The Congo River Basin, viewed from space (image by NASA)

When I return to the lab on September 1, I’ll have access to sophisticated equipment, expansive animal husbandry facilities and financial support for my research. Spoiled American that I am, I can’t imagine working in a lab without these amenities, which is why scientists like Yolande Munzimi and  Bwangoy Bankanza have my utmost admiration and respect.

Munzimi and Bankanza are from Kinshasa. Both are Ph.D. students in geospatial science and engineering at South Dakota State University in the United States. Both plan on returning to Kinshasa after they receive their degrees.

“Whatever I’ve been learning so far is to help people back in Africa,” Munzimi told me.  She hopes to return to the Congo and become a professor at the University of Kinshasa. Munzimi likes the United States, but she says she will not settle here. Her goal is to learn and then return, to help the Congo Basin in particular and Africa in general. The best way to do that is to live and work in Africa.

Bankanza is also committed to return to Kinshasa, in part because his wife and children live there. After spending more than ten years teaching at the University of Kinshasa, Bankanza came to the United States on a Fulbright scholarship to further his education. Like Munzimi, Bankanza’s research will have practical applications for people who live in and around the Congo Basin.

But what type of barriers will these two scientists face when they return to Kinshasa?

“In my country, being a professor, it doesn’t pay,” Bankanza said. Before coming to the United States he made about $100 per month teaching. His monthly rent was $200. Fortunately, he also worked for UNESCO’s remote sensing lab at the University of Kinshasa, which paid a decent wage. He was even able to use the lab infrastructure for his own research projects and to train students.

Munzimi pointed to the lack of continuing education as a problem hampering science in Africa. Even though you have the diploma and the education, there are still knowledge gaps about new technologies that were developed since you received your diploma. You might have a good idea but not know about a technique that would allow you to implement your idea. Also, you don’t have the funds to go out and learn the new technique. 

In the United States, Bankanza and Munzimi are learning state-of-the-art methods for monitoring the environment, according to geographer Matthew Hansen, who is Bankanza and Munzimi’s Ph.D. advisor.

“The Congo Basin is a comparatively data poor region when it comes to the environment,” Hansen told me. ”Their expertise will serve the region well by quickly advancing basic knowledge of environmental dynamics.” 

Before starting graduate school, Bankanza spent more than ten years as a teaching assistant at the University of Kinshasa. He was one of the first to offer instruction and training in geographic information systems there, according to Hansen. “Almost all Congolese working in this area now, whether in private, civil society of government sectors, learned from Bwangoy.  Now they train others.”

“I believe that Central Africa can quickly catch up to the likes of Brazil in terms of independent scientific inquiry and analysis through the talents and ambitions of people like Bwangoy and Yolande,” Hansen said.

Munzimi encapsulated the motivation to work in Kinshasa, under less than ideal conditions:

“Africa needs me much more than America may need me.”

The European Environment Agency recently released a report on greenhouse gas emissions, saying that emissions from the European Union (EU) declined for the third consecutive year.

The overall combined domestic emissions of the 27 EU countries were 9.3 percent below 1990 levels, a drop of 1.2 percent or 59 million tons of CO2 equivalent compared to 2006, according to the report.

Two points:

1) Most of this reduction comes from households using less fossil fuels, particularly oil and gas, likely due to warmer weather and higher fuel prices. Household fossil fuel use is not covered by the EU Emission Trading System, an international trading system for CO2 emissions. It seems that so far this trading system has not put much of a dent in EU greenhouse gas emissions.

2) Combining the EU countries together shows a decline in CO2 emissions, but the story is different when we examine individual EU members. Spain’s emissions increased from 433 to 442 million tons of CO2 equivalents (total emissions) in 2006 and 2007. Austria’s emissions declined, but are still above target levels established by the Kyoto treaty.

There are huge disparities in how EU member countries are reducing greenhouse gas emissions (or not).

Image by Paul Milbourne

Carbon moves between plants and animals, earth, atmosphere and oceans in a continuous cycle.

We just published a new feature on the carbon cycle.

Carbon atoms are everywhere: in the food we eat (sugars and fats are carbon compounds) and in fossil fuels like oil and natural gas. Carbon is the most abundant atom in DNA; carbon is the building block of life on Earth, from the smallest microbe to the largest mammal. Carbon is in the soil, the atmosphere and throughout the ocean. Carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe.

Carbon moves between plants and animals, earth, atmosphere and oceans in a continuous cycle. Understanding this cycle is a key to predicting the behavior of Earth’s climate.

Check it out and tell me what you think.

California’s almond growers, which produce 80 percent of the world's supply, are facing a bee shortage.

June 22 - 28 marks National Pollinator Week, when we “appreciate the hard working  animals that help pollinate over 75 percent of our flowering plants and nearly 75 percent of our crops,” according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Flowering plants require pollination, the transfer of pollen grains between flowers of the same species, in order to reproduce and bear fruit. Birds, bees, bats, butterflies, moths, beetles and even the wind transfer pollen among flowers.

Honeybees in particular are central to pollination. Farmers frequently rent commercial honeybee colonies: bee colonies are driven to the farms, allowed to pollinate crops and then removed. Commercial colonies can be driven around the country to pollinate multiple farms.

One of the primary causes of honeybee death worldwide is Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), characterized by a nearly complete absence of adult bees with little or no dead bees in and around the colony. Without adult bees to work, the colony is doomed to collapse.

Scientists are unsure as to the causes of CCD. A 2007 study found a correlation between collapsed colonies and infection with the Israeli acute paralysis virus, a virus of unknown origin first identified in Israel and found throughout the world. However, researchers did not show that the Israeli acute paralysis virus causes CCD.

In February, scientists in Spain reported two cases of apparent CCD associated with a parasite infection (the microsporidium Nosema ceranae). No other significant pathogens or pesticides were detected, but this is not proof that Nosema infection causes CCD.

Perhaps a combination of factors, such as poor nutrition, pesticide exposure and mite and viral infections leads to CCD.

Image by TWW

TWW's house in Brazil, with a white roof, stands out among the neighbor's darker roofs.

Last week I discussed the science behind Secretary of Energy Steven Chu’s comment that making roofs white will conserve energy and reduce global warming.

This photo depicts this scientific principle in action: TWW in Brazil painted her roof white. It looks great, even among a sea of dark colored roofs.

Many thanks to TWW and other readers for submitting their comments. I’m working on a series of features explaining the science behind climate change, so stay tuned!

Image by trillbilly

A house in Bermuda with a white roof.

In an interview with the British newspaper The Independent, Chu said:

“If you look at all the buildings and make all the roofs white, and if you make the pavement a more concrete-type of color than a black-type of color, and you do this uniformly … It’s the equivalent of reducing the carbon emissions due to all the cars in the world by 11 years.”

Let’s tackle energy conservation first. On a hot day, you’ll be much cooler wearing a white shirt than a dark shirt. This is because light colored objects reflect more sunlight. Dark objects absorb more sunlight than light colored objects; the absorbed light then radiates away from the object (or is emitted from the object) as heat. Your dark shirt is absorbing sunlight, and then releasing it as heat, which makes you feel hotter.

Image by Cool Roof Rating Council

A white roof reflects more light and radiates less heat than a dark roof.

A dark roof on a building is like a dark shirt. The roof absorbs sunlight, and then radiates heat into the building. The temperature inside the building increases, and we use energy - in the form of air conditioning - to cool the building. Paint the roof white (or use a reflective material, like white tiles), the roof absorbs less sunlight, less heat is radiated into the building, the temperature inside the building doesn’t increase as much and we don’t need to use as much energy to cool the building. That’s how painting a roof white conserves energy. In the United States, the California state government has become a leader in encouraging the use of white roofs or cool roofs.

White roofs may also reduce global warming.

When sunlight is absorbed by a roof, the roof heats up and radiates heat in the form of  infrared light, which is invisible to humans (it has a longer wavelength than red light). Infrared light is emitted from the roof and reaches the atmosphere, where it is absorbed by gases and re-emitted as infrared light - a continuous cycle of absorption and emission that traps heat in the atmosphere and increases the temperature of the Earth. Gases that absorb and radiate infrared light are called greenhouse gases - these include water vapor, carbon dioxide and ozone.

Atmospheric gases don’t absorb much visible light, which is why sunlight reflected from a white roof - visible light - can travel through the atmosphere and escape into outer space.

Image by redskunk

These principles also apply to car roofs.

Incidentally, light is also absorbed by the Earth - the ground, the soil - and returned to the atmosphere as infrared light, where it is trapped as heat. This is the greenhouse effect. We can’t paint the Earth white to reduce global temperatures, but nature has helped us out a bit, in the form of ice. Polar ice caps and glaciers are like big, white roofs - they reflect much of the incoming sunlight back into the atmosphere and out into space. Scientists and policymakers are concerned that melting ice will expose land, decreasing the amount of sunlight reflected back into space and increasing the amount absorbed by the Earth and trapped in the atmosphere as heat.

Researching this post I have found no reason why we should not be painting our roofs white (or using reflective tiles). Can you think of a reason not to do this? People might complain about having to look at a white roof, but does an aesthetic concern outweigh conserving energy and reducing global warming?

From May 26 - 29, Nobel Laureates from across scientific disciplines were joined by world experts in climate change to discuss “the connections between global warming and other urgent environmental, economic and development challenges facing our world.” The symposium was hosted at The Royal Society and St. James’s Palace in London, under the patronage of the Prince of Wales. 

Steven Chu, the Nobel laureate who now leads the U.S. Department of Energy, attended the symposium and held interviews with the British media.

One of my favorite interviews is with Channel 4, where Chu discusses the cultural shift that must occur to spur Americans to use more renewable energy.  Chu said “the young people get it” and added that just as the young generation helped convinced their parents to quit smoking, so too the current young generation will urge their parents to change their behavior to better protect the environment. Chu advocates rapidly deploying existing energy efficient technologies.

I think it’s safe to say that the United States is now fully engaged in climate change.

Then again, I’m a biased source.