The Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory geothermal program in northern Nevada

The Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory's geothermal program began with consideration of regions where fluids in the temperature range of 150 to 230 C may be economically accessible. Three valleys, located in an area of high regional heat flow in north central Nevada, were selected for geological, geophysical, and geochemical field studies. The objective of these ongoing field activities is to select a site for a 10-MW demonstration plant. Field activities (which started in September 1973) are described. A parallel effort has been directed toward the conceptual design of a 10-MW isobutane binary plant which is planned for construction at the selected site. Design details of the plant are described. Project schedule with milestones is shown together with a cost summary of the project

The mitigation pillar of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA): targets and options

The need to prioritise food security in the face of a changing climate raises the question of how much agriculture should contribute to global mitigation targets. A global target for reducing methane and nitrous oxide emissions from agriculture of ~1 gigatonne of carbon dioxide equivalent per year (GtCO2e/yr) by 2030 would limit warming in 2100 to 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Yet low emissions development (LED) in agriculture, based on available technologies and policies, will deliver only a portion of the needed mitigation. More transformative options will be needed, including carbon sequestration, reduced food loss and waste, and shifts in consumption

Clinical relevance of circulating tumour cells in the bone marrow of patients with SCCHN

Background: Clinical outcome of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (SCCHN) depends on several risk factors like the presence of locoregional lymph node or distant metastases, stage, localisation and histologic differentiation of the tumour. Circulating tumour cells in the bone marrow indicate a poor prognosis for patients with various kinds of malignoma. The present study examines the clinical relevance of occult tumour cells in patients suffering from SCCHN. Patients and Methods: Bone marrow aspirates of 176 patients suffering from SCCHN were obtained prior to surgery and stained for the presence of disseminated tumour cells. Antibodies for cytokeratin 19 were used for immunohistochemical detection with APAAP on cytospin slides. Within a clinical follow-up protocol over a period of 60 months, the prognostic relevance of several clinicopathological parameters and occult tumour cells was evaluated. Results: Single CK19-expressing tumour cells could be detected in the bone marrow of 30.7% of the patients. There is a significant correlation between occult tumour cells in the bone marrow and relapse. Uni- and multivariate analysis of all clinical data showed the metastases in the locoregional lymph system and detection of disseminated tumour cells in the bone marrow to be statistically highly significant for clinical prognosis. Conclusion: The detection of minimal residual disease underlines the understanding of SCCHN as a systemic disease. Further examination of such cells will lead to a better understanding of the tumour biology, as well as to improvement of diagnostic and therapeutic strategies

Next steps for climate change mitigation in agriculture

Agriculture can contribute significantly to climate change mitigation, but more action is needed to identify appropriate implementation mechanisms, technical guidelines, policies and sources of finance to improve readiness and capacity building

A rough estimate of the proportion of global emissions from agriculture due to smallholders

Smallholders in developing countries produce, on a very rough estimate, 5% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. This figure includes emissions due to both agriculture and land use change for agriculture. Mitigation actions in smallholder agriculture now could support farm livelihoods and more sustainable agriculture in the long run, but should only be introduced where they have the potential to advance rather than constrain rural development outcomes

A gender strategy for pro-poor climate change mitigation

The Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security Research Program (CCAFS) of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Resources (CGIAR) CCAFS “seeks to overcome the threats to agriculture and food security in a changing climate, exploring new ways of helping vulnerable rural communities adjust to global changes in climate.”1 The CCAFS Gender Strategy (Ashby, et al. 2012) makes the case for gender analysis as critical to increased production, improved outcomes for poverty alleviation and increased well-being, and a fairer distribution of burdens and benefits in agriculture among women and men. This report proposes a gender strategy for climate change mitigation and the promotion of low emissions agriculture—the focus of CCAFS Theme 3: Pro-Poor Climate Change Mitigation. Specifically, we provide a strategy for assuring that mitigation efforts meet the goals of poverty alleviation and food security, and do so in ways that benefit poor women materially, personally and socially. We focus on women because of their historical and contemporary disadvantages, and recognize that benefits for women are generally broader and more durable to the extent men embrace those benefits, whether out of their own material interests or from commitments to family and community well-being. Although CCAFS has separated mitigation, adaptation, and risk management into three distinct research themes, we suggest these must be addressed in an integrated way to meet farmers’ needs. Farmers are primarily concerned with their well-being and that of their families and neighbors, rather than larger global environmental issues. Many also hold a ‘landscape-view’ of their home places in which water and energy sources, forests and grasslands, farms and fallows are all considered in relation to one another in contributing to farmers’ livelihood strategies, even though strategies for adaptation may emphasize one part of the landscape and mitigation another (Shames and Scherr, 2011). Initiatives to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions should therefore ideally enhance and at least not harm adaptation and risk management. Similarly adaptation should aim to minimize GHG emissions where possible

Climate readiness indicators for agriculture

Countries vary in their institutional technical and financial abilities to prepare for climate change in agriculture and to balance food security, adaptation, and mitigation goals.Indicators for climate readiness provide guidance to countries and enable monitoring progress. Readiness assessments can enable donors, investors and national decision-makers to identify where investments are needed or likely to be successful. Examples of climate readiness indicators are provided for five work areas: 1. governance and stakeholder engagement, 2. knowledge and information services, 3. climate-smart agricultural strategy and implementation frameworks, 4. national and subnational capabilities and 5. national information and accounting systems

Enhancing Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) ambition for soil organic carbon protection and sequestration

An estimated 18 to 37 billion tons of carbon could be sequestered in croplands globally over the next 20 years by implementing best practices for soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration (Zomer et al. 2017). In addition, more than 380 billion tons of carbon are at risk of loss from carbon dense peatlands in the top 20 countries with the largest peatland stocks alone (Crump 2017). SOC protection and sequestration are therefore major greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation options, especially to contribute to the negative emissions needed to achieve the 2050 global policy targets. Increasing SOC levels can also provide substantial additional benefits for adaptation, food security and biodiversity, including nutrient cycling and water availability