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Ohio Valley, California have highest levels of carbon dioxide mongabay.com January 22, 2007 The Ohio Valley and California have the high levels of carbon dioxide produced by fossil fuels combustion, while Colorado has the least, found a new study published in the January 23rd issue of Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. Researchers led by Diana Hsueh at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), used corn to measure carbon dioxide levels. A news release from the American Geophysical Union explains:
Carbon dioxide derived from fossil fuels contains no radiocarbon, so it is easily distinguishable from other sources. With measurements from the mass spectrometer, the scientists calculated overall levels of carbon dioxide produced by fossil fuels at the locations where the corn samples were collected.
"Many nations are facing increasing pressure to monitor and regulate the release of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel sources to limit greenhouse gas warming," said James Randerson, associate professor of Earth system science and a co-author of the study. "This method can help determine how much fossil fuel carbon dioxide is coming from different regions." "We have to better understand emission patterns and changes in the atmosphere in order to better regulate fossil fuels," said Susan Trumbore, professor of Earth system science at UCI. "This is a direct way to measure the release of carbon dioxide emissions that are contributing to climate warming." Citation: Hsueh, D. Y., N. Y. Krakauer, J. T. Randerson, X. Xu, S. E. Trumbore, and J. R. Southon (2007), Regional patterns of radiocarbon and fossil fuel-derived CO2 in surface air across North America, Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L02816, doi:10.1029/2006GL027. This article is based on news release from the American Geophysical Union. Comments? News options News index | RSS | News Feed Advertisements: Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing |
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