Word: carbone
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Burn almost any kind of organic material - corn husks, hazelnut shells, bamboo and, yes, even chicken manure - in an oxygen-depleted process called pyrolysis, and you generate gases and heat that can be used as energy. What remains is a solid - biochar - that sequesters carbon, keeping CO2 out of the atmosphere. In principle, at least, you create energy in a way that is not just carbon neutral, but carbon negative...
Biochar's ability to sequester CO2 has given new urgency to such research. "Reducing emissions isn't enough - we have to draw down the carbon stock in the atmosphere," says Tim Flannery, chair of the Copenhagen Climate Council, a consortium of scientists and business leaders linked to next year's United Nations Climate Summit. "And for that, slow pyrolysis biochar is a superior solution to anything else that's been proposed." Cornell's Lehmann is even more emphatic. "If biochar could be massively applied around the globe," he says, "we could end the emissions problem in one to two years...
There's a sexy side to green technology. Have you heard of solar panels that use nanotechnology? Algae that can be raised to make carbon-neutral biofuel? How about devices that generate power from the motion of the ocean, or even backpack wind turbines - O.K., maybe...
...significantly higher costs to heat and cool our homes in the future. For poor families, especially those on fixed incomes, a drafty house can eat up a large chunk of their income in the winter. The leakier the home, the more money you're wasting - and the more carbon you're spewing. (See TIME's special report on the environment...
Harvard will maintain its investments in environmental initiatives despite the tightening University budget, Harvard administrators announced at an event in Sanders Theatre yesterday. Over the last two years, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences has reduced its emissions by 8,300 tons of carbon dioxide—an improvement they say is worth the financial costs. “These are quite challenging times for the University and Faculty of Arts and Sciences,” said FAS Dean Michael D. Smith. “Despite all of the trouble, it’s clear that much good can come...