popowich
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008, 05:09 PM
Scientists Unveil High-Res Map of the U.S. Carbon Footprint
By Alexis Madrigal http://blog.wired.com/images/icon_email.gif (alexis.madrigal@gmail.com)April 07, 2008 | 12:51:13 PM
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/images/2008/04/07/vulacnhighres.jpg (http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/07/vulacnhighres.jpg)
A team of scientists has completed a carbon dioxide emissions inventory of the United States plotted down to 100-square-kilometer chunks.
That means that the NASA- and Department of Energy-funded scientists can detail emissions across all 9 million square kilometers that compose the United States. For a full explanation, check out the video that Purdue's Kevin Gurney put together, which features a number of other excellent CO2 visualizations. Andy Revkin, the New York Times' environment-beat writer, put a memorable headline on a post about the video, calling it, "Breath of a Nation."
The work, known as The Vulcan Project, has already yielded a significant discovery: Previous CO2 estimates that used population as a proxy for emissions overestimated the Northeast's greenhouse-gas generation, while underestimating the coal-heavy Southeast's contribution.
Now, given the opposition of the Southeast's congressional delegations to climate-change action, I'd like to see the new emissions map matched up with House and Senate districts.
By Alexis Madrigal http://blog.wired.com/images/icon_email.gif (alexis.madrigal@gmail.com)April 07, 2008 | 12:51:13 PM
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/images/2008/04/07/vulacnhighres.jpg (http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/07/vulacnhighres.jpg)
A team of scientists has completed a carbon dioxide emissions inventory of the United States plotted down to 100-square-kilometer chunks.
That means that the NASA- and Department of Energy-funded scientists can detail emissions across all 9 million square kilometers that compose the United States. For a full explanation, check out the video that Purdue's Kevin Gurney put together, which features a number of other excellent CO2 visualizations. Andy Revkin, the New York Times' environment-beat writer, put a memorable headline on a post about the video, calling it, "Breath of a Nation."
The work, known as The Vulcan Project, has already yielded a significant discovery: Previous CO2 estimates that used population as a proxy for emissions overestimated the Northeast's greenhouse-gas generation, while underestimating the coal-heavy Southeast's contribution.
Now, given the opposition of the Southeast's congressional delegations to climate-change action, I'd like to see the new emissions map matched up with House and Senate districts.