from Cellulosic ethanol out of 90 billion gallons of it.

Cellulosic ethanol is a biofuel mainly produced from agricultural and forestry wastage like wood, non-edible parts of plants, grasses etc. It is a environment friendly and renewable energy for transportation fuel.

The difference between Cellulosic ethanol and Conventional ethanol :

Conventional ethanol obtained from edible parts of the food grains, which is usually less productive. Where as cellulosic ethanol can be obtained from non edible parts of food grains like cereal straws and corn stover or from dedicated crops.

Dedicated crops includes sugarcane, cotton woods and switch grass. These crops are raw material for biofuel energy. And all these crops are ability to re-grow with short term life cycle. Advantage is it allows to multiple harvesting without re-planting. These food raw materials are cheap and ample.

Cellulosic ethanol emits less carbon so directly reduces green house effect.

Resource :

Cellulosic Ethanol

View a slide show of Celunol's process.

Will Cellulosic Ethanol Take Off ?

Cellulosic ethanol could compete with gas, study says

Photosynthesis process viewed by taking Laser Snapshots

Now its possible to view and analyze the plants photosynthesis by taking flash on every minute activity of the process. Through this we can know how plant utilizes the sun energy in the process.

Researchers did this great thing by taking the laser snapshots. Shots taken per ten-thousandth of a billionth of a second.
During energy transfer, studied the function of electron.

This study helps to know how energy transfers between the systems. And how we can produce better, efficient solar cells for electronic devices which are major energy consumers.
The energy which plants are utilizing, makes protein to use electrons from the water to produce the sugar from carbon dioxide.

This study helps on wide application like in designing the efficient solar cells, electronic devices.

Resource : Photosynthesis viewed in a flash

Global Warming, bacteria threatens Coral health

There is real threat for coral health, mainly due to global warming and bacterial infection. Which is making life of coral worse.

Yellow band disease (YBD)-a bacterial infection that sickens coral colonies- is apparently getting worse with global warming sayresearchers, who have now identified the bacteria responsible for the disease. Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have reported isolating the bacteria that cause YBD: a group of four new Vibrio species, which combine with existing Vibrio on the coral to attack the zooxanthellae, which are the photosynthetic symbionts of corals.

YBD is characterised by a swath of pale-yellow or white lesions along the surface of an infected coral colony.

The discoloured band is a mark of death, indicating where the bacterial infection has killed the zooxanthellae. The coral host suffers from cellular damage and starves without its major energy source, and usually does not recover.

The study further indicated that due to temperature rise in the coastal and sea level making the infected Coral more destructive to over come this. Due to global warming these precious ocean species already coming to an extinct. Their is clear indication that life of ocean living organisms in a dangerous level.

Resource : Coral health

Save money and tree by reducing Computer power consumption

If you doesn't like to turn off your computer simply because you don't want to wait for the start up process. Then good option is to use the Power Options that a computer offers.

It is better to set up power options according to your needs and most recommanded set up is using the stand by or hibernate mode. If it is possible try to turnoff the monitor after every 15 or 30 minutes.

Stand By will use less power and when you are ready to continue working, it won't take long to startup again. This is recommended for your short breaks from work.

Both Stand By and Hibernate are good options to lower the power consumption of your computer. And avoid the using screen savers.

For laptop, turn off your wireless card if you are not using it, and reducing the brightness of your monitor. This can also help your battery last longer.



By reducing your computer's power consumption you will also reduce your energy bill and CO2 emissions. You will also be saving trees and helping the environment.

5 ways you can help to decrease power consumption on your computer

1. Blackle was created to provide a front end to Google, but with a black background. Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black.
2. CO2 Saver is a free toolbar released by Snap and is a lightweight application that runs in Windows. It adjusts your Windows power settings so that your computer, monitor and hard drive consumes less electricity when you’re not actively using them
3. If you don't feel comfortable messing with the Power Options, there is a software called Local Cooling. This software is completely free and it will optimize your computer's power consumption by using a more effective power save mode. It will also keep showing you how much energy and how many trees you have saved because of using that software. To download it please visit www.localcooling.com
4. Energy Star is an international standard for energy efficient consumer products.
5. Use LCD monitors. Some sources quote CRT monitors as consuming 250% more power than LCD screens of similar size.

Ancient Soil Renewal Technique Assists to fight Against Global Warming

Present, scientists, environmental groups and policymakers forming the next world climate agreement, see biochar not only as an important tool for renewal soils, but as a effective tool for fighting global warming.
Early inhabitants of the Amazon Basin fertilized their fields with burned menure organic materials-bio char-and changed one of the earth's most infertile soils into one of the most productive. These early environmentalist disappeared 500 years ago, but centuries later, their soil is still productive in organic matter and nutrients.

Biochar contains carbon rich product found by pyrolysis(transformation) of the biomass. In extremely predicting integrated new soil management technique, bio-char plays fundamental element. It is adequate to stopping slash-and-burn farming in the wet tropics by making nutrient-poor, acidic soils productive. Intrinsically it gives one of the few sustainable strategies to stop deforestation while at the same time removing hunger amongst existence farmers at the forest margins. Biochar doubles as a stable carbon sink, making it a key tool in the climate fight.

Christoph Steiner, a University of Georgia research scientist in the Faculty of Engineering, told the possibilities of biochar exists in its capability to isolate-catch and store-huge amounts of carbon while also displacing fossil fuel energy, effectively doubling its carbon affect.

Steiner stated that almost any kind of organic material-peanut shells, pine chips and even poultry litter-can be burned in air-tight conditions, a process called pyrolysis. The results are biochar, a highly porous charcoal that helps soil sustain nutrients and water, and gases and heat that can be used as energy.

Biochar can acquire up to 50 percent of the carbon stored in biomass and establishes a significant carbon sink, as long as renewable resources are used and biochar is used as a soil rectification.

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