Watts Up With That?

Graphic: Lawrence Berkeley Labs

The Department of Energy awarded $126.6 million in grants today to projects that will pump 1 million tons of CO2 into underground caverns at sites in California and Ohio. The grants are subject to approval from Congress. When private money is included, the amount spent on the projects will be about $180 million over 10 years, the DOE said. So there’s still time to write a scathing letter to your US Senator or Congressperson to tell them they’d may as well just pour money down the hole and save the trouble.

Will you have carbon dioxide underfoot? Lawrence Berkeley Lab studies the locations of power plants, oil wells, and geological formations for storing carbon dioxide. Hopefully DOE will divert a little bit of money towards LBL to help in making a US map that actually represents our borders and Great lakes well. Puget Sound and much of the Great Lakes are smoothed into oblivion. Massachusetts has gained a landfill in the ocean. Maybe this is the “homogeneity adjusted” US Map? Maybe this is what the USA will look like in the future once we bloat the underworld with CO2?

Even some environmental groups call carbon sequestration “a scam”, claiming that it is too expensive and uncertain to be competitive with non-coal alternatives like wind and solar.

Of course the concept is so simple, thanks to DOE kids web, even a child can understand it. Got something you don’t want mom to see? is your room a mess? Shove it under the bed!

I just hope nobody drops a shipment of expired Mentos down the wrong hole.

The Chaitén volcano in Chile has produced quite a bit of ash and aersols.

Two new satellite images of Chaitén in eruption have been made available at the NASA Earth Observatory Natural Hazards web site.

The images were takenon May 5th, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite and show the eruption plume from the volcano extending east for 650 kilometers across Chile and Argentina. The satellite pictures below show the plume spanning the entire width of South America, the blue dot marks the location.
 

If you look closely, you can see a grey coating of ash visible on the surface.

Chaitén volcano eruption - visible light image

Chaitén volcano eruption – infrared + visible composite image

The distinction between ash on or near the ground, the volcanic plume, and clouds is more evident in the lower infrared composite image. This image was made with a combination of infrared and visible light. Consisting of ice crystals and water vapor, the clouds are turquoise (ice) laced with white (water vapor). The warmer plume of ash and steam is white. The ash on or near the ground is a semi-translucent white. Hints of plant-covered land (bright green) are visible through the ash.

My radio station www.kpay.com  has an opinion commentator named Bruce Sessions. He does a daily radio vignette called “Tidbits from the BS Notebook” which is a fun twist on his initials.

He wrote a commentary on CO2 and IPCC policy today that is worth a look. It involves a letter from Hans Schreuder, an Analytical Chemist and nine other scientists, who are members of parliament and Nobel Prize recipients.

Check it out and let him know what you think.

http://bsnotebook.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/co2-and-hot-air/