Researchers with the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology have found that fertilizing the ocean to create plankton blooms could lead to erratic rainfall patterns, reports Audrey Tan for The Straits Times. “This would have a drastic impact on the water cycle, the environment and human livelihoods,” writes Tan.
New research by Professor Daniel Rothman and postdoctoral associate Yossi Cohen has raised questions about the feasibility of carbon capture, reports Ken Silverstein for Forbes. The researchers found that “only a ‘small fraction’ of the carbon dioxide solidifies and turns into rock after it is injected 7,000 feet below the earth’s surface,” explains Silverstein.
MIT researchers have found that carbon sequestration may not be as effective at storing greenhouse gas emissions as originally thought, reports Christopher Martin for Bloomberg News. The researchers found that “much of the carbon dioxide will remain in its gaseous state, and may eventually escape into the atmosphere.”
Living on Earth reporter Steve Curwood highlights new MIT research that casts doubt on how methane’s global warming power is measured. “Professor Trancik proposes an alternative method of measuring the climate impact, weighting methane as thirty times more destructive than CO2 now,” he reports.