With high biodiversity and rich farmland, San Diego County is exploring ways to put the region's land to use to cut carbon emissions.
Environment
Apr 18, 2022
0
15
A good, long life requires energy: to illuminate hospitals, homes and schools, and make it possible to work, cook meals and study without inhaling toxic smoke or spending a full day collecting fuel. But at some point, energy ...
Environment
Apr 12, 2022
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152
If the world acts now, we can avoid the worst outcomes of climate change without any significant effect on standards of living. That's a key message from the new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Environment
Apr 06, 2022
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19
The goal of the Paris climate agreement—to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius—will be out of sight unless countries collectively show more ambition and take immediate action. This is the view of Heleen de Coninck ...
Environment
Apr 05, 2022
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16
Australia could drastically lower carbon emissions in the Asia-Pacific region by exporting zero-carbon commodities such as electricity, green hydrogen and green metals, according to new research by experts at The Australian ...
Environment
Mar 18, 2022
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22
Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University at Buffalo have developed and demonstrated a "self-driving lab" that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and fluidic systems to advance our understanding of ...
Nanophysics
Mar 16, 2022
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81
A new study challenges the universal land-saving claims of vertical farming, finding that there is no one size fits all approach for land use, food security and sustainable agriculture.
Agriculture
Mar 03, 2022
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288
What happens if you reintroduce wolves into certain areas? Or if bats become ill, and their population declines? How does climate change affect a particular species—and what does that mean for human well-being?
Ecology
Jan 31, 2022
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13
Arsenic has been leaching into the lake from tailings at the abandoned Long Lake Gold Mine, which operated intermittently until 1937 and produced approximately 200,000 metric tons of tailings, discharged directly to the environment ...
Materials Science
Jan 17, 2022
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308
Air conditioning systems use vast amounts of energy to maintain comfortable indoor temperatures in offices. This expense is justified by the need for satisfactory indoor environments to ensure the well-being and performance ...
Social Sciences
Dec 13, 2021
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55
In 2005, total worldwide energy consumption was 500 Exajoules (= 5 x 1020 J) with 80-90% derived from the combustion of fossil fuels. This is equivalent to an average energy consumption rate of 16 TW (= 1.585 x 1013 W). Not all of the world's economies track their energy consumption with the same rigor, and the exact energy content of a barrel of oil or a ton of coal will vary with quality.
Most of the world's energy resources are from the sun's rays hitting earth - some of that energy has been preserved as fossil energy, some is directly or indirectly usable e.g. via wind, hydro or wave power. The term solar constant is the amount of incoming solar electromagnetic radiation per unit area, measured on the outer surface of Earth's atmosphere, in a plane perpendicular to the rays. The solar constant includes all types of solar radiation, not just visible light. It is measured by satellite to be roughly 1366 watts per square meter, though it fluctuates by about 6.9% during a year - from 1412 W/m2 in early January to 1321 W/m2 in early July, due to the Earth's varying distance from the sun, and by a few parts per thousand from day to day. For the whole Earth, with a cross section of 127,400,000 km², the total energy rate is 1.740×1017 W, plus or minus 3.5%. This 174 PW is the total rate of solar energy received by the planet; about half, 89 PW, reaches the Earth's surface.
The estimates of remaining worldwide energy resources vary, with the remaining fossil fuels totaling an estimated 0.4 YJ (1 YJ = 1024J) and the available nuclear fuel such as uranium exceeding 2.5 YJ. Fossil fuels range from 0.6-3 YJ if estimates of reserves of methane clathrates are accurate and become technically extractable. Mostly thanks to the Sun, the world also has a renewable usable energy flux that exceeds 120 PW (8,000 times 2004 total usage), or 3.8 YJ/yr, dwarfing all non-renewable resources.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
