Tag: GHG

Oceans have little or no life due to low levels of oxygen in the water A team of geologists from Newcastle University in the UK have discovered evidence that 'greenhouse oceans' occurred in prehistoric times, resulting in areas of ocean with little or no life due to low levels of oxygen in the water. Their research indicates that the planet could be on the brink of the same phenomenon re-occurring.Professor Martin Kennedy and Professor Thomas Wagner studied sediment samples across a 400,000 year span from the sea floor off the coast of western Africa and discovered that around 85 million years ago, there were mass extinctions of marine life due to what is they have termed 'greenhouse oceans'. High levels of carbon dioxide in the water led to insufficient oxygen to sustain life in many species of marine life.What they noted was layers of deoxygenated sediment from the Late Cretaceous period sandwiched between layers of sediment with visible evidence of life. Thomas Wagner commented on the findings:''We know that 'dead zones' are rapidly growing in size and number in seas and oceans across the globe. These are areas of water that are lacking in oxygen and are suffering from increases ...

ULYSSES project to develop environmentally friendly ultra-slow ships New tankers and bulk carriers built in 2050 could have service speeds of only 5 knots. Partners from nine European countries are working on an EU-funded project called ULYSSES to develop environmentally friendly, ultra-slow ships.The objective of ULYSSES project is to demonstrate, through a combination of ultra slow speeds and complementary technologies, that the efficiency of the world fleet can be increased to a point where the following CO2 targets are met: Before 2020, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent compared to 1990 levels, Beyond 2050, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent compared to 1990 levels.ULYSSES focuses on bulk carriers and tankers as these produce 60 percent of the CO2 from ocean-going vessels. As bulk carriers and tankers are reasonably similar in design and operation, it is felt that investigating these ships will give the best value for money in terms of potential impact of the project. Additionally, it is more technically challenging to reduce the speed of these ship types as they are relatively slow speed already and therefore it is expected that directional stability and other seakeeping issues will arise. However, the results of the project will be ...