Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2006 APS April Meeting
Saturday–Tuesday, April 22–25, 2006; Dallas, TX
Session W5: Abrupt Climate Change Scenario |
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Sponsoring Units: FPS Chair: Tina Kaarsberg, U.S. Department of Energy Room: Hyatt Regency Dallas Pegasus B |
Tuesday, April 25, 2006 10:30AM - 11:05AM |
W5.00001: Negative Emissions Technology Invited Speaker: Although `negative emissions' of carbon dioxide need not, in principle, involve use of biological processes to draw carbon out of the atmosphere, such `agricultural' sequestration' is the only known way to remove carbon from the atmosphere on time scales comparable to the time scale for anthropogenic increases in carbon emissions. In order to maintain the `negative emissions' the biomass must be used in such a way that the resulting carbon dioxide is separated and permanently sequestered. Two options for sequestration are in the topsoil and via geologic carbon sequestration. The former has multiple benefits, but the latter also is needed. Thus, although geologic carbon sequestration is viewed skeptically by some environmentalists as simply a way to keep using fossil fuels---it may be a key part of reversing accelerating climate forcing if rapid climate change is beginning to occur. I will first review the general approach of agricultural sequestration combined with use of resulting biofuels in a way that permits carbon separation and then geologic sequestration as a negative emissions technology. Then I discuss the process that is the focus of my company---the EPRIDA cycle. If deployed at a sufficiently large scale, it could reverse the increase in CO2 concentrations. I also estimate of benefits --carbon and other---of large scale deployment of negative emissions technologies. For example, using the EPRIDA cycle by planting and soil sequestering carbon in an area abut In 3X the size of Texas would remove the amount of carbon that is being accumulated worldwide each year. In addition to the atmospheric carbon removal, the EPRIDA approach also counters the depletion of carbon in the soil---increasing topsoil and its fertility; reduces the excess nitrogen in the water by eliminating the need for ammonium nitrate fertilizer and reduces fossil fuel reliance by providing biofuel and avoiding natural gas based fertilizer production. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, April 25, 2006 11:05AM - 11:40AM |
W5.00002: Cool Roofs to Save Money and Delay Global Warming Invited Speaker: White roofs, and now cool-colored roofs, with a high reflectivity or `albedo' have a long history (best known around the Mediterranean) of keeping buildings and cities cool. In modern times, cool roofs have been shown to reduce air conditioning (a-c) demand and slow the formation of ozone (smog). Studies establishing a typical 10{\%} reduction in a-c demand and electricity savings due to white roofs in California (CA) resulted in the 2005 CA new building energy efficiency standard prescribing that low-slope roofs be white, but exempting sloping roofs for aesthetic reasons. The advent (thanks to physicists' efforts) of inexpensive colored pigments with high albedo has led to 2008 CA standards requiring that even sloping roofs be cool. Here, I show that cooling the planet by reducing urban albedo through white and other cool roofs is a direct effect, much larger and immediate than the 2nd-order cooling from reduced CO2 from reduced a-c use. I then investigate widespread deployment of cool roof in major tropical and temperate cities, which cover 2{\%} of global land area and have a proportionately higher albedo impact due to lower latitude. Here, cool roofs and cooler pavements can raise urban albedo by 10{\%}. This directly drops the global average temperature by $\sim $0.05 /deg C. Though small compared to a likely 3 /deg C rise by 2060, an immediate drop of 0.05 /deg C represents a reprieve in global warming of 1 year, and represents avoiding a year's current annual world emissions of CO2, i.e. 25 GT(CO2). At a trading price of {\$}25/tCO2, this is worth $\sim ${\$}625B. Cooling the planet also could save annually hundreds of {\$}billions on a-c electric bills. Finally I suggest policies to increase cool roof deployment, for example, developed world Kyoto signatories could use its CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) for cool roof programs in developing countries. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, April 25, 2006 11:40AM - 12:15PM |
W5.00003: Lessons from Katrina: Flood Management Technology Strategies for the US. Invited Speaker: Coastal and riverine flooding and hurricane-driven storms have long plagued those in the United States who live or work on or near the shoreline or the rivers edge. The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina brought the challenge of protecting against such events to the political and technical forefront. The predicted impacts of global warming strongly suggest that our floodplains and coastlines could be at greatly increased risk. This presentation will review the development of the U.S. program for providing structural protection, discuss the effectiveness of employing levees, dams, floodways, beach nourishment and storm barriers in this struggle, highlight the changes over the last two decades that have gradually shifted the focus from a structural-only approach to one that includes the non-structural approaches such as wise land use, wetland restoration, relocations, insurance, floodproofing, and emergency warning and evacuation. Using post-Katrina planning as an example, it will explore what new approaches can be taken. Should New Orleans take a 'levees only' approach to its protection? or should attention to New Orleans be part of a coastal Louisiana integrated flood damage reduction and coastal restoration strategy. The nation needs to make changes in its water resources policies and investment strategy to deal with the new threat that it now faces. [Preview Abstract] |
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