'Emissions-free' power plant pilot fires up in Germany

One of Europe's biggest power firms inaugurated a prototype coal-fired power station on Tuesday it says is almost emissions-free but environmentalists were less than impressed.

Located on the site of the existing Schwarze Pumpe power station in eastern Germany, Sweden's Vattenfall said the new technology has the potential to allow coal to be burnt without releasing harmful greenhouse gases.

"Today industrial history is being written," Vattenfall Europe's chief executive Tuomo Hatakka told a news conference.

"Coal has a future, we are convinced of that, but the carbon dioxide emissions from it have no future."

After first burning the coal, or in this case lignite, in pure oxygen -- itself a new method -- Vattenfall captures the carbon dioxide released using a technology called Carbon Capture and Storage, or CCS.

This involves compressing the gas, transporting it away in liquid form and sending it deep underground where it is safely sealed away, either in depleted gas or oil fields or in underground cavities full of saltwater.

Capturing the gases prevents them escaping into the Earth's atmosphere and contributing to global warming.

In the case of the pilot plant outside Spremberg close to the Polish border, the liquid carbon dioxide is taken 350 kilometres (210 miles) in lorries and injected "for permanent storage" into an empty gas field in northern Germany.

With around two-thirds of the world's power generated by burning fossil fuels and humanity set to rely heavily on these "for the foreseeable future," Vattenfall says the new technology is the way forward.

But environmental groups, which staged a small demonstration outside the plant on Thursday as some 400 guests arrived for the inauguration ceremony, said the technology would never catch on.

Germany's BUND pressure group slammed CCS as a "fig leaf" allowing new coal-fired power stations that chuck out millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide to be built while giving the appearance of addressing global warming.

"Vattenfall managers talk a lot about supposedly environmentally friendly coal power stations but they are still planning and building conventional coal-fired power stations with high levels of CO2 emissions," BUND's energy spokesman Thorben Becker said.

Greenpeace said that CCS decreases the amount of energy produced by coal-fired plants by 10 to 40 percent, meaning a much greater amount of coal must be burnt to produce the same amount of energy.

But the World Wide Fund for Nature was more forgiving, believing CCS "can serve as a technological bridge" until a better alternative is developed, WWF climate expert Regine Guenther told the Berlin daily Tageszeitung.

Vattenfall admitted that the technology has some way to go, not least with regard to its high cost, but also in terms of the infrastructure needed to transport and store the captured carbon dioxide.

At the pilot project around four trucks will be needed to take away the 240 tonnes of gas produced every day, and if CCS was applied on a large scale, the volume produced would mean that pipelines would need to be built, Vattenfall's vice-president for research Lars Stroemberg said.

The firm insisted that storing the gas was safe, however, saying underground reservoirs of carbon dioxide already occur naturally in geological formations where it has been trapped by sedimentary rocks in much the same way as oil or gas.

"There is much more storage capacity than will ever be needed," Stroemberg said.

Pyrenees Glaciers Disappearing

The crisp, white glaciers of the Pyrenees, the mountain range along the border between France and Spain, have substantially receded in the past 15 years and could disappear by 2050 due to global warming, a new study suggests.

The retreat of glaciers in Greenland and areas like Glacier National Park have been well-documented, but less well-studied are the situations of alpine glaciers around the world.

Researchers at the University of Cantabria, the Autonomous University of Madrid and the University of Valladolid compiled data from current and historic studies of the glaciers in the high mountain regions of the Iberian Peninsula to gauge how climate change has affected these icy behemoths.

"High mountains are particularly sensitive areas to climate and environmental changes, and how glaciers evolve there in response to climate change is one of the most effective indicators of current global warming," said study leader Juan Jose González Trueba.

González Trueba and his colleagues found that the steady increase in temperature - a total of 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) since 1890 - in Spain's northern mountains indicated that the Pyrenean glaciers would disappear before 2050.

There are only 21 glaciers in the Pyrenees (10 on the Spanish side and 11 on the French side) covering an area of 1.7 miles squared (4.5 kilometers squared), the researchers found.

Calculations show that rapid melting over the past 15 years has caused the total regression of the smallest glaciers and a reduction of 50 to 60 percent of the surface area of the largest glaciers.

The study's findings are detailed in a recent issue of the journal The Holocene.

Video: Learn How Ice Melts Glaciers Disappear in Before & After Photos North vs. South Poles: 10 Wild Differences Original Story: Pyrenees Glaciers Disappearing LiveScience.com chronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our science videos, Trivia & Quizzes and Top 10s. Join our community to debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for free newsletters, register for RSS feeds and get cool gadgets at the LiveScience Store.

Afghanistan, economy, environment top Canada election agenda

The role of Canada's military in Afghanistan, the global economy and climate change are expected to top the agenda in upcoming snap elections called on Sunday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Harper called the October 14 vote after nearly two-and-half years of struggling to govern with a minority government.

The Conservative leader, who is hoping his party can get closer to an absolute majority in the 308-seat legislature, told reporters the election would lay out for voters the stark contrast between right and left economic and environmental policies.

"We have come to a moment that requires the people of Canada to choose a way forward," Harper said after asking Governor General Michaelle Jean, Canada's titular head, to dissolve parliament.

"Between now and October 14th, Canadians will choose a government to look out for their interest in a time of global economic trouble," Harper said.

"They will choose between clear direction or uncertainty, between common sense or risky experiments, between steadiness or recklessness."

The leader of the Liberal Party, Stephane Dion, meanwhile said the election was pivotal because "there has never been a federal election that has more clearly provided to Canadians such a stark choice between two visions for our country."

Dion called Harper's government "the most conservative government in our history" and pledged to reduce poverty in Canada by one-third overall and one-half among children.

Harper's announcement came with Canada's military involvement in Afghanistan expected to figure prominently during the campaigning, as Ottawa announced the combat death Sunday of another Canadian soldier -- the fourth this week. It was the 97th Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan since 2003.

There are some 2,500 Canadian soldiers currently in Afghanistan. Ottawa's mission was extended to 2011 by the Conservatives with qualified support from the Liberals, but recent opinion polls suggest a slight majority of Canadians oppose Canada's role in the mission.

The Bloc Quebecois and the New Democrats meanwhile have been consistently opposed it.

Harper said the Conservatives would run on a record that includes lowering taxes, changing rules to prevent funding of political campaigns by large corporations and unions, lengthening mandatory criminal sentences and allocating money for family child care.

The sagging economy is also expected to be a major campaign theme, despite a historically-low unemployment rate of 6.1 percent, amid fears of a recession.

Before dissolution the Conservatives held 127 seats, the Liberals 95, the Bloc Quebecois 48, and the New Democratic Party 30. Four seats were vacant while Independents held another four seats, including the seat of one member of Parliament who announced this week he would join the relatively new Green Party.

Opinion polls in the past year have suggested only a slight difference between support for the Liberals and Conservatives.

Recent surveys showed a strengthening of support for the Conservatives, and some pundits suggest the party could win a majority. But Harper downplayed that possibility Sunday, telling reporters, "in all likelihood it will be a minority."

He launched his campaign in the Francophone province of Quebec, where for the first time polls put the Conservatives neck-and-neck with the separatist Bloc Quebecois.

Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Bloc Quebecois, compared Harper and the Conservatives to the administration of US President George W. Bush.

"Let us never forget, never, that Stephen Harper wanted to take Canada into the Iraq war in 2003," said Duceppe, adding the main election choice is between his vision and "a society where the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer."

Jack Layton, leader of the New Democrats, suggested the governments of the past quarter-century run by either Conservatives or Liberals were more alike than not.

Meanwhile, Green Party leader Elizabeth May, whose party is hoping to capture its first elected seat, urged Canadians not to be cynical about politics and to get involved, and demand better environmental stewardship.

"Our species stands on a precipice," she said. "It's a moment of great peril ... and right now many Canadians are tuned out. There is no other planet which we can move to."

Armed police end Greenpeace timber export ship protest

Armed police have removed four activists from a timber cargo ship on the South Pacific island of Papua New Guinea, ending a three-day protest against logging, environmentalists said Saturday.

"Armed police have escorted Greenpeace activists off a logging cargo ship on Papua New Guinea's Aiai River at Paia," Greenpeace Australia said in a statement. "The activists were harnessed to the ship's crane for 55 hours."

The activists had prevented the ship from loading logs bound for China at the remote port on Papua New Guinea's south coast.

The environmental group had been invited to the area by local landowners who were concerned about logging operations on their land.

Forests across the island of New Guinea and the nearby Solomon Islands make up a third of the world's tropical rain forests.

Greenpeace claims that 90 percent of logging in Papua New Guinea is illegal because many concession permits have been granted by the PNG government without proper consultation with landowners.

"What needs to happen is a moratorium and a review of all existing logging concessions," said Greenpeace spokeswoman Valerie Phillips.

Papua New Guinea Forests Minister Belden Namah rejected the Greenpeace claims. "As far as I'm concerned all the logging activities in Papua New Guinea have been legally sanctioned," he said.

Recently, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare had a series of meetings in Europe about potential carbon trading deals that would see PNG receive money for not cutting down its forests.

Pyrenees glaciers will melt by 2050: Spanish study

Climate change will melt the 21 remaining glaciers in the Pyrenees mountains before 2050, a group of Spanish researchers said Friday.

"The steady increase in temperature -- a total of 0.9 degrees Celsius from 1890 to today -- indicates that the Pyrenees glaciers will disappear before 2050, experts say," said a statement published on the SINC website, an official science news site.

The melting of the glaciers is "a result of the global warming we are experiencing," said Juan Gonzalez Trueba, professor at the University of Cantrabria, who led the study.

"High mountains are areas which are particularly sensitive to changes in the climate and environment. The melting of the glaciers is one of the clearest indicators that global warming is happening right now," Trueba said.

Researchers from the universities of Cantabria, Madrid and Valladolid conducted "the first global study" into thawing in the three mountainous areas in Spain: the Pyrenees on the border with France, the Picos in the north-west and Sierra Nevada in the south, the statement said.

"Between 1880 and 1980, at least 94 glaciers melted in the Iberian peninsula. Another 17 disappeared from the 1980s to the present day," the SNIC website said.

Now there are only 21 glaciers in all of the Pyrenees -- 10 on the Spanish side and 11 on the French side of the border. The glaciers cover a total area of 4.5 square kilometres (1.7 square miles).

"From 1990 to today, our calculations show this rapid thawing caused the smallest glaciers to completely disappear whereas the surface area of the larger glaciers was reduced by 50 to 60 percent," the statement said.

Europe's most southerly glacier which used to be in the Sierra Nevada disappeared at the start of the 20th century, while the glaciers in the Picos mountains have also vanished.

All glaciers in Spain were formed during a "mini ice age" which lasted from 1300 to 1860. The largest expansion of glaciers came between 1645 and 1710.

The Spanish researchers also found that the melting of the Pyrenees glaciers is not a new phenomenon. Thawing of the smaller glaciers in this area was detected between 1750 and the start of the 19th century.

Experts offer scaled-back sea level rise forecast

Worldwide sea levels may rise by about 2.6 to 6.6 feet by 2100 thanks to global warming, but dire predictions of larger increases seem unrealistic, U.S. scientists said on Thursday.

They examined scenarios for loss of ice from Greenland, Antarctica and the world's smaller glaciers and ice caps into the world's oceans, as well as ocean expansion simply due to rising water temperatures.

Their calculations yielded estimates for global sea level increases by the end of the century that are lower than many existing projections, but alarming nonetheless.

"If you look at the actual mechanics of how glaciers work, there doesn't seem to be a realistic way that we know about to get more than about 2 meters of sea level rise in the next century," Tad Pfeffer of the University of Colorado's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, whose study was published in the journal Science, said in a telephone interview.

"The real unknown right now is what we call the dynamic effect of ice not melting but just being pushed straight into the ocean," Pfeffer added, referring to pieces of ice breaking off from huge masses of ice such as glaciers and ice sheets and floating in the sea.

Scientists have been working to predict the global effects in coming decades of rising temperatures attributed to human activities that have fueled a "greenhouse effect" on Earth.

Rising sea levels are one of the threats. Scientists have debated how much the seas will rise this century, and some have predicted increases far higher than what this study predicts.

Previous projections of 20 feet or more of sea level rise by the end of the century do not seem to be supported by solid evidence, Pfeffer said.

Pfeffer and scientists at the University of Montana and the University of California at San Diego came up with an estimate of a sea level rise of about 2.6 feet. But their calculations using a "realistic worst-case scenario" produced a predicted rise of 6.6 feet, Pfeffer said.

Even an increase in that range would likely cause major problems in low-lying coastal areas that are home to untold millions of people, he said.

For example, regions of Bangladesh, China and elsewhere could be devastated, while coastal cities such as New Orleans, Amsterdam or Venice could be swamped.

"These places throughout the world where Third World populations live within a meter of sea level and grow a lot of their food within a meter of sea level, they're the ones who are really going to be hurt," Pfeffer said.

(Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Todd Eastham)

How Smarter Cars Could Power the Future

Editor's Note: Each Wednesday LiveScience examines the viability of emerging energy technologies - the power of the future.

Stopping, starting and accelerating your car or SUV can burn unnecessary amounts of fuel while driving. To combat this known challenge, two new technologies have recently come out to provide a greener driving experience.

Nissan's Eco Pedal pushes back on a driver's lead foot, while Audi's Travolution tells a driver how fast to go to make the next green light.

"They are definitely part of a growing trend and are also definitely a good idea - in the category of 'every little bit helps,'" said Mike Millikin, editor of the Green Car Congress, a Web site covering sustainable transportation options.

Several efforts, such as the consumer-based hypermiling movement and the Ford Motor Company's EcoDriving Tips, aim to encourage more efficient driving behavior, such as accelerating smoothly and braking gradually."

The next step is to put technology in the car to make it easier for consumers to eco-drive, Millikin told LiveScience. "Although the benefits of eco-driving, if realized, will by default happen through mass adoption by drivers of cars that don't have the spiffy indicators," he said.

Eco Pedal

Nissan introduced the Eco Pedal last month as a way to actively optimize driving behavior. When the system detects that the driver is pressing too hard on the gas, the pedal pushes back on the foot to inform the driver that they are over-accelerating.

By reducing aggressive driving, the Eco Pedal can improve fuel efficiency by 5 to 10 percent, according to Nissan research. Commercialization of the product will begin in 2009.

It remains to be seen whether drivers will appreciate an "electronic nanny" that tries to alter their driving style. Judging from the Internet response, many consumers are hesitant to give this much control of their vehicle to a computer.

For these people, the Eco Pedal comes with an off-switch.

Travolution

A second kind of "dummy light" technology aims to discourage those who speed all the way up to a red light.

For the past two years, Audi has been testing their traffic control system, Travolution, in the German city of Ingolstadt.

The pilot project incorporates 46 traffic lights that are optimized to increase traffic flow. Three of these lights also beam out a signal that tells when they will turn green. Specially-equipped cars take this signal and compute a speed that the driver should maintain to avoid having to stop at the traffic light.

As of now, there are only two cars using Travolution, but Audi plans to extend the program by 20 additional cars and 50 more traffic lights.

Changing drivers

As these technologies are designed to demonstrate, fuel efficiency is not only about buying hybrids or designing less power-hungry vehicles. It is also about making drivers more conscientious.

Millikin said that Japan has made it clear that in order to reduce fuel consumption and the associated greenhouse gas emission, there need to be improvements in three areas: vehicle/fuel technology, driving behavior and traffic infrastructure.

"In the U.S., we're beginning to frame the problem publicly in that way," he said.

Hypermiling: Driving Tricks Stretch Miles Per Gallon New In-Car Device Warns Speeding Drivers The Science of Traffic Jams
Original Story: How Smarter Cars Could Power the Future LiveScience.com chronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our science videos, Trivia & Quizzes and Top 10s. Join our community to debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for free newsletters, register for RSS feeds and get cool gadgets at the LiveScience Store.