6. Planetary climate and habitability

2021 ◽  
pp. 96-121
Author(s):  
Raymond T. Pierrehumbert

‘Planetary climate and habitability’ studies planetary climate, particularly the way an atmosphere affects temperature and a planet's habitability. The entire temperature profile, from the planet's centre to the tenuous outer reaches of its atmosphere (if it has one), is of importance. Real atmospheres are never completely transparent to the infrared radiation which seeks to escape to space. Gases which are good absorbers of infrared radiation act as planetary insulation. This is the greenhouse effect, and gases that are good infrared absorbers are called greenhouse gases; carbon dioxide is an important greenhouse gas for Earth.

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Romdhane Ben Slama

The global warming which preoccupies humanity, is still considered to be linked to a single cause which is the emission of greenhouse gases, CO2 in particular. In this article, we try to show that, on the one hand, the greenhouse effect (the radiative imprisonment to use the scientific term) took place in conjunction with the infrared radiation emitted by the earth. The surplus of CO2 due to the combustion of fossil fuels, but also the surplus of infrared emissions from artificialized soils contribute together or each separately,  to the imbalance of the natural greenhouse effect and the trend of global warming. In addition, another actor acting directly and instantaneously on the warming of the ambient air is the heat released by fossil fuels estimated at 17415.1010 kWh / year inducing a rise in temperature of 0.122 ° C, or 12.2 ° C / century.


2007 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Krishna B. Karki

Concentration of greenhouse gases has been found increasing over the past centuries. Carbon dioxide (9-26% greenhouse effect), methane (4-9%), and nitrous oxide (3-6%) are the three principal greenhouse gasses though chloroflourocarbon and halon are also included as greenhouse gasses but are in very small greenhouse effect. These gasses are produced both from natural process and anthropogenic activities .Increase of these greenhouse gasses from nature in the atmosphere is mainly from the decomposition of organic matter, nitrification and denitrification of nitrogen including respiration by the plants. Anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide is from burning of fossil fuel whereas for methane livestock and paddy cultivation. Agricultural activities mainly use of mineral fertilizer is responsible for nitrous oxide emission. Increase of these gasses in atmosphere increases temperature that further accelerates evaporation of moisture from the earth’s surface. Increase in water vapor in the atmosphere will further aggravate temperature rise. This increase in atmospheric temperature has direct effect in the melting of glacier ice in Nepalese Himalaya. Melting of ice and increases water volume in the glacier fed rivers and glacier lakes. Rise in water volume beyond its capacity the glacial lakes bursts releasing millions of cubit meters of water and takes million of lives and properties downstream. If this continues there will be no more ice left in the Himalaya and in the long run all the rivers of Nepal will go dry and country will face serious water shortage for drinking, irrigation and other purposes. The Journal of AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENT Vol. 8, 2007, pp. 1-7


2020 ◽  
pp. 94-110
Author(s):  
N.V. Dvoeglazova ◽  
B.V. Chubarenko ◽  
Y.A. Kozlova

The increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is influenced to a greater extent by a degree of development of industry, a growth of electrification, deforestation, and the burning of fuel for the production of heating and electricity. The contribution of emissions of each of these factors and the ratio of greenhouse gases in them should be taken into account when developing the measures to prevent climate change. According to calculations of emissions from the territory of the Kaliningrad region the burning of fuel and energy resources are supposed to be playing the main role in the greenhouse gas emission from the territory of the Kaliningrad region. In statistical reference books this activity is described as the “activities for the production and distribution of electricity, gas and water.” The usage of this fuel in the energy sector is increasing: from 1742.4 thousand tons of standard fuel in 1991 up to 2193.9 in 2016. Such little increase in total emissions is due to the general technology improvement in the country. Carbon dioxide makes up the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions from the territory of the Kaliningrad region. The percentage of the gases in the total volume is as follows: CO2 - 96.7%, CH4 - 1%, N2 O - 2.3%. Its emissions for the period from 2013 to 2016 varied from 3,757.4 in 2014 to 4,091.7 in 2015 thousand tons of standard fuel, reaching its maximum value in 2015. The estimate presented in this paper is a lower estimate, since it does not take into account emissions from industrial processes, leaks, land use, waste, etc., as well as from some categories of emission sources due to the lack of data on the use of fuel in the Kaliningrad region. Among other things, the calculations of emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide from the use of fuel by vehicles in 2016, which have shown to be 1.86 times less than from burning of fossil fuels for the same year (2032.87 Gg CO2 eq. and 3914.79 Gg CO2 eq., respectively) and to account for 34.5% of the total emissions, have been made. Moreover, according to the methodology for calculating emissions the factor of carbon dioxide absorption by the region’s forests has been taken into account. The amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by forests has shown to be only 11.9% of the emissions of this gas during the combustion of boiler and furnace fuel.


Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1633
Author(s):  
Christoph Emmerling ◽  
Andreas Krein ◽  
Jürgen Junk

The intensification of livestock production, to accommodate rising human population, has led to a higher emission of ammonia into the environment. For the reduction of ammonia emissions, different management steps have been reported in most EU countries. Some authors, however, have criticized such individual measures, because attempts to abate the emission of ammonia may lead to significant increases in either methane, nitrous oxide, or carbon dioxide. In this study, we carried out a meta-analysis of experimental European data published in peer-reviewed journals to evaluate the impact of major agricultural management practices on ammonia emissions, including the pollution swapping effect. The result of our meta-analysis showed that for the treatment, storage, and application stages, only slurry acidification was effective for the reduction of ammonia emissions (−69%), and had no pollution swapping effect with other greenhouse gases, like nitrous oxide (−21%), methane (−86%), and carbon dioxide (−15%). All other management strategies, like biological treatment, separation strategies, different storage types, the concealing of the liquid slurry with different materials, and variable field applications were effective to varying degrees for the abatement of ammonia emission, but also resulted in the increased emission of at least one other greenhouse gas. The strategies focusing on the decrease of ammonia emissions neglected the consequences of the emissions of other greenhouse gases. We recommend a combination of treatment technologies, like acidification and soil incorporation, and/or embracing emerging technologies, such as microbial inhibitors and slow release fertilizers.


Catalysts ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1282
Author(s):  
Isabel Barroso-Martín ◽  
Antonia Infantes-Molina ◽  
Fatemeh Jafarian Fini ◽  
Daniel Ballesteros-Plata ◽  
Enrique Rodríguez-Castellón ◽  
...  

The climate situation that the planet is experiencing, mainly due to the emission of greenhouse gases, poses great challenges to mitigate it. Since CO2 is the most abundant greenhouse gas, it is essential to reduce its emissions or, failing that, to use it to obtain chemicals of industrial interest. In recent years, much research have focused on the use of CO2 to obtain methanol, which is a raw material for the synthesis of several important chemicals, and dimethyl ether, which is advertised as the cleanest and highest efficiency diesel substitute fuel. Given that the bibliography on these catalytic reactions is already beginning to be extensive, and due to the great variety of catalysts studied by the different research groups, this review aims to expose the most important catalytic characteristics to take into account in the design of silica-based catalysts for the conversion of carbon dioxide to methanol and dimethyl ether.


1999 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 166-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
TIM NEWCOMB

Many nations have recognized the need to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). The scientific assessments of climate change of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) support the need to reduce GHG emissions. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the 1992 Convention on Climate Change (UNTS 30822) has now been signed by more than 65 countries, although that Protocol has not yet entered into force. Some 14 of the industrialized countries listed in the Protocol face reductions in carbon dioxide emissions of more than 10% compared to projected 1997 carbon dioxide emissions (Najam & Page 1998).


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fallon Fowler ◽  
Christopher J. Gillespie ◽  
Steve Denning ◽  
Shuijin Hu ◽  
Wes Watson

AbstractBy mixing and potentially aerating dung, dung beetles may affect the microbes producing the greenhouse gases (GHGs): carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). Here, their sum-total global warming effect is described as the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Our literature analysis of reported GHG emissions and statistics suggests that most dung beetles do not, however, reduce CO2e even if they do affect individual GHGs. Here, we compare the GHG signature of homogenized (“premixed”) and unhomogenized (“unmixed”) dung with and without dung beetles to test whether mixing and burial influence GHGs. Mixing by hand or by dung beetles did not reduce any GHG – in fact, tunneling dung beetles increased N2O medians by ≥1.8x compared with dung-only. This suggests that either: 1) dung beetles do not meaningfully mitigate GHGs as a whole; 2) dung beetle burial activity affects GHGs more than mixing alone; or 3) greater dung beetle abundance and activity is required to produce an effect.


2021 ◽  
pp. 54-61
Author(s):  
N. V. Popov ◽  
◽  
I. L. Govor ◽  
M. L. Gitarskii ◽  
◽  
...  

The average weighted long-term component composition of associated petroleum gas burned at the fields in Russia is obtained, where the volume fractions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) make up 0.8 and 66.4%, respectively. Based on it, the national emission factors of greenhouse gases from the flaring of associated petroleum gas are developed: the values are equal to 2.76 103 t CO2 and 0.0155 103 t CH4 per 1 106 m3 of the gas burnt. The calculations based on the emission factors led to the 37% increase in total equivalent emission of CO2 and CH4 as compared to the calculations based on the IPCC emission factors. The use of the national emission factors increases the reliability of the estimates of greenhouse gas emissions and the evaluation of their impact on climate.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-16
Author(s):  
Noer Sarifah Ainy ◽  
Nestiyanto Hadi

The earth is experiencing global warming due to an increase in air temperature (greenhouse effect). This is due to the large number of greenhouse gases produced by human activities. In addition, it is also due to the reduced number of plants that absorb greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. This condition causes the study of the greenhouse effect to become an object studied by students at school. Understanding the greenhouse effect is somewhat difficult if only understood in theory. Increasing understanding can be done by making practicum learning media. This study aims to create learning media for the Greenbox Effect Simulator to help understand the concept of the greenhouse effect. The research was conducted using control variables and independent variables (use of plants and without plants). The plants used are Caisim, Sri Gading and Anggrek. The presence of carbon dioxide (CO2) greenhouse gases can be detected by three things, namely changes in the color of the CO2 indicator, changes in temperature, and visibility of the box. The color of the CO2 indicator shows green and green yellow for Box B (with plants) which means the concentration of CO2 in normal conditions. Whereas Box C (without plants) gives a yellow color, which means that the concentration of CO2 is at high conditions. The presence of carbon dioxide gas from combustion will increase the temperature by 1.4 - 1.9 oC in Box C (without plants) and 0.7 - 1.5 oC in Box B (use of plants). The visibility of Box B shows a higher brightness level than Box C. The best plants that can absorb CO2 concentrations are orchids. The ability of orchids to absorb CO2 is assisted by their roots which also function to carry out photosynthesis. The existence of plants functions to absorb CO2 quite well when viewed from changes in temperature, color indicators and visibility.


2014 ◽  
Vol 905 ◽  
pp. 318-321
Author(s):  
Xiao Xiong Zha ◽  
Hai Yang Wang ◽  
Gan Lin Feng

Carbonation is a common influence of cement-based material. And the accelerated carbonation is used in material property modify. With the reaction in the material when carbonating, the carbon dioxide will be solidifying in the material, in the shape of precipitation of calcium carbonate filled the pore. But the ability of the carbon absorbing is unknown, in this paper, some cement-based building materials are took in test, including the aerated brick, cement tile, concrete, and cement mortar. In according to the results, it has found that the carbon absorbing ability is different, and with the carbon absorbing, the strength also increasing. The aerated brick is greatest and the condition of temperature, pressure and reaction time is lowest, which give a reference on the way of the greenhouse gas transform and reduced.


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