The carbon-consuming home: residential markets and energy transitions.

Home heating and lighting markets have played crucial and underappreciated roles in driving energy transitions. When historians have studied the adoption of fossil fuels, they have often privileged industrial actors, markets, and technologies. My analysis of the factors that stimulated the adoption of anthracite coal and petroleum during the nineteenth century reveals that homes shaped how, when, and why Americans began to use fossil fuel energy. Moreover, a brief survey of other fossil fuel transitions shows that heating and lighting markets have been critical drivers in other times and places. Reassessing the historical patterns of energy transitions offers a revised understanding of the past for historians and suggests a new set of options for policymakers seeking to encourage the use of renewable energy in the future.

Historical record of black carbon in urban soils and its environmental implications.

Energy use in urbanization has fundamentally changed the pattern and fluxes of carbon cycling, which has global and local environmental impacts. Here we have investigated organic carbon (OC) and black carbon (BC) in six soil profiles from two contrast zones in an ancient city (Nanjing) in China. BC in soils was widely variable, from 0.22 to 32.19 g kg(-1). Its average concentration in an ancient residential area (Zone 1) was, 0.91 g kg(-1), whereas in Zone 2, an industrial and commercial area, the figure was 8.62 g kg(-1). The ratio of BC/OC ranged from 0.06 to 1.29 in soil profiles, with an average of 0.29. The vertical distribution of BC in soil is suggested to reflect the history of BC formation from burning of biomass and/or fossil fuel. BC in the surface layer of soils was mainly from traffic emission (especially from diesel vehicles). In contrast, in cultural layers BC was formed from historical coal use. The contents of BC and the ratio of BC/OC may reflect different human activities and pollution sources in the contrasting urban zones. In addition, the significant correlation of heavy metals (Cu, Pb, and Zn) with BC contents in some culture layers suggests the sorption of the metals by BC or their coexistence resulted from the coal-involved smelting.

Recent sedimentary history of organic matter and nutrient accumulation in the Ohuira Lagoon, northwestern Mexico.

(210)Pb-derived sediment accumulation rates, as well as a suite of geochemical proxies (Al, Fe, delta(13)C, delta(15)N), were used to assess the time-dependent variations of C, N, and P fluxes recorded in two sediment cores collected at Ohuira Lagoon, in the Gulf of California, Mexico, during the last 100 years. Sedimentary C, N, and P concentrations increased with time and were related to land clearing, water impoundment, and agriculture practices, such as fertilization. C:N:P ratios and delta(13)C suggested an estuarine system that is responsive to increased C loading from a N-limited phytoplankton community, whereas delta(15)N values showed the transition between an estuarine-terrestrial to an estuarine-more marine environment, as a consequence of the declining freshwater supply into the estuary due to the channeling and impoundment of El Fuerte River between 1900 and 1956. The recent increases in nutrient fluxes (2- to 9-fold the pre-anthropogenic fluxes of C and N, and 2 to 13 times for P) taking place in the mainland from the 1940s, were related to the expansion of the intensive agriculture fields and to the more recent development of shrimp farming activities.

Historical eutrophication in a river-estuary complex in mid-coast Maine.

European settlement of New England brought about a novel disturbance regime that impacted rivers and estuaries through overfishing, deforestation, dams, and water pollution. The negative consequences of these activities intensified with industrialization in the 19th and 20th centuries, often resulting in ecosystem degradation. Since environmental legislation was implemented in the 1970s, improvement in water quality has been tangible and widespread; however, ecological recovery can require substantial amounts of time and may never be complete. To document the natural baseline conditions and investigate the recovery of a severely degraded river-estuary complex in mid-coast Maine, we examined diatoms, pollen, total organic carbon, total nitrogen, stable isotopes, total phosphorus, biogenic silica, and trace metals in intertidal sediments and established a chronology with 14C, 210Pb, and indicator pollen horizons. Both climate variability and human effects were evident in the sedimentary record of Merrymeeting Bay, the freshwater tidal portion of the Kennebec estuary. Natural climate variability was apparent in an episode of high sedimentation and altered diatom abundance during the 12th and 13th centuries and in changing pollen abundances between the 16th and 19th centuries, indicative of regional cooling. During the 18th century, colonial land clearance began an era of high sedimentation and eutrophication that strongly intensified with industrialization during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Improvements in water quality over the past 30 years in response to environmental regulation had little effect on ecosystem recovery as represented by the sedimentary record. Diatom composition and productivity and high fluxes of organic C, total P, and biogenic Si in recent sediments indicate that rates of nutrient loading remain high. These environmental proxies imply that aquatic productivity in Merrymeeting Bay was originally nutrient limited and water clarity high, relative to today. Further recovery may require more stringent regulation of nutrient inputs from industrial and municipal point sources. This historical study can contribute to public debate about the environmental management of this unusual river-estuary complex by describing its long-term natural baseline, thereby illustrating the upper limit of its potential for recovery.