A Way to Freeze Global Warming??!!

Published on 12 Feb 2007 by American Solar Energy Society. Archived on 12 Feb 2007.

U.S. Energy Experts Announce

Way to Freeze Global Warming

by Press release

As scientists sound daily alarms about the dire consequences of global warming, Americans are asking one question: What can we do about it? The American Solar Energy Society (ASES) has an answer: Deploy clean energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies now!

On Wednesday morning, January 31, 2007 at a press conference in Washington, D.C., ASES unveiled a 200-page report, Tackling Climate Change in the U.S.: Potential Carbon Emissions Reductions from Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by 2030. The result of more than a year of study, the report illustrates how energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies can provide the emissions reductions required to address global warming.

The press event included remarks from report editor Chuck Kutscher, ASES Executive Director Brad Collins, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) climate scientist James Hansen, Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, Senator Jeff Bingaman, and Congressmen Henry Waxman and Christopher Shays. According to Hansen, "We must begin fundamental changes in our energy use now in order to avoid human-made climate disasters."

To develop the report, ASES recruited a volunteer team of top energy experts. These experts produced a series of nine papers that examined how energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies can reduce U.S. carbon dioxide emissions-the main cause of global warming.

ASES collected the nine papers together and added an overview of the studies to create the report. It covers energy efficiency in buildings, transportation, and industry, as well as six renewable energy technologies: concentrating solar power, photovoltaics, wind power, biomass, biofuels, and geothermal power. The results indicate that these technologies can displace approximately 1.2 billion tons of carbon emissions annually by the year 2030-the magnitude of reduction that scientists believe is necessary to prevent the most dangerous consequences of climate change.

The report illustrates how energy efficiency measures could keep U.S. carbon emissions roughly constant over the next 23 years as the economy grows, and how renewable energy technologies could make deep cuts below today's emissions. Wind energy provides about 35% of the renewable energy contribution, while the rest is divided about evenly among the other technologies. "Energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies can begin to be deployed on a large scale today to help save us from the worst consequences of global warming," said Kutscher. "With continued R&D to lower costs and a reasonable level of policy support, they have the potential to meet most, if not all, of the carbon reductions that will be required in the future."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editorial Notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The report is available as a free download. High-quality graphics showing the various emissions reductions and deployment locations are also available at that site.
Table of Contents
Full report (9Mb pdf)

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Original article available here.
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global cooling is for real

Global warming can cause

global cooling

Jeff Poling

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Scientists announced in the July 21, 1999, edition of the journal Nature findings that suggest that global warming can sometimes lead to cold weather or even a worldwide freeze.

Scientists have long known that a severe cold spell occurred after the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, approximately 8,200 years ago. The cause, however, has been a mystery. The authors of the Nature article write that the centuries long cold spell might have been caused by meltwater from the disappearing glaciers, cooling the North Atlantic.

The Laurentide Ice Sheet covered parts of North America with ice up to two miles thick for more than a million years. When the Earth began to warm 10,000 years ago, it retreated back toward the poles. The ice sheet left in its wake at least two lakes containing more water than the Great Lakes combined.

In the Hudson Bay, ice held the water in place like a plug in a bathtub. When the plug finally melted, trillions of gallons gushed into the Labrador Sea, flowing out at 100 times the rate water leaves the Mississippi.

The conclusions of the authors are the result of a study by University of Colorado and Canadian researchers who examined evidence of this huge flood in the Hudson Bay region of Quebec and Ontario.

Independent research showed that global temperatures dropped significantly within several hundred years of the flood. Until this study, nobody could pinpoint if these two events were connected, said the study's lead author, University of Colorado geologist Don Barber. The scientists used radiocarbon dating of clams in the flood sediment, and other evidence, to correlate the two events.

The Atlantic Gulf Stream normally acts like a conveyor belt to deliver warm tropical water to temperate regions. By adding so much cold fresh water in such a short time, the flood shut down the Gulf Stream, said Richard Alley, a climate expert at Penn State University.

Temperatures in Greenland and Europe dropped by 6 to 15 degrees for at least 200 years, according to ice core data.

The authors conclusions demonstrate how global warming can, paradoxically, provoke a global freeze. If a modern glacier such as the Greenland Ice Sheet melts as a result of rising temperatures in the next century, it could trigger a similar flood and climate fluctuation, the researchers said.

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Copyright © 1999 by Jeff Poling. Quotes are from media sources.

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Revised: August 2, 1999; New: July 19, 1999


http://www.dinosauria.com/jdp/news/freeze.html

Is global freeze on the way?

Research: Global warming could trigger global freeze

Copyright 1999, The Associated Press
July 22, 1999

PHOENIX (AP) -- Global warming sometimes can lead to cold weather, researchers said Thursday in a report that outlines how a giant flood can trigger a worldwide freeze in a matter of decades.

Scientists say that as the glaciers melted at the end of the Ice Age, so much cold fresh water gushed into the North Atlantic 8,200 years ago that it cooled the atmosphere for hundreds of years.

The cold spell has been well known to researchers, but its cause was a mystery.

The flood scenario, described in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, demonstrates how global warming can, paradoxically, provoke a global freeze.

If a modern glacier such as the Greenland Ice Sheet melts as a result of rising temperatures in the next century, it could trigger a similar flood and climate fluctuation, researchers said.

"Ultimately, that's the interest here," said Richard Alley, a climate expert at Penn State University. "We've been pretty lucky, the climate hasn't varied much in 8,000 years. But could the big changes come back?" The study by University of Colorado and Canadian researchers examines evidence of a huge flood in the Hudson Bay region of Quebec and Ontario.

The Laurentide Ice Sheet covered parts of North America with ice up to 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) thick for more than a million years. As it retreated toward the poles, the ice sheet left in its wake at least two lakes containing more water than the Great Lakes combined.

In the Hudson Bay, ice held the water in place like a plug in a bathtub. But when the plug finally melted, trillions of gallons (liters) gushed into the Labrador Sea, shooting out at 100 times the rate water leaves the Mississippi.

Independent research showed the temperature dropped significantly within several hundred years of the flood. But nobody could pinpoint if these two events were connected, said the study's lead author, University of Colorado geologist Don Barber.

The evidence linking the temperature drop to the flood includes radiocarbon dating of clams in the flood sediment.

The Atlantic Gulf Stream normally acts like a conveyor belt to deliver warm tropical water to temperate regions. By adding so much fresh water in such a short time, the flood shut down the Gulf Stream, Alley said.

Temperatures in Greenland and Europe dropped by 6 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 200 years, according to ice core data.

http://www.climateark.org/articles/1999/glfreez.htm