Pipe: Climate and Health

Chemical engineering researchers have identified a new mechanism to convert natural gas into energy up to 70 times faster, while effectively capturing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

This month atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are likely surpass 400 parts per million. Scientists say that while the number is arbitrary, it’s an important reminder that the climate is changing: When the carbon dioxide level changes, so do global temperatures.

New research maps how Earth's myriad climates -- and the ecosystems that depend on them -- could move from one area to another as global temperatures rise. The approach foresees big changes for one of the planet's great carbon sponges. Boreal forests will likely shift north at a steady clip this century. Along the way, the vegetation will relinquish more trapped carbon than most current climate models predict.

New research has mapped the most detailed forecast to date for importing potentially harmful invasive species with the ballast water of cargo ships.

Can climate forecasts and campaigners convince the world’s nations that some carbon is unburnable?

Scientists have found unsuspected linkages between the oxidation state of iron in volcanic rocks and variations in the chemistry of the deep Earth. Not only do the trends run counter to predictions from recent decades of study, they belie a role for carbon circulating in the deep Earth.

UK Only Article:  standard article Issue:  Xi Jinping and the Chinese dream Fly Title:  Energy firms and climate change Rubric:  Either governments are not serious about climate change or fossil-fuel firms are overvalued Main image:  You want me to leave it down here? You want me to leave it down here? MARKETS can misprice risk, as investors in subprime mortgages discovered in 2008. Several recent reports suggest that markets are now overlooking the risk of “unburnable carbon”. The share prices of oil, gas and coal companies depend in part on their reserves. The more fossil fuels a firm has underground, the more valuable its shares. But what if some of those reserves can never be dug up and burned? If governments were determined to implement their climate policies, a lot of that carbon would have to be left in the ground, says Carbon Tracker, a non-profit organisation, and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, part of the London School of Economics. Their analysis starts by estimating ...

The way they were ONCE upon a time, according to folklore, a squirrel could travel through America’s chestnut forests from Maine to Florida without ever touching the ground. The chestnut population of North America was reckoned then to have been about 4 billion trees. No longer. Axes and chainsaws must take a share of the blame. But the principal culprit is Cryphonectria parasitica, the fungus that causes chestnut blight. In the late 19th century, some infected saplings from Asia brought C. parasitica to North America. By 1950 the chestnut was little more than a memory in most parts of the continent.American chestnuts may, however, be about to rise again—thanks to genetic engineering. This month three experimental patches will be planted, under the watchful eye of the Department of Agriculture, in Georgia, New York and Virginia. Along with their normal complements of genes, these trees have been fitted with a handful of others that researchers hope will protect them from the fungus.The project has been organised by the Forest Health Initiative (FHI), a quango set up to look into the idea of...

Hydrocarbon exploration and production continues to press into the most remote corners of the western Amazon, one of the most biologically and culturally diverse zones on Earth. A new best practice framework that combines technical engineering criteria with ecological and social concerns could reduce the negative environmental impacts of such development, according to new research.

A new survey shows how extreme weather influences public attitudes on global warming.

Researchers have developed a unique integrated motor drive and battery charger for electric vehicles. Compared to today's electric vehicle chargers, they have managed to shorten the charging time from eight to two hours, and to reduce the cost by around $2,000.

Engineers have found that using a grocery delivery service can cut carbon dioxide emissions by at least half when compared with individual household trips to the store. Trucks filled to capacity that deliver to customers clustered in neighborhoods produced the most savings in carbon dioxide emissions.

In a Kansas study, 50 years of inorganic fertilization increased soil organic carbon stocks but failed to enhance soil aggregate stability —- a key indicator of soil structural quality that helps dictate how water moves through soil and the soil’s resistance to erosion.

A veteran earth scientist pushes back against dystopian depictions of global warming and the human response.

Carbon dioxide emissions cuts implemented today would affect the rate of future global warming immediately.

Authors: H. Damon Matthews, Susan Solomon

The introduction next year of the Euro 6 exhaust-gas standard means that catalytic converters will become more expensive, above all for diesel vehicles. Scientists are working on a catalytic substrate made of ceramic foam which, because of its structure, is more efficient and therefore more economic. Not only that – it also requires less noble metal coating.

Three cabinet-level agencies that address climate change and energy will have new leaders.

Scientists create the first model of legume iron transportation aimed at maximizing nitrogen fixation, even in poor soil.

Organic carbon in runoff from urbanized landscapes is more likely to persist as it is carried downstream, thus contributing to low-oxygen "dead zones" in coastal waters.

Urban heat islands raise the temperature of residential lawns, and hotter temperatures lead to more carbon dioxide efflux as compared to agricultural corn fields.