Environmental degradation

Air issues (87)
Biodegradation (2)
Biodiversity loss (1)
Cataclysmic event (5)
Climate (19)
Environment (32)
Global warming (7)
Pollution (68)
Soil issues (7)
Water issues (40)
Weather (3)

Synopsis: Environmental challenges: Environmental challenges generale: Environmental degradation:

while eliminating the equivalent carbon emissions produced by vehicles driving approximately 2, 750,000 miles per year. Additional total power production and carbon offset estimates for skyscraper

while reducing greenhouse gas emissions everybody winssaid Mel Kurtz president of quasar energy group. uasar Columbus facility can produce 1. 3 million gasoline gallon equivalents of CNG each year. hat

Also CNG vehicles typically have 20 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline-powered cars according to the California Air Resources Board.

greater compared with the most prevalent greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, over a 100-year period. For these reasons, methane and nitrous oxide detection is crucial to environmental considerations.

the team installed it on a mobile laboratory used during NASA DISCOVER-AQ campaign, which analyzed pollution on the ground and from the air last September.

Tittel says a smaller QEPAS device will be added this year to the mobile monitoring van currently carrying out a Rice university of Houston survey of pollutants in the city.

The innovation is a key enabler for smart cities, environmental and pollution monitoring, and effective disaster management, among many other applications.

From monitoring weather and pollution to empowering mart citiesof the future, wireless sensor networks promise to make our lives more comfortable, safer and more productive.

and contribute to electricity consumption and CO2 EMISSIONS, while battery-powered ones only last as long as their battery life.

and in theory would operate perpetually with little or no maintenance or environmental impact. And that is precisely what a team of EU-funded researchers are achieving in the SWAP('Symbiotic Wireless Autonomous Powered system')project.

sensing technologies will allow the introduction of new services for citizens that will benefit quality of life, such as traffic and pollution monitoring,

Game-changing green technology like this could have a direct impact on the EU 2020 commitment to reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions while improving overall energy security,

However, urbanisation, extensive irrigation and variations in rainfall patterns due to global climate change have led to serious water scarcity in many areas of the world.

Areas under increasing pressure from water scarcity, particularly in the summer months, include small cities and islands along the coasts of Spain, Greece and Italy

According to the European environment agency (EEA), 16 to 44 million additional people will suffer water scarcity in Southern Europe by 2070.

The EU has taken a leading role in tackling water scarcity both on a European and global scale.

the Refresh approach is more cost effective than using tanker ships where fresh water is priced around EUR 14/m3 or huge infrastructures, such as pipelines or desalination plants.

while CO2 EMISSIONS will be lower thanks to efficient transport options. e have received considerable interest from stakeholders in the Mediterranean and Persian gulf area,

Landslides and ground subsidence are serious problems across Europe and their costs are underestimated largely, according to Fausto Guzzetti of Italy National Research Council,

Examples include landslides riverbank erosion and melting permafrost; and the human contribution can arise from activities such as mining, large construction works or water extraction for irrigation.

Demand for DORIS Landslides are natural events that shape landscapes. However, they come with a huge cost, both social and economic.

In Italy alone, landslides have caused over 5000 deaths and displaced more than 150 000 people during the last 50 years, at an estimated economic cost of#2 billion annually.

Thanks to the project, civil protection authorities and landslide investigators have access to information that was simply not available previously,

they also increase the impact on climate change. With the above in mind, a European research project has developed new environmentally friendly materials that can replace oil-based plastic films used in packaging for food

but have a much lower environmental impact. Flexpakrenew began in September 2008 and received#3. 28 million in funding under the EU's Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7.

The development of the new packaging products for a global market will make an important contribution towards the reduction of the dependency of the packaging sector on petroleum resources and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

although climate change has made it more aggressive recently, Tóth says.""In Slovakia, in particular, many field plots are infested,

and storage (CCS) technology has the potential to help the European union (EU) significantly cut its greenhouse gas emissions.

However, efficient and reliable pre-combustion capture technologies that can reduce carbon dioxide (CO2 EMISSIONS from fossil fuel power plants at low cost are still missing.

helping achieve the EU 2020 target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30%.%The new solutions developed by the DECARBIT team could also see the use of CCS technologies in other energy-intensive industries.

energy security and turning possibly a greenhouse gas into a useful resource. Researchers have demonstrated for the first time successfully the entire production chain for renewable kerosene,

#Iron-rich biochar filters arsenic from water Biochar may be a fast inexpensive and easy way to remove arsenic one of the world s most common pollutants from water.

#This fusion reactor could be cheaper than coal University of Washington Posted by Michelle Ma-Washington on October 16 2014fusion energy almost sounds too good to be true#zero greenhouse gas emissions no long-lived radioactive waste a nearly unlimited fuel supply.

or biochar to soil to both boost crop yields and counter global climate change the study offers the first detailed explanation for this mystery. nderstanding the controls on water movement through biochar-amended soils is critical

and reduced greenhouse gas emissionssays lead author Rebecca Barnes an assistant professor of environmental science at Colorado College who began the research as a postdoctoral research associate at Rice university.

and gardening buffs took off after archaeological studies found that biochar added to soils in the Amazon more than 1000 years ago was still improving the water-and nutrient-holding abilities of those poor soils today.

which emits carbon dioxide a greenhouse gas. Most of these vehicles will run on fuel manufactured at large industrial plants that produce hydrogen by combining very hot steam and natural gas an energy-intensive process that releases carbon dioxide as a byproduct.

Although touted as zero emissions vehicles most of the cars will run on hydrogen made from natural gas a fossil fuel that contributes to global warming.

Principal funding came from by the Global climate and Energy project the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford and by the US Department of energy.

#Material snags CO2 from natural gas Rice university rightoriginal Studyposted by Mike Williams-Rice on June 9 2014scientists have created an Earth-friendly way to separate carbon dioxide a greenhouse gas from natural gas right

and this week set new rules to cut carbon pollution from the nation s power plants. ur technique allows one to specifically remove carbon dioxide at the source.

and pathogens that can have an environmental impact if not properly managed. While turning the manure into clean water makes environmental sense

#Small tuning fork lets device find greenhouse gas Scientists have created a highly sensitive portable sensor to test the air for the most damaging greenhouse gases.

greater compared with the most prevalent greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, over a 100-year period. For these reasons, methane and nitrous oxide detection is crucial to environmental considerations.

the team installed it on a mobile laboratory used during NASA DISCOVER-AQ campaign, which analyzed pollution on the ground and from the air last September.

Tittel says a smaller QEPAS device will be added this year to the mobile monitoring van currently carrying out a Rice university of Houston survey of pollutants in the city.

or to break down organic pollutants in the ead zonesof lakes and coastal waters where fertilizer runoff and other organic waste can deplete oxygen levels

which is exposed to different types of pollution from agrochemical residues to metals from leather tanneries.

They looked at technology feasibility, environmental impact, land use, manpower needs, energy payback, and estimated costs and confirmed the concept was##technically feasible with no new science

The first unit was shipped to Abu dhabi for extended testing in the extreme weather conditions of the Middle east.

but they have been dying at unprecedented rates because of a mysterious phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (CCD). The situation is so dire that in late June the White house gave a new task force just 180 days to devise a coping strategy to protect bees and other pollinators.

of which produces five percent of global CO2 EMISSIONS), and certified lumber was used throughout. Over a year, the house is expected to generate a 2. 6-megawatt-hour surplus (compared to the average home consumption of 13.3 megawatts.

"To manage the environmental impacts well we really need excellent information. Cindy Van Dover, director of the Duke university Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, North carolina, has worked on assessments of deep-sea mining impacts.

and designed to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. Pivac new company, Fastbrick Robotics, recently posted an animated video of Hadrian in action n

In addition to their potential for dangerous explosions, leaking gas pipes can be a significant contributor to global warming:

Methane, the primary constituent of natural gas, is a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

The company which aims to leverage biotechnology as a way to solve environmental issues is also modifying their system to generate value from wastewater in agricultural and military fields,

raising the cost of waste disposal and causing environmental harm. But a more cyclical approach where waste is used as an energy source could provide higher profit yields

consume the wastewater remaining organic pollutants and, in the process, generate electricity. This electricity travels through a circuit and onto cathodes coated with separate microbes that consume that electricity

Treated wastewater exits the reactor with 80 to 90 percent of pollutants removed, so it can be used for irrigation, equipment washing,

At that rate, a winery would shave about 2 pounds of CO2 per case off of its carbon footprint

where aerobic microorganisms degrade pollutants consume a lot of energy and generate biosolids (organic materials) that are managed at cost.

Processes where anaerobic microbes eat pollutants, while producing small amounts of burnable methane, have gained popularity in the last few decades

and wastewater pollution is rising, causing many companies to consider water risk in their overall strategy.

and give them completely new functions, such as monitoring environmental pollutants. In a new Nature Materials paper, the researchers report boosting plantsability to capture light energy by 30 percent by embedding carbon nanotubes in the chloroplast,

an environmental pollutant produced by combustion. Strano lab has developed previously carbon nanotube sensors for many different chemicals,

the researchers hope to develop plants that could be used to monitor environmental pollution, pesticides, fungal infections, or exposure to bacterial toxins.

#New study shows how nanoparticles can clean up environmental pollutants Many human-made pollutants in the environment resist degradation through natural processes,

Brandl says. hen we came up with the idea to use our particles to remove toxic chemicals, pollutants,

in a solution hydrophobic pollutant molecules move toward the hydrophobic nanoparticles, and adsorb onto their surface,

and now nrichedby the pollutants they form larger aggregates that can then be removed through filtration, sedimentation,

and molecules. he interactions we exploit to remove the pollutants are nonspecific, Brandl says. e can remove hormones, BPA,

and we can do this in one step. nd the nanoparticleshigh surface-area-to-volume ratio means that only a small amount is needed to remove a relatively large quantity of pollutants.

thus offer potential for the cost-effective cleanup of contaminated water and soil on a wider scale. rom the applied perspective,

as another example of a persistent pollutant that could potentially be remediated using these nanomaterials. nd for analytical applications where you don need as much volume to purify or concentrate,

but also carbon dioxide greenhouse gas byproduct which escapes into the atmosphere. Argonne's early-stage generator, composed of many tiny assemblies,

These toxic liquid solvents raise many issues for concern including environmental pollution, high cost of disposal, health problems and poisoning during the disposal process.

a greenhouse gas, help reduce global warming? The explanation is a bit academic, but we love you for asking.

or stick'em in a digestersn't always considered as contributing to global warming. That's because in the natural cycle of things, the next generation of plants should take up the carbon dioxide released by the previous generation of dead plants,

#Micromotors Could Help Reduce Ocean Pollution The buildup of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, is increasingly impacting oceans around the world, making waters more acidic and threatening sea life.

Nanoengineers at the University of California, San diego have made a splash in trying to overcome this obstacle.

longer battery life or lower power consumption in data centers to reduce their costs and greenhouse gas emissions, and ultra-sensitive and low-power biosensors and gas sensors to enhance the Internet of things.

Transport minister Andrew Jones says advanced biofuels have the potential to save at least 60%of the greenhouse gas emissions from equivalent fossil fuel.

Transport minister Andrew Jones says advanced biofuels have the potential to save at least 60%of the greenhouse gas emissions from equivalent fossil fuel.

fully recyclable, has low environmental impact and is cost effective. To date the system has been installed in the UK,

and environmental concerns, said Nidia Trejo, a Cornell doctoral student in the field of fiber science.

you wouldn want the particles themselves to become pollutants if are they releasing from the membranes

Researchers also said that less insecticide could have beneficial environmental impacts. Further field tests are necessary to see how the nano-dispensers perform in sunlight

A similar concept powers the new missiles used by the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter plane, for instance. Ramjets can move a plane very fast.

and could be a contributing factor to global warming. And that effect could be worse than the current fleet of long-haul airliners the longer that water vapour remains."

"Lapcat-II also plans for their Mach 8 Esa-variant airliner to fly well above 33 km, hopefully minimising the environmental impact.

Now, researchers from MIT and the Federal University of Goias in Brazil have developed a new technique that uses ultraviolet (UV LIGHT to extract man-made pollutants from soil and water.

These pollutants, including pesticides and endocrine disruptors like bisphenol A, fight hard against natural degradation

or if it could be used by parts of the ecosystem to further minimize environmental impact. Bertrand nanoparticlesstill, even with the small amount of material released into the water

Some current techniques rely on chemical degradation of pollutants, which can potentially result in toxic by-products.

Work could also be done to improve the ability to remove increasing amounts of pollutants h

#Micro motors could soak up CO2 pollution in the oceans, study finds Machines that are smaller than the width of a human hair could one day help clean up carbon dioxide pollution in the oceans,

new research has found. Nanoengineers at the University of California, San diego, have designed enzyme-functionalized micromotors that rapidly zoom around in water,

a major greenhouse gas in the environment, said researchers. The team led by distinguished nanoengineering professor and chair Joseph Wang, published the work this month in the journal Angewandte Chemie."

"We're excited about the possibility of using these micromotors to combat ocean acidification and global warming,"said Virendra V. Singh, a postdoctoral scientist in Wang's research group and a co-first author of this study.

In their experiments, nanoengineers demonstrated that the micromotors rapidly decarbonated water solutions that were saturated with carbon dioxide.

#Wastewater treatment Captures Carbon emissions, Produces Energy A wastewater treatment process developed by engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder mitigates carbon dioxide emissions and actively captures greenhouse gases.

Wastewater treatment typically produces CO2 EMISSIONS in two ways: the fossil fuels burned to power the machinery, and the decomposition of organic material within the wastewater itself.

as the EPA Clean Power Plan requires power plants to comply with reduced CO2 EMISSION levels. e

#Making life more resistant to stress A recent paper in Current Biology suggests that plants can be engineered against climate change, even drought.

modifying them for climate change is not something we should claim (at least at this early point in the game) to be able to do any better than the plant itself might do h

#Designer Air Purifier Converts Smog Into Jewelry As it Cleans Designer Air Purifier Converts Smog Into Jewelry As it Cleans Newsearthby Terry Turner-September 16,

20150 A Dutch artist is turning smog into jewelry using the world largest portable air purifier.

Daan Roosegaarde first got the idea for the device while visiting smog-filled Beijing. Inspiration struck when he realized that air pollution is largely CO2,

which is made up of tiny little particles of carbonnd if you put a lot of carbon under enough pressure,

Turning smog into diamonds would require too much energy but the designer, who has created also solar bike paths in The netherlands,

clean air wafting into the town square, the Smog Free Tower was cranking out the bits of carbon that would be compressed into tiny cubes.

Each of those cubes, less than one half-inch squared, is the equivalent of 1, 000 cubic meters of air cleansed of smog by the white machine.

The little black bundles, framed by stainless steel, were promised to anyone who donated#50 or more.

Smog-busting Roof Tiles Could Clean Tons of Pollution Study Says Roosegaarde wants to take the tower to some of the most polluted cities in the world,

Methane capture and storage provides a double environmental return-it removes a harmful greenhouse gas from the atmosphere that can then be used as a fuel that is cleaner than other fossil fuels.

#Desalination with nanoporous graphene membrane Less than 1 percent of Earth's water is drinkable. Removing salt and other minerals from our biggest available source of water--seawater--may help satisfy a growing global population thirsty for fresh water for drinking, farming, transportation, heating, cooling and industry.

But desalination is an energy-intensive process, which concerns those wanting to expand its application.

Now, a team of experimentalists led by the Department of energy's Oak ridge National Laboratory has demonstrated an energy-efficient desalination technology that uses a porous membrane made of strong, slim graphene--a carbon honeycomb one atom thick.

The results are published in the March 23 advance online issue of Nature Nanotechnology("Water Desalination Using Nanoporous Single-layer graphene"."

To figure out the best pore size for desalination, the researchers relied on the Center for Nanophase Materials sciences (CNMS),

They determined the optimum pore size for effective desalination was 0. 5 to 1 nanometers,

They also found the optimal density of pores for desalination was one pore for every 100 square nanometers."

which an operator sends a large fleet of machines into a specific area of a tsunami-ravaged region.

Fuel suppliers are required also to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of the EU fuel mix by 6 per cent by 2020 in comparison to 2010.

and seriously improve the quality of life by reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuels and encourage efficient use of resources."

but it is also a major greenhouse gas. Conversion of CO2 to something useful could dramatically reduce its emission into the atmosphere

and help alleviate the global warming problem. With their model and their design approach they have identified a few promising copper multi-metallics with a higher energy conversion efficiency and possibly higher selectivity in carbon dioxide electro-reduction to ethylene, an extremely useful chemical in industry for making plastics.

This could reduce emissions of a principal greenhouse gas that fosters climate change, and transform it into a useful, renewable fuel.

part of a competition to see who could create an affordable desalination solution for developing countries.

Using the sun instead of fossil fuels to power a desalination plant isn't a totally new idea.

Larger solar desalination plants are being investigated seriously in areas where water is becoming a scarce resource,

The MIT/Jain team and their competitors tested their projects at the Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research Facility in New Mexico,

Even the most fuel efficient car has a large carbon footprint before ever leaving the plant. Czinger and his team's approach was to take the large plant out of the equation.

reducing its carbon footprint even further. Balzer says designing an eco-friendly speed demon supercar as their first prototype was intentional."

Developed by a team of researchers at Alexandria University in Egypt, the procedure uses a desalination technique called pervaporation to remove the salt from sea water

"It can effectively desalinate water with high concentration of salt like that of the Red sea, where desalination costs more and yields less."

the American Midwest was devastated by heavy and repeated flash flooding as a result of Hurricane Dean and Tropical Storm Erin dumping massive amounts of rain on several states.

"Normal cooling systems use chlorofluorocarbon chemicals that destroy the ozone layer and contribute to greenhouse gases, ours is friendly to the environment,

and has extremely low carbon emissions.""This means we have demonstrated the most important step toward a hydrogen economy--producing distributed and affordable green hydrogen from local biomass resources,

and causes fossil carbon emissions. To produce distributed hydrogen at affordable costs product yield, reaction rate,

#Major advance in artificial photosynthesis poses win/win for the environment A potentially game-changing breakthrough in artificial photosynthesis has been achieved with the development of a system that can capture carbon dioxide emissions before they are vented into the atmosphere

as well as organic and inorganic pollutants.""The methodology is founded on molecularly dissociating water pollutants to recover the minerals necessary and sufficient in order for the human body to function properly nourished,

"technical staff explained. Notably, the engineers developed eight dissociating elements, and after extensive testing on different types of contaminated water, implemented a unique methodology that indicates

what and how much of each element should be combined.""During the purification process no gases, odors nor toxic elements that may damage

but also represents a significant reduction of CO2 EMISSIONS compared to the direct application of manure waste on soils.

However, its high-volume production and the generation of environmental problems (eutrophication and pollution of groundwater due to its high concentration of nutrients

Pyrolysis of manure waste can drastically reduce CO2 EMISSIONS compared to the direct application of manure waste to soils.

Fuel suppliers are required also to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of the EU fuel mix by 6 per cent by 2020 in comparison to 2010.

and seriously improve the quality of life by reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuels and encourage efficient use of resources."

#Major Advance in Artificial Photosynthesis Poses Win/Win for the Environment A potentially game-changing breakthrough in artificial photosynthesis has been achieved with the development of a system that can capture carbon dioxide emissions before they are vented into the atmosphere

diseases and higher temperatures and droughts expected to accompany climate change. Cotton growers have experienced a plateau in yields since the early 1990s

and breeders in the years ahead develop cotton varieties with improved fiber qualities, higher yields and more tolerance to heat, drought and diseases anticipated due to climate change.

delegates to the UN climate change convention annual negotiations will gather in Paris to try to conclude an ambitious and effective agreement on preventing the global average temperature rise caused by greenhouse gas emissions exceeding 2c above its preindustrial level.

Because these power plants are the largest carbon dioxide (CO2) emitters in the U s. contributing 31%of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

August 2, 2015-Tomorrow the United states will announce regulations to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from power utilities nationwide.

Hard sciencethe high degree of difficulty and expertise required means that relatively few climate scientists have been able to base their research on accurate models of historical precipitation.

New tool for climate change modelsfor example Shen referenced a region in the middle of the Pacific ocean that sometimes glows bright red on the computer model indicating extreme dryness

Shen hopes that its ease of use will encourage climate scientists to incorporate this historical data into their own models improving our future predictions of climate change.

when evaluating areas of potential pollution from nutrients. Research scientist Natalia Kuosmanen at MTT Agrifood Research Finland says defining sustainability quantitatively is challenging due to variety of meanings attached to this commonly used concept.

and to lower environmental impact since this fertilizing system represents an alternative to the mineral fertilizers used so far.

and sequester carbon dioxide a greenhouse gas. The project is part of the Gates Foundation's Reinvent the Toilet Challenge an effort to develop a next-generation toilet that can be used to disinfect liquid and solid waste

greater compared to the most prevalent greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide over a 100-year period. For these reasons, methane and nitrous oxide detection is crucial to environmental considerations."

the Rice team installed it on a mobile laboratory used during NASA's DISCOVER-AQ campaign, which analyzed pollution on the ground and from the air last September.

"Tittel said smaller QEPAS device will be added this year to the mobile monitoring van currently carrying out a Rice university of Houston survey of pollutants in the city.

#Safe drinking water Via Solar power Desalination Natasha Wright, an MIT Phd student in mechanical engineering, has designed a solar powered system that makes water safe to drink for rural, off-grid Indian villages.

Wright began designing an electrodialysis desalination system, which uses a difference in electric potential to pull salt out of water.

This type of desalination system has been around since the 1950s, but is used typically only municipally, to justify its costs.

While other companies are already installing desalination systems across India, their designs are intended to be powered grid.

She designed a village-scale desalination system that runs on solar power. Since her system is powered by the sun,

But some ranchers find that even their livestock won tolerate the saltiness of this water. t useful to install a small-scale desalination system where people are

#Nanoparticles and UV LIGHT Clean up Environmental Pollutants A new study from MIT shows how nanoparticles can clean up environmental pollutants,

Many human-made pollutants in the environment resist degradation through natural processes, and disrupt hormonal and other systems in mammals and other animals.

Brandl says. hen we came up with the idea to use our particles to remove toxic chemicals, pollutants,

in a solution hydrophobic pollutant molecules move toward the hydrophobic nanoparticles, and adsorb onto their surface,

and now nrichedby the pollutants they form larger aggregates that can then be removed through filtration, sedimentation,

and molecules. he interactions we exploit to remove the pollutants are nonspecific, Brandl says. e can remove hormones, BPA,

and we can do this in one step. nd the nanoparticleshigh surface-area-to-volume ratio means that only a small amount is needed to remove a relatively large quantity of pollutants.

thus offer potential for the cost-effective cleanup of contaminated water and soil on a wider scale. rom the applied perspective,

as another example of a persistent pollutant that could potentially be remediated using these nanomaterials. nd for analytical applications where you don need as much volume to purify or concentrate,

anoparticles with photoinduced precipitation for the extraction of pollutants from water and soil, Nature Communications 6, Article number:

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