Posted on 01/12/2017 10:00:24 AM PST by smokingfrog
Countries around the world are trying to get their greenhouse gas emissions under control — to see them inch down, percentage point by percentage point, from where they stood earlier in the century. If everybody gets on board, and shaves off enough of those percentage points, we just might be able to get on a trajectory to keep the world from warming more than 2 degrees Celsius above the temperature where it stood prior to industrialization.
But if a new study is correct, there’s a big problem: There might be more greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere than we thought. That would mean an even larger need to cut.
The new paper, slated to be published next week in BioScience, confirms a significant volume of greenhouse gas emissions coming from a little-considered place: Man-made reservoirs, held behind some 1 million dams around the world and created for the purposes of electricity generation, irrigation, and other human needs. In the study, 10 authors from U.S., Canadian, Chinese, Brazilian, and Dutch universities and institutions have synthesized a considerable body of prior research on the subject to conclude that these reservoirs may be emitting just shy of a gigaton, or billion tons, of annual carbon dioxide equivalents. That would mean they contributed 1.3 percent of the global total.
Moreover, the emissions are largely in the form of methane, a greenhouse gas with a relatively short life in the atmosphere but a very strong short-term warming effect. Scientists are increasingly finding that although we have begun to curb some emissions of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, we are still thwarted by methane, which comes from a diversity of sources that range from oil and gas operations to cows.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
All energy on earth, except atomic/nuclear, comes from the sun. Period. Fossil fuel, hydro power, wind, you name it, has received it’s energy from the sun.
Many bodies of water raise the temperature? Must be why Minnesota is known as “Land of 10,000 lakes”
Very good.
“Man-made reservoirs...created for the purposes of...and other human needs.”
Lets just gloss over those ‘needs’ shall we...wouldn’t want to point out half of us would starve without them.
So are the greenies going to be upset when they find out that hydro-electric power isn’t green anymore?
Where will the electric car power come from? :^)
Personally, I need the fort Patrick Henry reservoir to provide a place to take my mind calming kayak
Durban South Africa.....
In a study by the Benango University Agricultural Center, it was reported that the gaseous emissions of wildebeests has a higher concentration of methane than other ruminants. The concentration of wildebeest flatulence is thought to be resultant from consumption of common red flowered fescue, Festuca rubra, that was introduced and is an alien species. The presence of high sulfides in the African soil are not fully digestible when absorbed by the grass and are problematic for wildebeest digestion.
There is no viable solution to the climate hanging problem.
I have to call bs on this one. If there are really 1 million dams in the world as the article claims, that would mean on average over 50,000 dams per each of 196 counties. Consider that Wikipedia says the USA has over 75,000 dams. Considering how large and advanced the USA is, I have hard time believig a 50k average for the rest of the world. Further, the implication is that every dam has a meaningfully-sized reservoir, which cannot be the case. I imagine for the 1m dam figure, they must be counting every irrigation berm on every farm. Sounds silly to me.
Noticed a long time ago.
Agenda 21.
Progressing us back to the Stone Age... for the children of the planet.
ARE YOU EFFIN KIDDING ME
Well if little tiny reservoirs are major sources of global warming, we'll need to drain those horrible oceans!!!
Maybe they’re counting beaver dams too :)
This is what pouring federal tax monies aka ‘grants’ into the sciences accomplishes.
A whole new wakademic class “Sciencians”.
Sciencians have nothing to do with actual science. They exist only to sponge up the grants.
If you build a reservoir, it will change the climate around the reservoir. There will be more water vapor in the air and more vegetation will grow around the lake. The vegetation will absorb more carbon dioxide, so I don’t see how this conclusion can be valid.
Hey hey, ho ho
Dihydrogen monoxide has got to go!
Fake News knows no bounds.
In other news, beavers better watch out; lest they become blasphemous climate change deniers. Stop building dams.
What the heck is in that water that's producing methane? Fish farts?
Wetlands cause global warming! Talk about a liberal conflict of interest.
And BAN all those offensive volcanoes. Blow them all up with Nuclear Bombs. That will work.
Follow the (grant) money.
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