#In surprise, Dutch court orders government to do more to fight climate change In a ruling that came as a surprise to many legal experts,
a court in The netherlands today ordered the Dutch government to dramatically intensify its fight against climate change.
The district court in The hague ruled that by 2020, The netherlands must cut CO2 EMISSIONS by 25%from 1990 levels.
The case framed global warming as a human rights violation that the Dutch government must do more to prevent.
The Dutch government did not dispute the international scientific consensus on climate change. The verdict (in Dutch) relies heavily on quotes, tables,
The court adopted the growing consensus that drastic reductions in CO2 EMISSIONS are necessary to prevent a temperature rise of more than 2°Ctarting with a reduction between 25%and 40%by 2020.
That The netherlands is responsible for less than 0. 5%of global greenhouse gas emissions isn a valid argument either
a lawyer, argued that the legal community should become much more active in the fight against climate change,
This caused the gold to emit an avalanche of X-rays that bombarded the stone triggering powerful compression waves inside it.
or deforestation he says. And with an open software interface anyone will be able to develop apps that use the imagery.
But it did not yet have an ozone layer to shield the surface from the sun's harshest ultraviolet rays.
Established in the 1960s India's space programme has focused so far on aiding the country's development building satellites to spot potential sources of groundwater and monitor deforestation.
A study published this week suggests a form of natural geoengineering was partially responsible for the red planet's global cooling.
#Dust devils around stars may help planets grow A dusty tornado around a young star could help solve a lingering conundrum:
More importantly they found calcium sulphate salts which form in non-acidic water. They also found sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide two forms of sulphur that have lost respectively
Color IQ also has a positive environmental impact, which earned the company the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award from the U s. Environmental protection agency in October.
Bacterial sensorsenvironmental applications for this type of sensor include monitoring the ocean for carbon dioxide levels acidity or pollutants.
How drastically could cab-sharing reduce traffic fares and carbon dioxide emissions? Authoritatively answering that question requires analyzing huge volumes of data
The optimal combination of trips would have reduced total travel time by 40 percent with corresponding reductions in operational costs and carbon dioxide emissions.
Over a four-day period he says ride sharing saved $18000 in fares and operational costs and more than 1000 pounds in carbon emissions.
A system proposed by researchers at MIT recycles materials from discarded car batteries a potential source of lead pollution into new,
and that could cause a lot of environmental issues, Belcher says. Today, she says, 90 percent of the lead recovered from the recycling of old batteries is used to produce new batteries,
steam-powered applications. team is important for desalination, hygiene systems, and sterilization, says Ghasemi, who led the development of the structure. specially in remote areas where the sun is the only source of energy,
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 BAT could also provide power to places blacked out by natural disasters as well as at amusement parks festivals and sports venues.
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.
including environmental pollutants, ultraviolet light, and radiation. Fortunately, cells have several major DNA repair systems that can fix this damage,
and the introduction of alkyl groups caused by pollutants such as fuel exhaust and tobacco smoke. To achieve this, the researchers created five different circular pieces of DNA, four
which produces unhealthy indoor air pollution, and can contribute to deforestation. Solar cooking could alleviate that
and since people often cook while the sun isn out, being able to store heat for later use could be a big benefit.
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.
Despite their potential to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2 EMISSIONS and fuel consumption electric and hybrid cars and trucks struggled for years to find a solid customer base.
and Fedex among others can provide a 20 percent reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 EMISSIONS. The goal is to reduce oil consumption with cost-effective electric drive technology where fleets don t need additional infrastructure
but began viewing climate change and energy as the real challenges of my generation. After graduating he co-founded the consulting
#Study finds piece-by-piece approach to emissions policies can be effective Discussions on curbing climate change tend to focus on comprehensive, emissions-focused measures:
or a tax on all carbon emissions. But a new study by researchers at MIT finds that a egmentalapproach involving separate targeting of energy choices
and energy consumption through regulations or incentives can play an important role in achieving emission reductions. The new study, by assistant professor of engineering systems Jessika Trancik, is being published this week in the journal Environmental science and Technology.
Michael Chang and Christina Karapataki of the Engineering Systems Division and Leah Stokes of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. policy that focused on controlling carbon emissions is a different kind of policy than one that focused
in order to meet emissions reduction commitments that have been made by most nations. any nations are generally moving in the direction of segmental policies,
hat would involve capping carbon dioxide emissions, but then using these segmental policies to address particular areas of concern,
A global agreement on carbon emissions would be most effective at reducing the risks of climate change
An added benefit, Trancik notes, is that discussing segmental approaches is likely to lead to a greater understanding of where emissions reductions might come from,
which may eventually make it easier to reach an agreement on limiting carbon emissions directly. Decisions made over the next decade will have long-lasting effects on overall emissions,
says this study valuates a number of examples of policies that contribute to a portfolio effort of reducing greenhouse gas emissions,
When an earthquake and tsunami struck Japan Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011, knocking out emergency power supplies,
and Dust environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft had made history by using a pulsed laser beam to transmit data over the 239000 miles from the moon to Earth at a record-breaking data-download speed of 622 megabits per second (Mbps). This download speed is more than six times faster than the speed achieved by the best
which is the basis for uperalloysused in extreme environments, such as in deep-sea oil wells. By creating a computer model of that microstructure and studying its response to various conditions,
such lanterns spew out black carbon that contributes to global warming and indoor air pollution. These solar lamps save customers who make about $2 per day, on average roughly $70 apiece annually.
An earthquake and a caterpillarin general, the researchers found that when atoms in the ion crystal were spaced regularly,
as the atoms collectively jump to the next trough. t like an earthquake, Vuletic says. here force building up,
Aguilar conceived of the Explorer after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, as a student at both MIT Sloan and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard university.
cleaner fuels such as gasoline without using hydrogen a change that would reduce costs, energy use, and carbon dioxide emissions.
and contribute to acid rain and smog. Processes now used to upgrade and desulfurize heavy crude oil are expensive and energy-intensive,
#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,
A recent update from the American Heart Association also suggested that fine particles in air pollution leads to elevated risk for cardiovascular diseases.
This innovation in nanotechnology won't soak up enough carbon to solve global warming researchers say. However it will provide an environmentally friendly low-cost way to make nanoporous graphene for use in supercapacitors-devices that can store energy and release it rapidly.
but this approach is faster has little environmental impact and costs less said Xiulei (David) Ji an OSU assistant professor of chemistry in the OSU College of Science
Nanoporous carbon materials can also adsorb gas pollutants work as environmental filters or be used in water treatment.
Future research in nanoparticle PTT will look at toxicity biodegradability and compatibility issues. Shi said that the team is currently looking for other diverse biodegradable materials to use for the carriers such as plant chlorophylls like those in cabbage that are both edible and photothermal.
Color IQ also has a positive environmental impact, which earned the company the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award from the U s. Environmental protection agency in October.
#Tracking heat-driven decay in leading electric vehicle batteries Rechargeable electric vehicles are one of the greatest tools against rising pollution and carbon emissions and their widespread adoption hinges on battery performance.
which holds excellent potential for a lighting device with low power consumption said Norihiro Shimoi the lead researcher and an associate professor of environmental studies at the Tohoku University.
and reduce carbon dioxide emissions on the earth Shimoi said d
#Physicists set new records for silicon quantum computing Two research teams working in the same laboratories at UNSW Australia have found distinct solutions to a critical challenge that has held back the realisation of super
Therefore replacing copper with nanotube wires should significantly reduce the CO2 EMISSIONS related to the manufacturing and operating of electrical machines.
The nanoparticle-pollutant package could then be eaten by sediment-dwelling organisms in a sort of'Trojan horse'effect allowing the adsorbed contaminants to accumulate up the food chain.
whether or not these pollutants can be stripped away from the carbon nanotubes by these animals'digestive systems after being ingested continued Ferguson.
but also carbon dioxide greenhouse gas byproduct which escapes into the atmosphere. Argonne's early-stage generator, composed of many tiny assemblies,
what types of lifeforms we might find in extreme environments like space. In addition this research has the potential to inform the creation of living microbial circuits forming the foundation of hybrid biological-synthetic electronic devices.
So if a fraction of the 6. 6 billion mobile phone users globally changed to solar it would reduce our carbon footprint a lot.
These toxic liquid solvents raise many issues for concern including environmental pollution, high cost of disposal, health problems and poisoning during the disposal process.
For the average person this means more sophisticated weather satellites remote controllers satellite communication or pollution detectors.
#7. 1-Magnitude Earthquake Hit Off The Coast Of Japan A 7. 1-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of Japan earlier today about 200 miles east of the town of Namie
and the Japan Meteorological Agency put out a tsunami advisory for several coastal regions asking people to leave the coast immediately.
However by 4: 05 a m. local time (3: 05 p m. Eastern time in the U s.)the agency cancelled the tsunami warning as the first waves driven by the quake didn't go over the 3-foot mark.
In March 2011 the M9 0 earthquake that struck about 59 miles north of this event#displaced huge amounts of ocean water as the Pacific tectonic plate slipped under the Okhotsk#plate#triggering#a massive tsunami that killed thousands and knocked out
Since then multiple earthquakes have struck this region including a M7. 3 quake in December of last year
Of course the area contributes to sea level rise and therefore the findings should help researchers to understand current changes.
If you want to model glacial movement â##something that is ever more crucial due to global warming â##then knowing about such topography is very important.
Global warming is too slow what could we do speed to it up? One nice hurricane over the sheet could do it Adaptation.
A long shot but let's hope!!!Oh yes and an interesting read on past global warming and glacial melt for the non Mand-made GW's!:
http://news. nationalgeographic. com/news/2013/07/130723-east-antarctic-ice-sheet-melt-global warming/Do not try
and bend the spoon. That is impossible. Only try and realize the truth-there is no spoon i
what pollutants its mother passed along during nursing and when it encountered pesticides and mercury.
As a result they ve found themselves in the hot seat of climate change. The midwinter air temperature along the West Antarctic Peninsula where Palmer is located has increased by 11 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 50 years five times the global average.
Train derailments hurricanes and other unfortunate happenings all get simulated at the Texas A&m site.
#How Scott Collis Is Harnessing New Data To Improve Climate models Each year Popular Science seeks out the brightest young scientists and engineers and names them the Brilliant Ten.
--The Editorsargonne National Laboratoryharnessing new data to improve climate modelsclouds are one of the great challenges for climate scientists.
They play a complex role in the atmosphere and in any potential climate change scenario. But rudimentary data has simplified their role in simulations leading to variability among climate models.
Scott Collis discovered a way to add accuracy to forecasts of future climate by tapping new sources of cloud data.
Collis has extensive experience watching clouds first as a ski bum during grad school in Australia and then as a professional meteorologist.
and Climate research he realized there was an immense source of cloud data that climate modelers weren't using:
Scientists could use it to test new apps such as an earthquake monitor that uses a phone's accelerometer to measure quake intensity.
#Something Is Killing Up to Half Of America's Bees There's some kind of environmental issue/plague/apocalypse killing America's honeybees
what's called colony collapse disorder. New pesticides called neonicotinoids which are implanted directly into plants might be to blame but nothing's definitive the New york times reports.
Lucas K. â##If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth man would only have four years left to live. â#â##Albert Einsteinthere's a long article Colony collapse disorder on wikipedia that is definitely worth reading
or wireless signals Colony collapse disorder has been around for almost 100 years. It was first report was in the American Bee Journal in 1918 not 2005 as the source article suggests.
There is more than enough energy in high-altitude winds to power all of civilization says Ken Caldeira a Stanford university climate scientist who co-authored a 2012 study that ballparked the potential at 1800 terawatts--more than four times the estimate near the surface.
It can also respond automatically to changing weather conditions dodging storms that wear down ground-based systems and lead to costly maintenance or replacement.
if climate change news couldn't get much worse along comes proof that it's affected one of the fundamental forces of nature:
The biggest implication is the new measurements confirm global warming is changing the Antarctic in fundamental ways Holthaus writes.
Climate change is having other measurable impacts on the southern continent. Data from the ESA's Cryosat satellite shows that West Antarctica's seasonal ice melt has sped up by a factor of three
if this suggested that global warming is ebbing but no. As the ozone hole over the continent has shrunk it's letting in less UV radiation--which along with complex ocean circulation factors
is a much more likely reason that there's a bit more sea ice encircling the South pole e
So if you're into environmental conservation--particularly curbing climate change--these agreements are worthy of some renewed optimism.
32 national and 20 local or regional governments 40 companies 16 indigenous peoples groups and 49 nonprofits have pledged all cooperation to halve current rates of deforestation by 2020.
Razing and burning forests accounts for about 10 percent of present global carbon emissions or 3. 6 billion tons of CO2 a year.
So if it's successful the plan's impact on carbon dioxide emissions could equate to taking every single car On earth off the road.
In the U s. alone tailpipe emissions account for one-fifth of the nation's annual 5. 833 billion tons of greenhouse gas pollution according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
(although the government has stated it intends to cut deforestation roughly 25 percent by 2020). As part of the declaration Norway the U k. and Germany among others pledged $1 billion to developing countries such as Liberia and Peru for preserving forests.
But the enormous demand also drives rampant deforestation in Malaysia and Indonesia as growers clear land for palm oil plantations.
since 2009 that the U n. secretary general Ban Ki-moon had nestled a day full of climate change-centric programming into the yearly schedule of the U n. General assembly.
In 2009 official climate treaty talks were scheduled with the intention of producing a strong global climate treaty later that year--one featuring defined and legally binding commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions by the U s. and other industrialized nations.
Five years later many negative impacts of climate change have become even more visible worldwide as Popular Science often reports.
They marched to demand climate change action and even the march's organizers claimed to be surprised by the heavy turnout.
Hundreds appeared again the next day September 22 for Flood Wall street using the tactics of the Occupy Wall street protests to keep media attention on climate change.
The science behind climate change is accepted well in most nations and the urgent need for action has been explained well to heads of state by the Intergovernmental panel on climate change (the U n.'s own climate science body).
The GCF is intended also to help pay for resilience-related projects such as strengthening infrastructure to withstand global warming impacts like sea level rise--efforts that are termed adaptation.
What share of curbing present-day pollution will be taken by the world's poorer nations as well as the richest?
and other events) underlines that India will be hard to bring around on cutting its greenhouse gas emissions which are now the world's third-largest t
#How Tweets Can Save Lives Natural disasters and political unrest trigger torrents of tweets and posts chaotic snippets of what could be valuable information.
During Hurricane sandy there were more than 20 million tweets and several hundred thousand pictures. We re developing solutions to quickly identify needles in the haystack and chart them visually.
For example before Typhoon haiyan made landfall in the Philippines we got a request from the United nations to look for all tweets that said I need help
and create lead pollution when they're incorrectly trashed. A team at MIT believes that this lead can be cut out of the waste stream entirely
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,
such as possibly being able to biodegrade after it is done serving a useful purpose, which could help patients avoid additional surgeries.
while adapting to a constantly changing environment.##Dyson is also planning a £250m expansion of one of its UK sites at Malmesbury
They also enable the first steps towards creating artificial swarms for real-world applications including disaster relief environmental monitoring and maybe even art.
The Packbot was also the first remote controlled robot to enter the Fukushima nuclear facility after the East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
the other will conduct commercial environmental monitoring in the Arctic circle assist emergency response teams in oil spill monitoring
Its ability to quickly respond to a changing environment is what makes Rezero so suitable for human environments,
Researchers hope that in the future the DALER might be used to find victims in dangerous areas after a natural disaster
#Second Deadly Quake Hits Nepal Near Everest At least 16 people were killed in a new earthquake that struck devastated Nepal on Tuesday, according to a bulletin from the country's disaster agency.
"According to local government, some houses damaged by the previous earthquake collapsed. Since residents were transferred to safe areas last time
Waves can be produced to mimic anything from rough waters to tsunamis. By generating choppy waters, enormous waves and the like, scientists hope to better test standards for dykes, dunes,
and Trade Program Chinese President Xi Jinping announced Friday that China will develop a carbon trading system as a way to reduce the country greenhouse gas emissions.
comes as both countries prepare to strike a global carbon emissions agreement at the Paris climate negotiations in December.
The U s. and China are the top greenhouse gas emitting nations in the world. China plans to launch the world largest emissions trading program in 2017,
steel, cement and other industries producing most of the country greenhouse gas emissions. The program is meant to complement the Obama administration Clean Power Plan,
and aims to slash carbon emissions from electric power plants by 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. issued our Clean Power Plan to reduce America carbon emissions,
He said that the two nations are putting forth ur ambitious visionon climate change so that both the U s. and China can lead the way for other nations to come to a climate agreement in Paris in December.
Finally, China announced that it will use $3. 1 billion to help developing countries combat climate change. oday
China one of the largest providers of public financing for infrastructure worldwide agreed to work towards strictly controlling public investment flowing into projects with high pollution and carbon emissions both domestically and internationally,
In June, China submitted its pledge to the United nations to peak its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030,
president of the World Resources Institute, a global natural resources think tank, said in a statement that Friday announcement lays a cornerstone for a global climate agreement in Paris in December. hese two countries have found common ground
-and-trade program for carbon emissions will not begin to solve our climate crisis, Food and Water Watch Executive director Wenonah Hauter said in a statement. hrough a system of reditsand dubious and unverifiable offsets,
cap-and-trade programs essentially create a commodity out of pollution, allowing for financial corporations to profit from polluting industries. c
#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.
#Sucking carbon from the sky may not slow climate change As U s. President Barack Obama finalizes plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions today,
"You hear CDR mentioned as an option to maybe avoid dangerous climate change, but when we did the simulations you see the effect of this technique is quite small,
"says lead author Sabine Mathesius, a climate modeler at the Potsdam Institute for Climate impact Research in Germany.
CDR technologies belong to a class of climate change-fighting techniques known as geoengineering. They include enhancing forests to make them absorb more CO2,
Yet the scientists found the environmental benefits of such a massive technological campaign were surprisingly small, especially in terms of protecting the ocean from the impacts of climate change.
with CDR the acidification was reduced 0. 7 units, the team reports online today in Nature climate change.
to the problems of global warming and ocean acidification are no substitute for reducing carbon emissions.""The study could discourage investment in CDR technologies, such as carbon-sucking machines under development by Carbon Engineering in Calgary, Canada.
where collecting CO2 pollution from each car is infeasible. c
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