The Carnegie Institution for Science is a private organization that conducts basic research for the benefit of humanity.
For 2007-2008, all of the department's carbon emissions for facilities, research, and travel are offset through contributions to CarbonFund.org
July, 2008 —
Ken Caldeira on Wired magazine story on geoengineering more »
June 3, 2008 —
Revolution in Rain Forest Monitoring with MacArthur Grant
more »
March 24, 2008 —
Geoengineering, an idea that is changing the world
more »
March 3, 2008 —
Invading Trees Put Rain Forests at Risk
more »
February 15, 2008 —
Stabilizing Climate Requires Near-Zero Carbon Emissions more »
December 13, 2007 —
Coral Reefs Unlikely to Survive in Acid Oceans more »
October 29, 2007 —
Mellon grant for ecological
monitoring in South Africa more »
Recent News
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 —Nitrogen is essential to all life on Earth, and the processes by which it cycles through the environment may determine how ecosystems respond to global warming. But certain aspects of the nitrogen cycle in temperate and tropical forests have puzzled scientists, defying, in a sense, the laws of supply and demand. Trees capable of extracting nitrogen directly from the atmosphere often thrive where it is readily available in the soil, but not where it is in short supply. Now scientists from the Carnegie Institution have explained the paradox by recognizing the role of two other factors: temperature and the abundance of another key element, phosphorous.more »
Wednesday, June 25, 2008 —Biofuels can be a sustainable part of the world's energy future, especially if bioenergy agriculture is developed on currently abandoned or degraded agricultural lands, report scientists from the Carnegie Institution and Stanford University. Using these lands for energy crops, instead of converting existing croplands or clearing new land, avoids competition with food production and preserves carbon-storing forests needed to mitigate climate change. Sustainable bioenergy is likely to satisfy no more than 10% of the demand in the energy-intensive economies of North America, Europe, and Asia. But for some developing countries, notably in Sub-Saharan Africa, the potential exists to supply many times their current energy needs without compromising food supply or destroying forests.
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Monday, April 28, 2008 — Over millions of years carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have been moderated by a finely tuned natural feedback system—a system that human emissions have recently overwhelmed. A joint University of Hawaii/Carnegie Institution study published in the advance online edition of Nature Geoscience links the pre-human stability to connections between carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the breakdown of minerals in the Earth's crust. While the process occurs far too slowly to have halted the historical buildup of carbon dioxide from human sources, the finding gives scientists new insights into the complexities of the carbon cycle.
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Thursday, April 17, 2008 —The Earth's jet streams, the high-altitude bands of fast winds that strongly influence the paths of storms and other weather systems, are shifting—possibly in response to global warming. Scientists at the Carnegie Institution determined that over a 23-year span from 1979 to 2001 the jet streams in both hemispheres have risen in altitude and shifted toward the poles. The jet stream in the northern hemisphere has also weakened. These changes fit the predictions of global warming models and have implications for the frequency and intensity of future storms, including hurricanes.
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