The Associated Press via MSNBC (or is it the other way around?) announced yesterday the results of the first ever carbon cap-and-trade auction in the United States, which took place last Thursday, and raised $38.5 million.  The byline of the article is Albany, New York, so I’m going to go ahead and say that’s where the auction took place.

The money raised will be filtered back to the ten states that took part in the auction, to be spent on renewable energies and technologies.  Financially speaking, the auction was a success, as

Energy, financial and environmental interests paid $3.07 per allotted ton of emissions, about 65 percent more than the minimum set price of $1.86.

Though this is the very first auction of its type in the United States, but there are plans to make these quarterly events, the next of which is to be held December 17.  I’m almost positive there was a better way to word that last clause, but I’m going to just let it go.

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Who’s ready for their Friday buzzkill?  Okay, good.  Your Friday Unfun Fact today comes from the Washington Post, which reports that carbon is building up in the atmosphere faster than anyone predicted, including researchers’ “most dire predictions.”  Sweet!

The 2007 levels of carbon in the atmosphere were 2.9 percent higher than they were in 2006, according the the Global Carbon Project based in Australia (that’s the one with kangaroos, not the one with skiing).  These higher levels of output could, says the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, result in global temperatures being 11 degrees higher by century-end if nothing is done to reverse the trend.

Oh, but it gets better!

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The European Union’s Parliament voted for mandatory cuts of CO2 emissions for cars, despite pressure from Europe’s powerful auto industry. The laudable law demands that car companies to reduce carbon dioxide output by 17% within 4 years and 60% within 12 years. According to the BBC:

“Environmental group Greenpeace said the law change could become ‘the first effective EU law to limit our impact on the climate’.”

Photo: said&done’s Flickr Photostream

takepart to discover other ways we can reduce our impact on the climate.

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Inconvenient Truth of the Day

The Chicago Tribune went out into the Chicagoland area (which is what they call, you know, the area around Chicago) to find the Chicagoan with the lowest carbon footprint, and they came up with Ken Dunn, a 65-year old who is so green his carbon footprint is only about ten percent that of your average American.

Let’s go down the list of what makes Dunn such a lean green fighting machine, minus the fighting.  And the machine.  But the article litearlly does call him “very lean” and “green.”  So anyway.

He rides a bike instead of driving.  He air-dries all his clothes.  He grows his own vegetables.  He heats his home with a wood-burning furnace.  He eats expired and discarded food he gets from his job as a recycler.

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Spremberg, Germany is a stone’s throw from the Czech border, and used to have the unfortunate moniker of “stinky town” due to the high levels of pollution.  Kinda gross, I know.  But the city is trying to turn that around in an unprecedented way: by operating the first ever coal-based power plant that is designed to capture and store the carbon dioxide produced.

Technology Review tells us that a Swedish firm, Vattenfall, is behind the conversion of this formerly-polluting power plant.  The process is semi-confusing, so bear with this somewhat long block quote from the article.  I mean, Technology Review is published by M.I.T., so should I really try to paraphrase?  The odds of me getting it right are slim to nil.

Vattenfall’s small 30-megawatt plant burns the lignite in air from which nitrogen has been removed. Combustion in the resulting oxygen-rich atmosphere produces a waste stream of carbon dioxide and water vapor, three-quarters of which is recycled back into the boiler.

By repeating this process, known as oxyfuel, it is possible to greatly concentrate the carbon dioxide. After particles and sulfur have been removed, and water vapor has been condensed out, the waste gas can be 98 percent carbon dioxide, according to Vattenfall.

This waste gas, for the time being, will trucked 150 away from the city and injected 3,000 meters (approximately a billion miles) underground.

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In today’s segment of “What’s Going On in the City Andy Lives in,” we find ourselves in Chicago, Illinois, where Mayor Richard Daley (and yes, it is illegal to be Mayor of Chicago and not be named Daley) is spearheading an initiative to make the city one of the greenest in the country.  From the Associated Press via msnbc.com, we find out that

The plan calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to three-fourths of 1990 levels by 2020 through more energy-efficient buildings, using clean and renewable energy sources, improving transportation and reducing industrial pollution.

Chicago is considering updating the energy code so that it mandates greener buildings through better insulation and more efficient heating and cooling systems.  The “city also has an agreement with two coal-fired power plants to reduce emissions or shut down by 2015 and 2017,” as well as expanding green rooftops, increasing recylcing and carpooling.

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On a promising note, polar scientists report that the annual summer retreat of sea ice is markedly less than the previous summer. And while seafarers celebrated the brief opening of the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route, the remaining Arctic Ice this summer was still 33% less than the average amount tracked since 1979, and continues the trend towards an ice-free Arctic.

takepart and keep track of the Arctic Ice with the National Snow and Ice Data Center

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I think it’s safe to say we all appreciate old growth forests for their majesty, beauty, and geological significance, but now that we know old growth forests help combat climate change?  Another reason to buy that Redwoods of the Month calendar.

Scientific American reports that trees that are considered “old growth,” meaning undisturbed for more than a century, hold more carbon than they release, compared to younger trees.  And it seems that the environment in which these trees thrive are just overall better for combating climate change.

In fact, not only do old trees continue to store carbon in their wood, forest soils also appear to be actively capturing carbon over time, although direct observations of this process are lacking. All told, by Luyssaert’s calculations the relatively small remaining stands of old-growth forests in the U.S. Pacific Northwest as well as Canada and Russia consume “8 to 20 percent of the global terrestrial carbon sink,” or roughly 440.9 million tons (0.4 gigatonnes) of carbon per year.

The swing of cutting down these old-growth forests, then, is just huge.  Not only are you expending carbon in the clear-cutting itself, the trees you’re cutting down trees that are more effective than any other trees in the world at keeping climate change in check.

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So we write more than occasionally on this site about global warming and how it’s not good and how maybe we should do something about it.  Well, here’s your chance to make some money off your idea on how to combat climate change.  The Eco Business Creation Association, which is in Japan, is holding a “Cool the Earth” idea contest.  The idea is simple, according to the official website.

With the aim of curbing global warming as much as possible and keeping the earth “cool”, we are calling for ideas from around the world for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Applicants will have the opportunity to exchange views or to network over the Internet in order to enhance the feasibility of ideas. Based on the innovative ideas we receive, prototype projects will be conducted in Japan to establish models for reducing emissions. The results of these projects will be reported to the global community in the hope that this will promote further innovation towards reducing CO2 emissions.

There are four different categories to submit your ideas in: domestic and overseas business, and domestic and overseas governmental system/policy.  It should be noted that, in this case, “domestic” does indeed refer to Japan.

And there are prizes!  Cash money prizes!

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Hybrid cars could have some competition from another eco-friendly vehicle, the electric car, in the coming months if Mitsubishi has it’s way. Of course it depends on you, as Mitsubishi plans on brining a only a few of their electric cars to the US to see if there is a viable mass market for them here in the states.

This is pretty exciting considering that there is only one company selling electric cars in the US these days, Tesla. They make the 100,000 dollar Roadster, which is no doubt out of most folks price range. In Japan, Mistubishi’s MiEV, goes for between 45,000-50,000 (not counting a 15,000 government incentive) which seems much more reasonable.

Also getting ready for the electric car market is Nissan and General Motors, who plan on releasing “the volt” in 2010.

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