Environment news
Country cousins: Climate connections and land urbanization dynamics
(Phys.org) -- What’s in a name? Quite a bit in climate science, where the term teleconnection refers not to digital communications, but rather to a recurring and persistent large-scale pattern of pre ...
13 hours ago |
4.3 / 5 (6) |
0
|
How Much Energy Goes Into Making a Bottle of Water?
(PhysOrg.com) -- Most people who buy bottled water have access to clean drinking water virtually for free (in the US, tap water costs less than a penny per gallon, on average). Nevertheless, the consumption ...
Mar 17, 2009 |
4 / 5 (60) |
39
First Analysis of the Water Requirements of a Hydrogen Economy
One of the touted benefits of the futuristic US hydrogen economy is that the hydrogen supply—in the form of water—is virtually limitless. This assumption is taken for granted so much that no major study has ...
Oct 18, 2007 |
4.3 / 5 (128) |
28
Humans may have helped the decline of African rainforests 3000 years ago
(PhysOrg.com) -- Large areas of rainforests in Central Africa mysteriously disappeared over three thousand years ago, to be replaced by savannas. The prevailing theory has been that the cause was a change ...
Feb 10, 2012 |
4.1 / 5 (16) |
21
|
Forest and savanna can switch quickly
(PhysOrg.com) -- Two recent studies have found that environmental changes can bring previously stable forests and grasslands to tipping points that produce sudden large-scale and sometimes irreversible changes ...
Oct 14, 2011 |
4.4 / 5 (8) |
1
|
New technology uses solar UV to disinfect drinking water
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Purdue University researchers has invented a prototype water-disinfection system that could help the world's 800 million people who lack safe drinking water.
Sep 29, 2011 |
4.3 / 5 (11) |
10
|
Switching from coal to natural gas would do little for global climate, study indicates
Although the burning of natural gas emits far less carbon dioxide than coal, a new study concludes that a greater reliance on natural gas would fail to significantly slow down climate change. The study appears ...
Sep 08, 2011 |
4.6 / 5 (13) |
51
|
Methane levels 17 times higher in water wells near hydrofracking sites
A study by Duke University researchers has found high levels of leaked methane in well water collected near shale-gas drilling and hydrofracking sites. The scientists collected and analyzed water samples from 68 private ...
May 09, 2011 |
4.4 / 5 (12) |
9
|
Fracking leaks may make gas 'dirtier' than coal
(PhysOrg.com) -- Extracting natural gas from the Marcellus Shale could do more to aggravate global warming than mining coal, according to a Cornell study published in the May issue of Climatic Change Letters (105:5).
Apr 12, 2011 |
5 / 5 (2) |
5
|
Carbon emissions from peat-swamp forest clearing quantified
(PhysOrg.com) -- Peat-swamp forests in Southeast Asia are being cleared to make way for food production and for oil-palm plantations for biofuel, but now a new study has quantified the resultant carbon emissions ...
Mar 08, 2011 |
4 / 5 (5) |
0
|
World phosphorous use crosses critical threshold
(PhysOrg.com) -- Recalculating the global use of phosphorous, a fertilizer linchpin of modern agriculture, a team of researchers warns that the world's stocks may soon be in short supply and that overuse in the industrialized ...
Feb 14, 2011 |
4.4 / 5 (24) |
38
|
City lights make air pollution worse
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study by scientists in Los Angeles, California has found that bright city lights makes air pollution worse because the glare of the lights interferes with chemical reactions that clean ...
Dec 16, 2010 |
4.7 / 5 (15) |
1
|
Scented consumer products shown to emit many unlisted chemicals
The sweet smell of fresh laundry may contain a sour note. Widely used fragranced products – including those that claim to be "green" – give off many chemicals that are not listed on the label, including some that ...
Oct 26, 2010 |
4.7 / 5 (15) |
7
|
Report casts world's rivers in 'crisis state'
(PhysOrg.com) -- The world's rivers, the single largest renewable water resource for humans and a crucible of aquatic biodiversity, are in a crisis of ominous proportions, according to a new global analysis.
Sep 29, 2010 |
4 / 5 (12) |
0
|
Study shows deepwater oil plume in Gulf degraded by microbes
In the aftermath of the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, a dispersed oil plume was formed at a depth between 3,600 and 4,000 feet and extending some 10 miles out from ...
Aug 24, 2010 |
4.9 / 5 (10) |
15
|
