With coal the most abundant of fossil fuels on our planet the search for clean coal power continues. A new 25-Kilowatt facility at Ohio State University reported the results of a week-long test process that if scaled could dramatically reduce pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and CO2

I hate to do this to you on a Monday morning but three stories caught my eye this last week. The first one could be called a doomsday warning. The second deals with conclusions about ocean biodiversity drawn from a study. And the third is a statement acknowledging that traditional ran

I always have liked the number 13, call me crazy. I know many of you are superstitious about some numbers. My mom was about the number 7. Many buildings today don’t have a 13th floor  because that number is deemed unlucky. But for the North American British colonies, 13 turned o

Considered by many scientists to be the highest safe level for the concentration of the gas in the atmosphere – 350 parts per million (PPM) , CO2 levels are well in excess of that number today. Standing globally at 395 PPM, the most recent Arctic readings this spring measure mor

Today is Earth Day and it seems appropriate to include an article about climate change. Last week a study was published in Nature Geoscience showing that some areas of the Himalayas were gaining ice steadily. The study compared data collected on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2000 wit

What makes algae such an attractive alternative to other bio-fuel sources? There are lots of it around. We can grow it in wastewater. We can grow it in brackish and saltwater. We can grow it where nothing else can be grown. We can use it to sequester CO2 during its growth, something w

In our last blog we talked about the challenge of dealing with solid urban waste in cities in both the Developed and Developing World. With urban growth in the 21st century expected in cities of the Developing World, add managing the air to the litany of challenges to be faced and ove

What will be the impact on agricultural production of increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases? The American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America and Soil Science Society of America recently issued a position statement on climate change. In that statement

When I was a younger man I wrote a short story about a girl who lived on Mars. Her father, a scientist, was in the business of changing the Martian atmosphere and his gift to his daughter was to give her a living tree outside the protected air envelope that was home to his family on M

In a blog devoted to 21st century technology why are we discussing climate change? Because if climate is changing, and the evidence strongly suggests that, it will impact the planet in this century and beyond. Our response to climate change will play a critical role in determining new