Featured series 
Tag: carbon dioxide
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Science & Tech
New England forests, new strategies can offset most regional emissions over 30 years, report says
Study looks at how forests in New England can be better utilized in the fight against climate change.
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Science & Tech
No laughing matter
A recent study shows that nitrous-oxide emissions from thawing Alaskan permafrost are about 12 times higher than previously assumed. About a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere is covered in permafrost, which is thawing at an increasing rate. And, even though researchers are monitoring carbon dioxide and methane, no one seems to be monitoring N2O, the…
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Science & Tech
Turning tide on greenhouse gases
Emissions from power plants and heavy industry, rather than spewing into the atmosphere, could be captured and chemically transformed from greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide into industrial fuels or chemicals thanks to a system developed by Harvard researchers.
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Health
Research links air quality, air safety
Harvard Chan School researchers recruited 30 commercial airline pilots for a study exploring whether carbon dioxide levels affect cockpit performance.
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Science & Tech
Tackling carbon emissions in China
A Beijing symposium co-sponsored by the Harvard China Project and the Harvard Global Institute explored the possibility of China adopting a carbon tax as a way to reduce climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions. The Gazette spoke with economist Dale Jorgenson, the Samuel W. Morris University Professor, and Chris Nielsen, the executive director of the China Project,…
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Science & Tech
Hunting polluting gases around Boston
Students, faculty, and fellows are fanning out across the Boston area to take measurements aimed at determining where and how much natural gas is leaking and where the worst carbon dioxide emissions occur.
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Science & Tech
A trap for greenhouse gas
A team of researchers has developed a novel class of materials that enable a safer, cheaper, and more energy-efficient process for removing greenhouse gas from power-plant emissions.
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Science & Tech
Charged air
For doctoral student Sarah Rugheimer, the study of atmosphere holds deep promise in the search for extrasolar life.
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Science & Tech
Plan to toughen emissions rules faces tough fight
Professors Jody Freeman and Richard Lazarus came together to discuss the legal future of the nation’s most ambitious action on climate change to date.
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Science & Tech
Breathing easier over electricity
The Environmental Protection Agency’s release of draft regulations that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 will have a significant impact on human health, Harvard analysts say.
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Science & Tech
Another step in the wrong direction
Climate specialists came together at the Geological Lecture Hall to consider a dangerous milestone in carbon dioxide levels.
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Science & Tech
Efficiency in the forest
Spurred by increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, forests over the past two decades have become dramatically more efficient in how they use water, a Harvard study has found.
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Science & Tech
Concerns about climate change, health
A team of researchers led by James G. Anderson, the Philip S. Weld Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry, warns that a newly discovered connection between climate change and depletion of the ozone layer over the U.S. could allow more damaging ultraviolet (UV) radiation to reach the Earth’s surface, leading to increased incidence of skin cancer.
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Science & Tech
Carbon counter
Atmospheric scientists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Nanjing University have produced the first “bottom-up” estimates of China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, for 2005 to 2009, and the first statistically rigorous estimates of the uncertainties surrounding China’s CO2 emissions.
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Science & Tech
Illuminating carbon’s climate effects
Harvard researchers compiled ice and sedimentary core samples collected from dozens of locations around the world, and found evidence that while changes in Earth’s orbit may have touched off a warming trend, increases in CO2 played a far more important role in pushing the planet out of the ice age.
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Science & Tech
A road map to cleaner energy
A new report by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs recommends transforming the U.S. energy picture by nearly doubling funding for U.S. energy technology research and instituting incentives for adopting cleaner technologies, such as a cap-and-trade program for carbon emissions.
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Science & Tech
Growing strong
Steven Wofsy and Andrew Richardson discuss New England’s still-growing forests and their role as a buffer against the effects of climate change.
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Science & Tech
Climate change for the long haul
Human-induced changes to the Earth from emission of greenhouse gases are here to stay, with computer models showing that changes made by 2100 could take 1,000 years to decline.
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Science & Tech
Microbes to the rescue
Study says microbes may consume far more gaseous waste from gulf oil spill than previously believed.
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Science & Tech
Trees tell of shifting world
Trees from the Harvard Forest to the Amazon rainforest are experiencing changing climactic conditions, with rising temperatures potentially making tropical trees a significant source of carbon dioxide.
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Science & Tech
Battling climate change on all fronts
Harvard’s research spans the gamut from the sciences to the humanities, examining key questions about this critical challenge facing humanity.
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Science & Tech
New source of natural gas
Chesapeake Energy’s chief executive officer, Aubrey McClendon, struck a positive note on the future prominence of natural gas as an energy source, though some critics decried new gas extraction techniques.
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Science & Tech
Costa Rican minister outlines plan to achieve carbon neutrality through reforms
Costa Rica’s environment minister outlined the Central American nation’s plans to become carbon neutral by 2021 through green reforms in energy, transportation, government, and private industry sectors.