Organic produce for sale at a market. (AP Photo)

We each have a part to play in adapting to and mitigating climate change. The importance of local action and personal responsibility has spread around the world and fostered a thriving industry around helping us make “green” choices as consumers in the process. “Sure, it costs a little more to buy organic products or recycled toilet paper, but it is the right thing to do for the earth,” we might think, “so that makes me a better person.” That is exactly the attitude a study published in the most recent issue of the journal Psychological Science warns us about.

The scientists and engineers at NASA don’t only explore space. They also use their galactic vantage point to look back at Earth and study the planet’s changing climate.

U.S. space shuttle above Earth's surface. (NASA)

Every year, for example, scientists at NASA’S Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York analyze global temperature data.

This year they found that 2009 tied as the second-warmest year since instruments began recording global temperatures 130 years ago. Worldwide, the mean temperature was 0.57 degrees Celsius (1.03 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the 1951-1980 base period.

January 2000 to December 2009 came out as the warmest decade on record.

Take a look at NASA’s new web feature, A Warming World, to watch videos, read articles and study imagery designed to help tell the story of our warming world.

Learn more and share your thoughts.

An international gathering of climate-change experts and companies with an interest in methane gas is wrapping up the Methane to Markets Partnership Expo in New Delhi today. Participants spent the past four days discussing technologies and funding for capturing the potent greenhouse gas and turning it into a clean energy source.

Methane gas from decomposing garbage fuel these transformers near Roosevelt, Washington. (© AP Images)

Landfills, animal farms, coal mines, wastewater treatment plants and a variety of industries contribute to the gas. Melting Arctic ice and permafrost are also becoming a growing source of emissions.

Bloom Energy CEO KR Sridhar holds a stack of fuel cells known as the Bloom Box. (AP Photo)

Last week, the Internet was buzzing about a new energy technology. The “Bloom Box,” just unveiled by Bloom Energy, has been shrouded in secrecy for years but has attracted about $400 million in venture capital and some prominent backers.

But is this compact fuel-cell technology, purportedly twice as efficient as the current electric grid with half the carbon footprint, more game-changer or pipe-dream?

In February, John Holdren, President Obama’s science adviser, held a webchat on the science and impacts of climate change. Holdren, himself a scientist, got lots of questions from around the world but received many more than he had time to answer.

White House Science Adviser Dr. John Holdren. (White House)

Here, over several blog entries, we’ll answer some of those questions. Topics range from climate change mitigation and adaptation, clean energy and a carbon tax to the Copenhagen climate conference, carbon dioxide and the difference between global warming and climate change.

Today’s question is from Jessica Barret: What is an example of a way we can create cooling effects to offset greenhouse heating?

Answer:

According to the journal IEEE Spectrum, there are nine ways to cool the planet. A few of them are being used now but some are pretty futuristic.

HAPPENING NOW

Reflective roofs: Painting roofs and roads white could cool populated places by reflecting sunlight.

Reforestation: Trees pull carbon dioxide out of the air and use it to form wood. Read about the program called REDD to fight deforestation and forest degradation.

Carbon dioxide capture and storage: An emerging technology captures carbon dioxide from industrial processes and stores it deep underground for long periods of time.

FOR THE FUTURE

Stratocumulus clouds. (copyright University Corportation for Atmospheric Research)

Cloud cover: Ships could spray salt-water droplets that would make ocean clouds more long-lasting and reflective, cooling the planet.

Space shields: Massive, steerable ultrathin screens orbiting between Earth and the sun would divert some of the sun’s energy away from Earth to cool the atmosphere.

Space dust: Reflective particles in low orbit would reflect sunlight and cool the planet.

Particles in the stratosphere: Sulfate or other reflective particles injected at the equator would stay aloft in the stratosphere for one or two years, reflecting sunlight and cooling the planet.

Reflective balloons: Reflective balloons launched into the stratosphere would bounce a portion of the sun’s energy away from Earth before it had a chance to warm the surface or the lower atmosphere.

Iron dust: Iron particles spread over unproductive parts of the ocean cause plankton blooms. The plankton absorb carbon dioxide and when they die carry some carbon with them to the ocean bottom.

The best way to cool the planet is to reduce and ultimately stop industrial processes and transportation from leaking greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. In the meantime, as temperatures rise and world leaders work to keep temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius, at least there are some ways now and maybe in the future to keep the heat down.

What do you think is the best way to cool the planet?

Learn more and share your thoughts.

White House Science Adviser Dr. John Holdren. (White House)

In February, John Holdren, President Obama’s science adviser, held a webchat on the science and impacts of climate change. Holdren, himself a scientist, got lots of questions from around the world but received many more than he had time to answer.

 Here, over several blog entries, we’ll answer some of those questions. Topics range from climate change mitigation and adaptation, clean energy and a carbon tax to the Copenhagen climate conference, carbon dioxide and the difference between global warming and climate change.

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Water lilies grow next to a wetland in Georgia. (© AP Images)

February 2 is World Wetlands Day.

Wetland ecosystems are cradles of biological diversity, offering water and productive platforms that so many species of plants and animals depend on for survival. They support critical concentrations of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects and worms, and are an important storehouse for plant genetic materials. Rice, a common wetland plant, is the staple diet of more than half the world’s population.

Every year since 1997, World Wetlands Day has marked the signing of the Convention on Wetlands on February 2, 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and groups of citizens from many communities mark the day and the Ramsar Convention with activities that raise public awareness of wetland values and benefits.

The Sapling Project, an urban tree planting campaign started by two Mumbaikars is inspiring citizens across India to create more green spaces in their local communities and make a commitment to combat climate change one tree at a time. The movement is spreading quickly and gaining attention from the Indian press and the international community.

This web-based project uses social media platforms to organize tree distribution drives in cities around the country. Saplings are distributed to participants free of charge with one caveat: they must make a commitment to monitor and post updates on the growth and progress of their planted trees on a social media platform over the next two years.

On January 26, the Sapling Project organized tree distribution and planting activities in Mumbai, Bombay, Bangalore and Chennai. The project’s founders, Satish Vijaykumar and Ranjeet Walunj, spent the day delivering trees around Mumbai while friends and volunteers coordinated events at local gardens and schools. As citizens celebrated Republic Day, India’s day of independence, they also had something else to celebrate - a step toward a cleaner, greener India for future generations.

I spoke via e-mail with Satish Vijaykumar (one of the organization’s founders) and asked him a few questions about the project:

Q: What inspired you to start the Sapling Project?

A: “One day, I was at a restaurant and I realized that we normal citizens don’t have a cause that we are associated with or think is worth living for. Then I thought that I shall buy a few saplings and hand them out to people who cared for the environment. I called up my friend Ranjeet and shared the idea. He also bought the idea and suggested we go online and involve more people and that snowballed into The Sapling Project.”

The Sapling Project's organizers

Q: How do you use social media to spread your message?

A: “We have a Facebook group ‘the Sapling Project’ and we drive the traffic to our website (http://thesaplingproject.com) from our Twitter, Facebook and Orkut messages. Our website allows users to provide their details (demographics/contact details), which we use to organize the sapling distribution drive in their location.”

Q: How will the sapling project help the environment and combat climate change?

A: “We think that we have triggered a small movement across the nation where normal individuals can come together and collectively do good for the environment and society at large.”

Q: What do you hope people will learn from the experience of planting a tree and monitoring its growth?

A: “We are looking to inspire people to have ‘connection’ with the nature. When people are participating in the Sapling Project; they are actually making a commitment to take care of the sapling till it grows into a small tree.

It’s like growing your own child when you are taking care of the sapling. And in the process they are essentially providing better future to next generation.”

This tree planting campaign represents one of many grassroots green movements that are taking place around the globe. What grassroots green campaigns are you involved in?

ARPA-E - for Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy - was established with $400 million in funding. It’s a bold concept - focus on high-risk, high-payoff concepts developed by small businesses, academic institutions and large corporations and turn them into technologies that promise true transformations in areas like large-scale use of energy efficiency technology, alternative and advanced energy sources, smart-grid power generation and management, and energy-storage technology.