An elaborate game of carbon ‘I spy’ is happening on the streets of Wellington. With their brand-new mobile carbon lab, Earth Sciences New Zealand (formerly GNS) can detect things like carbon dioxide and methane as they drive around. This allows them to pinpoint where emissions are coming from. Plus, with radiocarbon measurements, they can understand what amount of the carbon they detect is coming from fossil fuels. It all helps to ground-truth our estimates of what’s happening in our urban environments.

Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.

Guests:

• Dr Jocelyn Turnbull, Earth Sciences New Zealand
• Hayden Young, Earth Sciences New Zealand

Learn more:

• Read this week's article: Playing 'I-spy' with urban emissions.
• Carbon Watch NZ is an ongoing project to measure how much carbon is being produced across New Zealand. Alison Ballance covered this project in 2020, including learning about Baring Head atmospheric research station, and about a project also by Dr Jocelyn Turnbull using grass to measure urban emissions.
• The mobile carbon lab uses glass-blown flasks to collect radiocarbon. Learn about scientific glassblowing in this 2010 OCW episode.
• The People, Cities and Nature project is investigating how to return biodiversity to our towns and cities, such as the gullies in Kirikiriroa Hamilton. Such green areas would act as urban carbon sinks. 

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details