Posts tagged United States
CU scientists: CO2 emissions a HUGE problem
Nov 4th
New calculations showing the global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide gases jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 is more evidence that society has made a choice to continue to accelerate climate change, say two University of Colorado Boulder experts.
The new figures calculated by the U.S. Department of Energy show the world pumped more than 560 additional tons of carbon into the atmosphere in 2010 than in 2009, an increase of 6 percent. There are currently 392 parts per million of CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere, a rise of more than 100 since the Industrial Revolution, said CU-Boulder Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research Director Jim White.
The CO2 rise is driven primarily by growing industry in China and India — the two highest users of coal — as well as the United States, said White. “While the world population growth has slowed, the use of fossil fuels continues at a record pace,” he said. Studies have shown Earth’s land temperatures have increased by 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1950s.
“While it is good news that the global economy continues to grow, we clearly have not taken greenhouse gases and climate change seriously,” said White, an expert on ice cores and climate change. Only a substantial and rapid global move toward alternative energies can slow the growth of CO2 emissions, he said.
“We are rolling the dice here, which is not a good way to plan for the future,” said geography Professor Mark Serreze, director of CU-Boulder’s National Snow and Ice Data Center and an expert on declining Arctic sea ice.
“The warning signs of climate change are all around us, and we have decided to ignore them,” said Serreze. “Humankind has made a choice to do nothing, and we can never go back to where we were again. As a consequence, we will have to adapt to change.”
For more information contact White at 303-492-2219 or james.white@colorado.edu, Serreze at 303-492 -2963 or serreze@kryos.colorado.edu or Jim Scott in the CU-Boulder media relations and news office at 303-492-3114.
NEW CU-BOULDER STUDY REVEALS BACTERIA FROM DOG FECES IN OUTDOOR AIR OF URBANIZED AREAS
Aug 18th
Bacteria from fecal material — in particular, dog fecal material — may constitute the dominant source of airborne bacteria in Cleveland’s and Detroit’s wintertime air, says a new University of Colorado Boulder study.
The CU-Boulder study showed that of the four Midwestern cities in the experiment, two cities had significant quantities of fecal bacteria in the atmosphere — with dog feces being the most likely source.
“We found unexpectedly high bacterial diversity in all of our samples, but to our surprise the airborne bacterial communities of Detroit and Cleveland most closely resembled those communities found in dog poop,” said lead author Robert Bowers, a graduate student in CU-Boulder’s ecology and evolutionary biology department and the CU-headquartered Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES. “This suggests that dog poop may be a potential source of bacteria to the atmosphere at these locations.”
The study was published July 29 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Co-authors on the study included Noah Fierer, an assistant professor in CU-Boulder’s ecology and evolutionary biology department and a CIRES fellow; Rob Knight, an associate professor in CU-Boulder’s chemistry and biochemistry department; Amy Sullivan and Jeff Collett Jr. of Colorado State University; and Elizabeth Costello of the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Scientists already knew that bacteria exist in the atmosphere and that these bacteria can have detrimental effects on human health, triggering allergic asthma and seasonal allergies, Fierer said. But it is only in recent years that researchers have realized that there is an incredible diversity of bacteriaresiding in the air, he said.
“There is a real knowledge gap,” said Fierer. “We are just starting to realize this uncharted microbial diversity in the air — a place where you wouldn’t exactly expect microbes to be living.”
To gain further understanding of just what microbes are circulating in urban environments, the team analyzed the local atmosphere in the summer and winter at four locations in the Great Lakes region of the U.S. Three of the locations — Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit — are major cities with populations of greater than 2 million, and one location, Mayville, Wis., is a small town with a population of less than 6,000.
The team used nearly 100 air samples collected as part of a previous study conducted by Colorado State University. The CSU experiment investigated the impact of biomass burning and involved studying the impacts of residential wood burning and prescribed fires on airborne fine particle concentrations in the midwestern United States.
“What we’ve been looking at are the numbers and the types of bacteria in the atmosphere,” Fierer said. “We breathe in bacteria every minute we are outside, and some of these bugs may have potential health implications.”
The researchers analyzed the bacteria’s DNA in the collected air samples and compared the bacteria they found against a database of bacteria from known sources such as leaf surfaces, soil, and human, cow and dog feces. They discovered that the bacterial communities in the air were surprisingly diverse and also that, in two of the four locations, dog feces were a greater than expected source of bacteria in the atmosphere in the winter.
In the summer, airborne bacteria come from many sources including soil, dust, leafsurfaces, lakes and oceans, Bowers said. But in the winter, as leaves drop and snow covers the ground, the influence that these environments have as sources also goes down. It is during this season that the airborne communities appeared to be more influenced by dog feces than the other sources tested in the experiment, he said.
“As best as we can tell, dog feces are the only explanation for these results,” Fierer said. “But we do need to do more research.”
The team plans to investigate the bacterial communities in other cities and to build a continental-scale atlas of airborne bacterial communities, Fierer said. “We don’t know if the patterns we observed in those sites are unique to those cities,” he said. “Does San Francisco have the same bacteria as New York? Nobody knows as yet.”
Fierer believes it is important to pin down the types of bacteria in the air, how these bacteria vary by location and season, and where they are coming from.With this information, scientists can then investigate the possible impacts on human health, he said.
“We need much better information on what sources of bacteria we are breathing in every time we go outside,” Fierer said.
The study was funded by the CIRES Innovative Research Program, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institutes of Health. The aerosol sample collection for this project was supported by the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium.
LINGUISTICS INSTITUTE TO OFFER FREE FILMS, WORKSHOPS AT CU-BOULDER
Jun 20th
The biennial event has never been held in Colorado and is expected to attract about 500 people to CU-Boulder. The previous three institutes were held at the University of California, Berkeley (2009), Stanford (2007) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2005).
In addition to the free and public events, the institute will offer 80 courses taught by distinguished faculty, with enrollment available to the public through CU-Boulder’s Continuing Education and Professional Studies.
For one class, Field Methods in Linguistics, a speaker of the Idi language of Papua New Guinea will travel to Boulder. The Idi language is spoken by only about 1,600 people and is barely documented. Students in the class led by Professor Nicholas Evans of Australian National University will work intensively for one month to provide the first extensive documentation of this language.
On July 13 at 7 p.m. in Muenzinger Psychology and Biopsychology room E050 will be a free showing of “We Are Still Here,” a film examining language and culture revitalization efforts of the Wampanoag Native Americans in Massachusetts.
And on July 20 at 7 p.m. in Muenzinger Psychology and Biopsychology room E050 there will be a free showing of “Speaking in Tongues,” a film following four children through the world of bilingualism and bilingual education in the United States.
“Language is fundamental to virtually everything we do in life, and it is perhaps the single most important thing that separates humans from all other life forms,” said Andrew Cowell, associate director of the institute and a CU-Boulder professor of linguistics. “We take it for granted so much of the time until someone makes the smallest misstatement, a machine translation produces something goofy or we pick up on a subtle accent we recognize — and then political careers can be compromised, corporate initiatives can become the target of worldwide mockery or lifelong friendships can be initiated.
“The institute will focus specifically on ‘Language in the World’ and the interdisciplinary connections between linguistics and other fields such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, law, computer science and the media,” he said.
The institute is sponsored by the Linguistic Society of America, which is the main professional body for linguists in the United States, with major support from CU-Boulder.
Students enrolled in a Colorado university, college or community college are eligible to register for the institute at about half the usual price, as are Colorado faculty. Information about this offer is posted at https://verbs.colorado.edu/LSA2011/registration-cofund.html.
For more information and a complete schedule of events visit
http://verbs.colorado.edu/LSA2011/.