Linked with terra choice.com.
He is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Professor by Courtesy of Energy Resources Engineering.
The main goal of Jacobson’s research is to understand physical, chemical, and dynamical processes in the atmosphere better in order to address atmospheric problems, such as climate change and urban air pollution, with improved scientific insight and more accurate predictive tools. He also evaluates the atmospheric effects of different solutions to climate change and air pollution problems, supports mapping and analysis of winds for wind energy, and studies issues related to combining renewable energies … (full text stanford 1/2).
He says: « These aerosol particles are having an effect worldwide on the wind speeds over land; there’s a slowing down of the wind, feeding back to the rainfall too », … (full text).
Watch his video: Ethanol may lead to more ozone-related deaths, 3.54 min, April 24, 2007.
.
.
Mark Z. Jacobson – USA
His Blog: Mark Z. Jacobson.
The study found that carbon dioxide increases ozone and particulate matter – unhealthful pollutants in smog – by increasing temperatures and water vapor in the atmosphere. What’s more, it showed that ozone, in particular, increases the most where it is already high. This does not bode well for California, which has six of the 10 most polluted cities in the United States: Los Angeles, Visalia-Porterville, Bakersfield, Fresno, Merced and Sacramento. (full text).
Newest articles with reference to Mark Z. Jacobson:
- Are Florida ethanol plants worth it? By Asjylyn Loder, March 3, 2008.
- Carbon Dioxide Tied To Air Pollution Mortality, Mar. 4, 2008;
- CO2 new member in the ‘killer gases’ group, Febr. 23, 2008.
He says also: « Ethanol is being promoted as a clean and renewable fuel that will reduce global warming and air pollution, » said Jacobson, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. »But our results show that a high blend of ethanol poses an equal or greater risk to public health than gasoline, which already causes significant health damage … » (full text).
Effects of Ethanol (E85) Versus Gasoline Vehicles on Cancer and Mortality in the United States.
Mark Z. Jacobson, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, recently published that « a blend of ethanol poses an equal or greater [environmental health] risk than gasoline, which already causes significant health damage ». His paper, based on computer models, appeared in the online edition of Environmental Science and Technology. The study suggested a net few hundred more people in America might suffer respiratory illnesses if the nation were to switch all vehicles to 100% ethanol. It received mainstream media attention this week, given that ethanol proponents have long maintained that the fuel is substantially less polluting, citing volumes of data … (full text).
Fundamentals of Atmospheric Modeling, 16 pdf-pages.
To accomplish many of these goals, he has developed and applied numerical solvers to simulate gas, aerosol, cloud, radiative, and land/ocean-surface processes. In 1993-4, he developed the first gas-aerosol-radiative air-pollution model with interactive feedback to weather on any scale. In 2001, he invented the nested global-through-urban air-pollution-weather-climate model. In 2000, he discovered that black carbon, the main component of soot particles, may be the second-leading cause of global warming after carbon dioxide. He has also examined the relative effects of greenhouse gases versus aerosols on global climate, the effects of aerosols on ultraviolet radiation, the effects of aerosol mixing state on atmospheric heating, the effects of biomass burning on climate, the effect of hydrogen fuel cells on air pollution and the ozone layer, the effects of aerosols on winds and precipitation, the effects of ethanol and diesel vehicles on air quality, the effects of agriculture on air pollution, and the effects of carbon dioxide on health. To date, he has published two textbooks and 75 peer-reviewed journal articles. Several hundred researchers have
used computer models that he has developed. In 2005, he received the American Meteorological Society Henry G. Houghton Award for « significant contributions to modeling aerosol chemistry and to understanding the role of soot and other carbon particles on climate.” His recent paper, « Effects of ethanol versus gasoline on cancer and mortality in the United States » was the top-accessed article in the Journal Environmental Science and Technology for April-September, 2007 … (full text stanford 2/2).
ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION, HISTORY, SCIENCE AND REGULATION – USA.
He writes:
The Ground Zero Grassy Knoll: A new generation of conspiracy theorists is at work on a secret history of New York’s most terrible day, by Mark J. Jacobson, March 20, 2006.
Professor Mark Z Jacobson of Stanford University, California has an impressive series of qualifications. He is a civil engineer, holds qualifications in economics and in environmental engineering (he holds the post of Professor of Environmental Engineering at Stanford). He is an expert on atmospheric science. He tries to understand physical, chemical, and dynamical processes in the atmosphere and he has an equally impressive number of peer reviewed papers and well received text books for someone who got his first degree in 1988 … (full text).
Confessions on Climate, March 4, 2008.
The idea that ethanol is a cleaner-burning, healthier alternative to gasoline seems to be catching on. So I decided to test that notion. I calculated the effects on cancer and mortality in the United States in the year 2020 assuming that the nation’s entire vehicle fleet was fueled by a high blend of ethanol, known as E85. The conclusion? The emissions from running our trucks and cars on E85 would cause at least as significant health damage as running them on gasoline. The study raised the possibility that ethanol might even slightly exacerbate death rates from respiratory illness relative to gasoline. The results were published last month in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. If we know deaths due to ethanol will be on the same order as those from gasoline, it raises an obvious question: Why are we now diverting tens of millions of dollars in public resources to build an ethanol infrastructure when there are other solutions that would better address global warming and land-use constraints while also providing domestic energy security? It seems that we are moving sideways rather than forward … (full text).
His profile on standford.
Find him and his publications on indigo.ca; on Informatik Uni Trier; on Cambridge Catalogue; on ingenta connect; on amazon; Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.
Review of “Effects of Ethanol (E85) Versus Gasoline Vehicles on Cancer and Mortality in the United States”, authored by Mark Z. Jacobson, by Gary Z. Whitten, Smog Reyes: While the model used in this study by Mark Z. Jacobson is very extensive and sophisticated, the quality of the results from any modeling study always dependant on the quality of the inputs used for the model. In the present case, these inputs are questionable, mainly due to the time projection out to 2020. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is currently struggling with an emissions inventory to be used in air quality models that will attempt to predict 2010; yet Professor Jacobson is attempting to predict 2020. Furthermore, the differences in air quality predicted for 2020 between ethanol and gasoline fuels are much smaller than the differences expected in California for just gasoline vehicles in the four years between now and 2010. Thus, even the base gasoline predictions are uncertain for a year so far in the future as 2020, let alone the potential emissions using E85.
links:
Videos on Ethanol;
Stephen Dryden, President of Midwest Renewable Energy Corporation, talks about generating wind power in the upper Midwest;
the website of hydrogen-commerce;
Ethanol and Other Biofuels, on Hubbert Peak of Oil Production (their homepage);
Forest Burning Is A Net Contributor To Global Warming, Scientist Says;
The six sins of greenwashing (the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service);
Download A Study of Environmental Claims in North American Consumer Markets, 15 pdf-pages;