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Nitrous Oxide: Definitely No Laughing Matter
Norwich, UK (SPX) Feb 19, 2008 Farmers, food suppliers, policy-makers, business leaders and environmentalists are joining forces to confront the threat of the `forgotten greenhouse gas" by taking part in an influential new forum at the University of East Anglia (UEA). Launched on February 22, the Nitrous Oxide Focus Group will engage with many influential organisations including the National Farmers Union, Marks and Spencer, British Sugar, Defra, the Country Land and Business Association and Unilever. The group will present and explore cutting edge research into the sources and sinks of nitrous oxide in the environment and discuss the prospects of mitigating the release of this destructive gas through re-shaping current policies and practice. "People are becoming increasingly concerned about the immense problems associated with the unregulated release of this potent greenhouse gas," said Prof David Richardson, Dean of the Faculty of Science at UEA and co-ordinator of the Nitrous Oxide Focus Group. "It is very encouraging that so many key figures from agriculture, industry and government are interested in mitigating nitrous oxide emissions by learning more about key research questions that are currently being addressed with government funding by groups within UEA, along with collaborating research groups across the UK and Europe." Better known as `laughing gas", nitrous oxide (N2O) accounts for 9 per cent of all greenhouse gases, yet is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2). As a result its longevity in the atmosphere provides a potentially more damaging legacy than CO2. Agriculture accounts for around 70 per cent of N2O emissions. The sources are mainly from soil micro-organisms that make N2O from nitrogen-rich fertilisers added to soils to maximise crop yields. Other significant biological sources of N2O come from the wastewater treatment industries where the greenhouse gas is again produced from micro-organisms. The launch of the new consortium is underpinned by more than five years of interdisciplinary research at UEA and comes as significant new research on an N2O-generating enzyme from a widespread soil bacterium is published. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links University of East Anglia Climate Science News - Modeling, Mitigation Adaptation
Into The Abyss: Deep-Sixing Carbon
Ottawa, Canada (SPX) Feb 19, 2008Imagine a gigantic, inflatable, sausage-like bag capable of storing 160 million tonnes of CO2 - the equivalent of 2.2 days of current global emissions. Now try to picture that container, measuring up to 100 metres in radius and several kilometres long, resting benignly on the seabed more than 3 kilometres below the ocean�s surface. |
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