Australian Government Joins US Energy Department in $83m Solar Research Project

The Australian Federal Government has announced an $83 million solar research program in partnership with the United States. The eight-year project will bring together six Australian universities, the CSIRO and the US department of energy.

Its aim is to create new technology that will reduce the cost of solar power. Australia’s Energy Minister Martin Ferguson says it is the biggest solar energy research investment in Australia’s history :: Read the full article »»»»

Humans Pumped Out 10 Billion Tonnes of Carbon Emissions in 2010

New research has found global carbon emissions surged by a record amount in 2010 after falling during the international financial crisis. The Global Carbon Project published its yearly analysis of carbon dioxide emissions in the journal Nature Climate Change today. The report found that global carbon dioxide emissions increased by a record 5.9 per cent in 2010. The report says the overall atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is now at its highest level in 800,000 years.

“At current rates, including the increase in emissions that has been occurring over the last few years and continuing and even accelerating this year, we have about 35 to 40 years to go, before we hit that limit of a total of 1 trillion tonnes“  READ MORE

Global Warming: Atmospheric CO2 Link Questioned

High levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may have less of an impact on the rate of global warming than previously feared, a new study suggests. Associate Professor Schmittner notes that many previous studies only looked at periods spanning from 1850 to today, thus not taking into account a fully integrated palaeoclimate data on a global scale. The authors of the study stress that global warming is real and that increases in atmospheric CO2, which has doubled from pre-industrial standards, will have multiple serious impacts. But more severe estimates that predict temperatures could rise up to an average of 10 degrees Celsius are unlikely, the researchers report in the journal Science.  The new study suggests temperatures will rise on average 2.3 degrees under the same conditions. Scientists have long struggled to quantify climate sensitivity, or how the Earth will respond to projected increases in carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. READ MORE