Latest Planetary engineering Stories

Plants absorbed carbon dioxide more efficiently under the polluted skies of recent decades than they would have done in a cleaner atmosphere, according to new findings published this week in Nature.The results of the study have important implications for efforts to combat future climate change which are likely to take place alongside attempts to lower air pollution levels.The research team included scientists from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, the Met Office Hadley Centre, ETH...

President Barack Obama's science and technology director told the Associated Press on Wednesday that the controversial use of geoengineering needs to be considered an option for combating global climate change."It's got to be looked at," said Holdren in his first interview since being confirmed. "We don't have the luxury of taking any approach off the table."Geoengineering involves manipulation of the environment on a large scale using methods such as fertilizing the...

Scientists in Germany and India said an experiment to determine whether depositing hundreds of tons of dissolved iron in the Southern Ocean can diminish global warming has produced disappointing results.In conducting the research, scientists "fertilized" a 115 square mile area of ocean by placing six tons of dissolved iron inside the core of an eddy -- a large, rotating column of water.The researchers hoped the iron would stimulate the growth of tiny planktonic algae known as phytoplankton,...

British scientists say they are looking for ways to reduce global temperatures and curb greenhouse emissions through geo-engineering. Researchers are looking into the feasibility of using artificial trees to absorb carbon dioxide or reflect sunlight away from Earth, the Times of London reported Sunday. The Royal Society, Britain's national academy of science, is preparing a report on the subject, the newspaper said. Our study aims to separate the science from the science fiction and offer...

According to a report in Friday's edition of the journal Science, skies all over the world are dimming due to increases in airborne pollution over the past 30 years.The new study compiles satellite and land-based data on global dimming over a longer period than had previously been available."Creation of this database is a big step forward for researching long-term changes in air pollution and correlating these with climate change," Kaicun Wang, of the University of Maryland, told...

Scientists in North America and Britain are working on a massive sun shade they say could be used to stop global warming. Roger Angel, an astronomer with the University of Arizona, has received funding from NASA to develop a canon that would fire trillions of mirrors into space to deflect the rays of the sun, Britain's Telegraph newspaper reported Friday. British inventor Tod Todeschini has been contracted to build a scaled-down version of the canon. Angel said he expects to be ready to...

A team of scientists led by the University of Minnesota has discovered that iron dust, the rare but necessary nutrient for most life, can not only be washed into the ocean from rivers or blown out to sea, but it can bubble up from the depths of the ocean floor.The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, connects life at the surface to events occurring at extreme depths and pressures"”two worlds long assumed to have little interaction.Brandy Toner, an assistant professor in the...

Certain geoengineering schemes could be complementary to proposed cuts in greenhouse gas emissions aimed at fighting global climate change, researchers reported on Tuesday.A team of researchers from Britain's University of East Anglia conducted the first study to determine the climate cooling potential of various geoengineering schemes Geoengineering involves manipulation of the environment on a large scale using methods such as fertilizing the Earth's oceans with nutrients or using giant...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Scientists need a more detailed understanding of how human-produced atmospheric particles, called aerosols, affect climate in order to produce better predictions of Earth's future climate, according to a NASA-led report issued by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program on Friday. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "Atmospheric Aerosol Properties and Climate Impacts," is the latest in a series of Climate Change...

WASHINGTON -- Scientists need a more detailed understanding of how human-produced atmospheric particles, called aerosols, affect climate in order to produce better predictions of Earth's future climate, according to a NASA-led report issued by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program on Friday. "Atmospheric Aerosol Properties and Climate Impacts," is the latest in a series of Climate Change Science Program reports that addresses various aspects of the country's highest priority...