http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Many Australians are happy to declare their interest in sustainability, to reducing their environmental impact. But how many of them are prepared to reduce the amount they actually consume? http://phys.org/news285579902.html Other Sciences Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:45:09 EST news285579902 Unexpectedly, some crops such as maize or rapeseed have been found to act as carbon sinks, extracting CO2 from the atmosphere. However, others like sunflower and silage maize are carbon sources. These are the main conclusions of a study carried out by a research team from the Centre d'études spatiales de la biosphère. Over seven years, researchers measured the carbon and water fluxes of two experimental field plots. Their results show that the environmental impact of agriculture can be reduced by the right cropping practices, making it possible for agriculture to reconcile environmental and agronomic objectives. This work was published in Agricultural and Forestry Meteorology on 15 January 2013. http://phys.org/news278328288.html Space & Earth Fri, 25 Jan 2013 09:25:01 EST news278328288 The salinisation of rivers is a global problem with a high environmental and economic cost, and which poses a significant risk to human health. Climate change and increasing water consumption could create even greater issues in the future, according to an article published in the journal Environmental Pollution, based on the research of an international team led by the experts of the Department of Ecology of the UB Narcís Prat and Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles. http://phys.org/news277115912.html Space & Earth Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:38:50 EST news277115912 The signs of climate change are universally evident, but for French winemakers, already feeling the effects of competition from other countries, the year of volatile weather does not bode well. A lot of rain, a late spring and a summer that never arrived have resulted in earlier harvests. This has contributed to grapes with lower acidity and higher sugar content. In other words, higher alcohol and fruitier resulting in cloying wines - with too much residual sugar and not enough acidity to balance the character of the wine. http://phys.org/news276847837.html Biology Tue, 08 Jan 2013 06:10:44 EST news276847837 Green energy won't be sustainable if it uses too much blue. Low-carbon energy options that increase water consumption could be swapping one problem for another. http://phys.org/news275044029.html Technology Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:07:16 EST news275044029 Discoveries made during PhD studies in Architecture by Victoria University graduand Lee Bint shows that tariff structures affect water use in commercial office buildings in Wellington and Auckland. http://phys.org/news274517271.html Technology Wed, 12 Dec 2012 06:47:58 EST news274517271 Earth's growing human population needs fresh water for drinking and food production. However, fresh water is also needed for the growth of biomass, which acts as a sink of carbon dioxide and thus could help mitigate climate change. Does the Earth have enough freshwater resources to meet these competing demands? http://phys.org/news265639199.html Space & Earth Fri, 31 Aug 2012 13:40:24 EST news265639199 Research into water is growing faster than the average 4% annual growth rate for all research disciplines, claims a new report presented by Elsevier and Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) during the 2012 World Water Week in Stockholm. The report, "The Water and Food Nexus: Trends and Development of the Research Landscape" analysed the major trends in water and food-related article output at international, national and institutional levels. Elsevier and SIWI worked closely together on creating the report, which is based on the analysis of Scopus citation data by Elsevier's SciVal Analytics team. http://phys.org/news265282692.html Space & Earth Mon, 27 Aug 2012 10:38:20 EST news265282692 Dutch, Danish and Finnish stock exchanges performed best in sustainability disclosures, according a report by the British asset management company Aviva Investors released at the Rio+20 conference Monday. http://phys.org/news259253305.html Space & Earth Mon, 18 Jun 2012 15:48:30 EST news259253305 Large parts of New Delhi were struggling with acute water shortages on Friday after a neighbouring state cut its supplies at the peak of summer, officials said. http://phys.org/news258967667.html Space & Earth Fri, 15 Jun 2012 08:27:55 EST news258967667 EU-funded researchers developed technology for a dry pre-cleaning as an alternative to the water- and energy-intensive decontamination process currently used by the medical and food industries. http://phys.org/news254981833.html Technology Mon, 30 Apr 2012 05:30:01 EST news254981833 Clean drinking water and basic sanitation are human rights. Yet almost 780 million of the world's population still have no access to drinking water and some 2.6 billion people live without sanitary facilities. Water, though, is also an important economic factor: Today, agricultural and manufacturing businesses already use up more than four fifths of this precious commodity. And the demand for water continues to rise. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is expecting that by 2050, global water consumption will have risen by more than half. Some 40 percent of the world‘s population will then be living in regions with extreme water shortages - 2.3 billion people more than today. http://phys.org/news253964510.html Technology Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:41:58 EST news253964510 Water problems in many parts of the world are chronic and without a crackdown on waste will worsen as demand for food rises and climate change intensifies, the UN warned on Sunday. http://phys.org/news250749432.html Space & Earth Mon, 12 Mar 2012 05:37:21 EST news250749432 A new report published in the online journal PLoS ONE, analyzing water consumption in 405 river basins around the world, found that water scarcity impacts at least 2.7 billion people for at least one month each year. http://phys.org/news249806473.html Space & Earth Thu, 01 Mar 2012 07:00:01 EST news249806473 Not water, but sunlight is the main factor in determining the growth of the hundreds of tree species in tropical forests. The variation in physiological characteristics between tree species explains how the various species fit into their ecological niches, thereby contributing to diversity in tropical forests. This is the conclusion drawn by researchers from Wageningen University, part of Wageningen UR, and their colleagues from Utrecht University in a publication in the scientific journal PNAS. http://phys.org/news241776063.html Biology Tue, 29 Nov 2011 08:01:55 EST news241776063 A new interagency report recommends systematic consideration of new metering technologies, called submetering, that can yield up-to-date, finely grained snapshots of energy and water usage in commercial and residential buildings to guide efficiency improvements and capture the advantages of a modernized electric power grid. http://phys.org/news240050775.html Technology Wed, 09 Nov 2011 08:46:21 EST news240050775 Rice farmers in the Sahel region will be able to successfully grow rice in a sustainable way despite climate change if they amend their irrigation in the short term and rice varieties are developed able to cope with higher temperatures. This is the result of research with which Michiel de Vries hopes to obtain his doctorate at Wageningen University on September 14, 2011. The study combines computer models and field experiments to show how farmers can save up to 40 percent on water consumption while maintaining a good yield. http://phys.org/news235147152.html Biology Tue, 13 Sep 2011 15:39:45 EST news235147152 At a pilot facility in Singapore, Siemens has cut the energy needed to desalinate seawater by more than 50 percent. The plant processes 50 cubic meters of water per day, consuming only 1.5 kilowatt-hours of electricity per cubic meter. The most efficient desalination technique currently in use is reverse osmosis, which consumes more than twice as much energy. The magazine "Pictures of the Future" reports that the new technique uses an electric field to remove the salt from the water. Plans call for demonstration units to be set up in Singapore, the U.S., and the Caribbean by mid-2012. http://phys.org/news229676539.html Technology Tue, 12 Jul 2011 08:03:06 EST news229676539 Although water consumption and conservation are widely recognized as significant environmental concerns in the United States, most Americans are still unaware of the major impact of landscape irrigation on their regional water supplies. One startling example: a 2004 study of homeowners in College Station, Texas, estimated that more than 24 to 34 million gallons of excess water were used annually for landscape irrigation alone. http://phys.org/news228066675.html Space & Earth Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:51:25 EST news228066675 Demand for water in agriculture and energy production could spike in the coming decades while catastrophic floods and droughts strike more often, a water conference in Canada is to hear this week. http://phys.org/news218093206.html Space & Earth Mon, 28 Feb 2011 05:27:36 EST news218093206 Beijing will collect and melt snow this winter in a bid to quench the water shortage that has plagued the Chinese capital for years, state media reported Friday. http://phys.org/news208761613.html Space & Earth Fri, 12 Nov 2010 05:30:01 EST news208761613 A $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will allow the University of Miami (UM) College of Engineering to develop an autonomous net-zero water dormitory at UM. The project will make it possible for the residents to go "off the water grid," by using a sustainable approach to water collection, treatment and reuse. http://phys.org/news208006444.html Technology Wed, 03 Nov 2010 12:35:12 EST news208006444 Has the long-sought magic potion in society's "battle with the bulge" finally arrived? An appetite-control agent that requires no prescription, has no common side effects, and costs almost nothing? Scientists today reported results of a new clinical trial confirming that just two 8-ounce glasses of the stuff, taken before meals, enables people to shed pounds. The weight-loss elixir, they told the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), is ordinary water. http://phys.org/news201793368.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:00:13 EST news201793368 NASA engineers have begun building hardware for a new Landsat satellite instrument that helps monitor water consumption — an important capability in the U.S. West where precipitation is sparse and water rights are allocated — now that they have passed an independent review of the instrument's design and integration and testing methods. http://phys.org/news194118054.html Space & Earth Wed, 26 May 2010 18:41:07 EST news194118054 The water levels in the Dead Sea - the deepest point on Earth - are dropping at an alarming rate with serious environmental consequences, according to Shahrazad Abu Ghazleh and colleagues from the University of Technology in Darmstadt, Germany. The projected Dead Sea-Red Sea or Mediterranean-Dead Sea Channels therefore need a significant carrying capacity to re-fill the Dead Sea to its former level, in order to sustainably generate electricity and produce freshwater by desalinization. The study, published online this week in Springer's journal, Naturwissenschaften, also shows that the drop in water levels is not the result of climate change; rather it is due to ever-increasing human water consumption in the area. http://phys.org/news155386199.html Space & Earth Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:50:23 EST news155386199