Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Global warming: The Earth is a beautifully complex system Colorado Confidential caught up with University of Colorado geographer Mark Serreze to talk about the article in Science Magazine about Arctic Sea Ice and climate in the Western U.S. From the article, "Serreze told Colorado Confidential, 'All the studies are saying that the sea ice matters.' Changes in Arctic ice mean changes in climate dynamics that can have wide-ranging consequences. "'Basically, if you lose the sea ice, you're radically changing the surface conditions,' Serreze says. 'What was highly reflective ice is now replaced with dark open water. The polar regions absorb more heat. So they start to evaporate more water, and there is more water vapor in the atmosphere.' This is where many storm and precipitation patterns originate." Category: 2008 Presidential Election 6:05:34 PM     U.S. Farmers in West Grow More with Less Water Here's a short article about drip irrigation and farmers in the Western U.S. using less water in general, from the VOA News. From the article, "To prepare for that unavoidable summer day when the soil will be too dry, [Dave] Petrocco's been installing more drip irrigation. It's expensive, but it uses 40 percent less water than traditional flood irrigation. That's important because, over the years, his annual water allocations have been cut back and the drip system allows the farmland to produce as much as it did before. In the U.S., states monitor water use and distribution. Petrocco's water allocation has been trimmed due to growing competition between Colorado's cities and farms. By 2025, it's likely that every state in the nation will face the same crisis. That's according to experts at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, held recently in San Francisco." Category: Colorado Water 5:45:31 AM     Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels From the Colorado Daily, "Colorado government and business leaders made a major announcement Monday about a venture called 'C2B2' - which has no relationship to the robot R2-D2 from 'Star Wars' but is futuristic in its own right. C2B2 is an acronym for the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels, a research venture that will bring state research institutions such as CU-Boulder and the private sector together in an effort to develop new biofuels and biorefining technologies - and to transfer new developments to the private sector as rapidly as possible. Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter hailed C2B2 as a development that could become a significant part of his 'New Energy Economy' objectives for the state, and the program will continue down the path of partnership exemplified by the February 2006 announcement of the formation of the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory. The Collaboratory institutions of CU-Boulder, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Colorado State University and Colorado School of Mines will be C2B2 members, but the C2B2 team also came up with some big-name private-sector partners who will pay sponsorship fees to help fund the shared research. Shell Global Solutions, Chevron, Conoco/Phillips and Dow Chemical might be the private-sector C2B2 headliners, but the smaller firms GreenFuel Technologies, Range Fuels, Inc., Solix Biofuels, Pure Vision Technology, Inc., Copernican Energy, Rocky Mountain Sustainable Enterprises and Blue Sun Biodiesel have signed on as well... "A Monday press release said C2B2 will certainly focus on creating transportation fuels, but also said research could lead to advances in production of bio-based agricultural fertilizer, synthetic fibers for clothing, plastics and commercial chemicals." Category: 2008 Presidential Election 5:35:05 AM

© Copyright 2007 John Orr. Last update: 4/1/07; 9:49:35 AM.