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Busy Traffic Lights Increase Exposure to Polluting Nanoparticles

UK commuters spend an average of about 1.5 hours a day at the wheel. Road vehicles in particular are known to emit polluting nanoparticles which contribute to respiratory and heart diseases.

13 Feb 2015

Nissan LEAF Electric Vehicle with Self-Cleaning Nano-Paint Technology to be Showcased at Chicago Auto Show

What do you get when you combine the world's best-selling zero-emission vehicle with innovative paint technology that repels dirty slush, Chicago street grime, bird crap and everyday dirt? Answer: a Nissan LEAF electric vehicle that might just be the "world's cleanest car," which will be shown at the Chicago Auto Show.

13 Feb 2015

Major Chinese Thin Film Module Manufacturer Places Order for Spire’s Solar Simulator

Spire Corporation, a global solar company providing capital equipment and turnkey manufacturing lines to produce photovoltaic modules and optoelectronics thin film services, today announced receipt of a contract from a major Chinese thin film module manufacturer with facilities in Europe, China and the United States, for the delivery of a custom solar simulator.

From Eternalsun Spire 13 Feb 2015

Novel Concentrating Photovoltaic/Concentrating Solar Power Hybrid System Utilizes Waste Dissipated Heat

In concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems only a small part of the incident solar energy can be converted into electricity and the majority of the incident energy is dissipated as waste heat. Although the waste heat could be utilized in conventional CPV/thermal systems, the applications are seriously limited due to the low temperature accompanying the waste heat.

12 Feb 2015

New EPA Program May Underestimate Methane Emissions from the Natural Gas Industry

World leaders are working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but it's unclear just how much we're emitting. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a new program to track these emissions, but scientists are reporting that it vastly underestimates methane emissions from the growing natural gas industry. Their findings, published in two papers in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology, could help the industry clamp down on "superemitter" leaks.

12 Feb 2015

Changes in Ocean Carbon Storage Drive Rise in Atmospheric CO2 and Global Temperatures

Published today in Nature, the study shows that carbon stored in an isolated reservoir deep in the Southern Ocean re-connected with the atmosphere, driving a rise in atmospheric CO2 and an increase in global temperatures. The finding gives scientists an insight into how the ocean affects the carbon cycle and climate change.

12 Feb 2015

Air Pollution Affects Memory and Lowers IQ of Children

City smog lowers children's IQ. This is among findings from a recent University of Montana study that found children living in cities with significant air pollution are at an increased risk for detrimental impacts to the brain, including short-term memory loss and lower IQ.

12 Feb 2015

Too Much Dead Wood Can Fuel Severe Wildfires, Affecting Forest Ecosystems

Healthy forest ecosystems need dead wood to provide important habitat for birds and mammals, but there can be too much of a good thing when dead wood fuels severe wildfires. A scientist with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW) compared historic and recent data from a forest in California's central Sierra Nevada region to determine how logging and fire exclusion have changed the amounts and sizes of dead wood over time. Results were recently published in Forest Ecology and Management.

12 Feb 2015

New Study Could Help Predict Frequency and Intensity of Hurricanes due to a Warmer Climate

Intense hurricanes possibly more powerful than any storms New England has experienced in recorded history frequently pounded the region during the first millennium, from the peak of the Roman Empire into the height of the Middle Ages, according to a new study. The findings could have implications for the intensity and frequency of hurricanes that the U.S. East and Gulf coasts could experience as ocean temperatures increase as a result of climate change, according to the study’s authors.

12 Feb 2015

Kerr Wood Leidal Awarded Contract to Assess Economic Viability of Geothermal Energy

Geoscience BC is pleased to announce that Kerr Wood Leidal (KWL), with their sub-consultant GeothermEx, has been awarded the contract to carry out an assessment of the economic viability of geothermal energy for electrical power generation in British Columbia.

11 Feb 2015

Geoengineering May Help Counteract Political Polarization over Global Warming

Geoengineering, an emerging technology aimed at counteracting the effects of human-caused climate change, also has the potential to counteract political polarization over global warming, according to a new study.

11 Feb 2015

Antarctica Sea Ice Increases Do Not Make Up for Accelerated Arctic Sea Ice Loss

Sea ice increases in Antarctica do not make up for the accelerated Arctic sea ice loss of the last decades, a new NASA study finds. As a whole, the planet has been shedding sea ice at an average annual rate of 13,500 square miles (35,000 square kilometers) since 1979, the equivalent of losing an area of sea ice larger than the state of Maryland every year.

11 Feb 2015

Evidence of Human-Produced Air Pollution Found Within Ancient Ice

In the 16th century, during its conquest of South America, the Spanish Empire forced countless Incas to work extracting silver from the mountaintop mines of Potosí, in what is now Bolivia--then the largest source of silver in the world.

11 Feb 2015

Climate Change Mitigation Efforts Fail in Brazil's Steel Industry

New research shows that climate change mitigation efforts in Brazil's steel industry have failed. Instead of reducing greenhouse gas pollution, scientists discovered that programs under an international climate treaty led to an overall doubling of carbon dioxide emissions in the industry.

11 Feb 2015

Man-Made Industrial Emissions Contribute to Reduced Rainfall in the Northern Tropics

Scientists have produced a rainfall record strongly suggesting that man-made industrial emissions have contributed to less rainfall in the northern tropics.

11 Feb 2015