Category: Sustainability

Dutch Inventor Cleans World's Most Polluted Rivers in Effort to Save Oceans

10/19/2020

Just 10 rivers are responsible for around 90% of all the ocean's plastic, according to a 2017 study. "...If we focus on the worst rivers, we believe we can really have the fastest and most cost-effective way to close the tap and prevent more plastic from reaching the oceans in the first place." Ocean Cleanup is deploying floating trash collectors or "Interceptors." These solar-powered, autonomous systems use the rivers' currents to guide the trash onto a conveyor belts that carry the waste to awaiting bins. - CNN

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Exxon, Oil Rivals Shield Their Carbon Forecasts From Investors

10/19/2020

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There’s evidence oil majors do assess the climate consequences of their future plans. Exxon had internal projections, never made public, that showed a 17% rise in carbon-dioxide emissions over the next five years, according to company documents reviewed by Bloomberg. In a statement, Exxon said those projections were “a preliminary, internal assessment of estimated cumulative emission growth through 2025” and that its projections had since changed. - Bloomberg NEF via MSN

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Unprecedented Energy Use Since 1950 Has Transformed Our Geologic Footprint

10/16/2020

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In the past 70 years, humans have exceeded the energy consumption of the entire preceding 11,700 years—largely through combustion of fossil fuels. This huge increase in energy consumption has then allowed for a dramatic increase in human population, industrial activity, pollution, environmental degradation and climate change. - Phys.Org

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We’re Turning the Amazon Into a Savannah

10/11/2020

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Over the past 50 years, human intervention has been increasingly disrupting the ecological balance of the Amazon. Climate change has led to an increase in temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius across the basin, and to more frequent severe droughts. The droughts of 2005, 2010 and 2015-16 were among the worst in more than 100 years. Since 1980, there’s been an increase in the duration of dry seasons by three to four weeks in the more degraded areas of the Amazon. Rainforests also increase evaporation and keep surfaces cool. Deforestation could cause temperatures in the basin to increase by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius by 2050. It reduces rainfall, because trees cycle moisture back into the atmosphere. - NYTimes

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This Game-Changing Solar Company Recycles Old Panels Into New Ones

10/11/2020

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At a recycling plant in Ohio, next to the company’s manufacturing facility, First Solar uses custom technology to disassemble and recycle old panels, recovering 90% of the materials inside. It runs similar recycling systems in Germany and Malaysia. Right now, the holistic lifecycle approach isn’t common among other solar producers. But Wade says that now is the time to think about the problem. “Our aim for solar is to help our customers decouple their economic growth from negative environmental impacts,” he says. “So it is kind of a mandatory point for us to address the renewable-energy-circular-economy nexus today and not 20 years from now.” - Fast Company

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How Bad Is Plastic Pollution? Scientists Reveal a Staggering Global Estimate

10/11/2020

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How bad is the problem? Our new research provides the first global estimate of microplastics on the seafloor - our research suggests there’s a staggering 8-14 million tonnes of it. This is up to 35 times more than the estimated weight of plastic pollution on the ocean’s surface. - Inverse from Frontiers in Marine Science

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Dramatic Plunge in London Air Pollution Since 2016

10/4/2020

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London air pollution plunged since Sadiq Khan became mayor, with a 94% reduction in the number of people living in areas with illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide. The number of schools in such areas has fallen by 97%, from 455 in 2016 to 14 in 2019. Experts described the reductions as dramatic and said they showed the air pollution crisis was not intractable. More than 9,000 people in the capital were dying early each year due to dirty air in 2015. The report from the mayor of London, reviewed by scientists, shows that more than 2 million people in the capital lived with polluted air in 2016, but this fell to 119,000 in 2019. The report, which does not include the further falls in pollution seen after the Covid-19 lockdown began in March, shows levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) by roads in central London fell by 44% between early 2017 and early 2020. - The Guardian

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Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration

10/1/2020

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Across the United States, some 162 million people — nearly 1 in 2 — will most likely experience a decline in the quality of their environment, namely more heat and less water. For 93 million of them, the changes could be particularly severe, and by 2070, our analysis suggests, if carbon emissions rise at extreme levels, at least 4 million Americans could find themselves living at the fringe, in places decidedly outside the ideal niche for human life. The cost of resisting the new climate reality is mounting. Florida officials have already acknowledged that defending some roadways against the sea will be unaffordable. And the nation’s federal flood-insurance program is for the first time requiring that some of its payouts be used to retreat from climate threats across the country. It will soon prove too expensive to maintain the status quo. - Pro Publica

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Using Dirt to Clean Up Construction

9/25/2020

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Concrete ranks as the most popular construction material in the world. But its key ingredient, cement, is responsible for 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions each year. Scientists want to replace concrete with a more environmentally friendly material, and one candidate is soil. In one of the most recent iterations of these efforts, the Banerjee Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University has created a tool kit for using local soil to make construction materials. - EOS

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How Beavers Became North America's Best Firefighter

9/23/2020

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A new study concludes that, by building dams, forming ponds, and digging canals, beavers irrigate vast stream corridors and create fireproof refuges in which plants and animals can shelter. In some cases, the rodents’ engineering can even stop fire in its tracks.
“It doesn't matter if there’s a wildfire right next door,” says study leader Emily Fairfax, an ecohydrologist at California State University Channel Islands. “Beaver-dammed areas are green and happy and healthy-looking.” - National Geographic / Apple News

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<<Previous

Dutch Inventor Cleans World's Most Polluted Rivers in Effort to Save Oceans

Exxon, Oil Rivals Shield Their Carbon Forecasts From Investors

Unprecedented Energy Use Since 1950 Has Transformed Our Geologic Footprint

We’re Turning the Amazon Into a Savannah

This Game-Changing Solar Company Recycles Old Panels Into New Ones

How Bad Is Plastic Pollution? Scientists Reveal a Staggering Global Estimate

Dramatic Plunge in London Air Pollution Since 2016

Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration

Using Dirt to Clean Up Construction

How Beavers Became North America's Best Firefighter

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