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Tag Archives: CO2
The Green Beaver
Green with envy? November 5, 2010 Caltech and MIT have a longstanding, somewhat friendly rivalry, but we have more than a few things in common. We’re both top-notch institutes of technology (hey, it’s in our names!), house fairly dismal athletics programs, have world champion Rubik’s cube clubs, and we share a mascot: the beaver! (supposedly due to the industrious engineering nature of the furry little critter) Beavers in arms… So why the Green beaver? Well, as it turns out, Caltech pulled ahead this year in its rankings as a “Green College”, earning an overall grade of A- vs. MIT’s B+. Not to be childish, but neener neener… I was recently alerted to our Green Beaver status as I absentmindedly flipped through an abandoned copy of our student newspaper (yes, we still have those old fashioned things), and read some interesting statistics. GreenReportCard.org is the first interactive website to provide in-depth … Continue reading
Science du Jour: Risk
The Game of Global Domination September 22, 2010 I went to a talk last Friday sponsored by the School of Communications here at American University. Some colleagues had alerted me to it and I was very intrigued by the topic, “The Perception of Risk: Why Our Fears So Often Don’t Match the Facts.” The seminar was given by David Ropeik, a consultant and author, whose new book “How Risky Is It, Really” looks at the interplay between perception and risk. Understanding how to effectively communicate scientific issues, like global climate change, is acutely dependent upon your audiences preconceived notions. Ropeik argues that when we start discussing a risk – for example: a clear, odorless liquid caused over 3,800 deaths in 2001, yet the government does not regulate its use – we stop thinking rationally. The example I used, of course, is drowning by water. An example that Ropeik used in … Continue reading
Science du Jour: Carbon Offsets?
Carbon offsets? September 3, 2010 Offset this! A few weeks ago I noticed a bumper sticker on the car in front of me. It said that “This car’s CO2 is balanced by TerraPass” so I looked closer, thinking that it was some sort of low-emmission/hybrid vehicle. It wasn’t. It was a fairly new Cadillac sedan. 3 days ago I saw another one. This time it was affixed to the back of a Honda Civic puling out of the local Trader Joe’s parking lot. And yesterday, on my way into lab, I saw yet another TerraPass bumper sticker on an older green truck! So what’s the deal? I went online and looked it up; TerraPass was launched in 2004 by Professor Karl T. Ulrich and is a company that sells “carbon offsets” to individuals and businesses to reduce carbon emission. This was a little confusing at first, but here’s how it … Continue reading
Much ado about CO2!
(part 4a of 5)
I’ll tell you where you can stick your carbon … Did you have fun poking the policy bear? We hope so! But, now that we’ve gotten that out of our system, we’re going to talk a little science. Specifically, we’re going to talk about the state of CO2 technologies. Because we here at ScienceGeist looooove science, we are going to break this monstrous discussion into two parts. (“Woooohoooo,” says the nerdy scientist typing this. Don’t fight it, dear reader! Embrace your inner-geek. You cannot resist zeolites, hydrides, and gelogical injections. Let passion for science wash over and purify you like the cooling waters of Lake Minnetonka.) Prince in the move Purple Rain Are you ready? Yes? Good! Let’s get started! What we are ultimately concerned with here are technologies that can turn CO2 into more useful chemicals (methanol, plastics, etc). And next week we will talk about different CO2 conversion … Continue reading
Much ado about CO2!
(part 3 of 5)
Poking the Policy Bear… In our first post we discussed the general issues of carbon dioxide(CO2), climate change and stated the dire need for new technologies to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. We followed with a more positive second post that illustrated how a massive effort could succeed in converting another inert gas nitrogen(N2) into useful chemicals. Before we delve into some of the emerging technologies for carbon sequestration and conversion, we thought it appropriate to look at our nation’s past and current climate change policy as well as the international policies in place. When I started researching U.S. and global policy on CO2 I thought that I’d look up the wording of some major bills, find out which agencies are involved and try to quantify how much funding is going where. I figured I would then bundle up all of this information into a concise and cleverly worded report … Continue reading
Much ado about CO2!
(part 2 of 5)
What is your quest? So the last post was scary, both in length and content. But, seriously, haven’t we been hearing this doom and gloom of global warming for a while? How about we reframe this conversation in a more positive light? Let’s discuss what science is truly capable of accomplishing. Let’s transform CO2 from a problem into a commodity waiting to be used. What we would like to do is come up with an efficient way to convert the CO2 in our atmosphere into desirable materials (alcohols, plastics, a pony, what have you). We will need to create a market for CO2. The crucial question is: Can we make this cheap, abundant, atmospheric gas valuable? (Come on, there’s a market for reprocessed cow manure—why not CO2?) We’ll need a) some science b) some policy and c) a way to make the science and the policy play nicely. Granted, these … Continue reading
Posted in Basic Science, History, Implementation
Tagged CO2, CO2 Conversion, Nitrogen fixation
3 Comments
Much ado about CO2!
(part 1 of 5)
Baby it’s cold out there… There were two major storms this past winter that hit Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington D.C., both of which counted as among the top ten heaviest snowfalls ever recorded in these areas. I was fortunate enough to be involved with a Caltech sponsored science-policy field trip to D.C. last December and unfortunate enough to get stranded there during the first of those epic snowstorms. The (really) White House in December, 2009 Interestingly, my visit overlapped with the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference (AKA the Copenhagen Summit) and our capitol was astir with both hope and reservation. Banners in support of an international agreement on Global Warming issues lined the walls of every Metro stop, temporary monuments were erected in The Mall like humanity’s gravestones, and skeptics convened to protest this perceived overreaction by environmentalists. As I dragged my suitcase through the record-breaking two feet of … Continue reading
