Environment news

MIT scientists pinpoint origin of dissolved arsenic in Bangladesh drinking water

Scientists pinpoint origin of dissolved arsenic in Bangladesh drinking water

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 15, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (21) | comments 0

Researchers in MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering believe they have pinpointed a pathway by which arsenic may be contaminating the drinking water in Bangladesh, a phenomenon that has puzzled ...


Burning coal worse for climate than clearing rain forests

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 26, 2009 | popularity 2.4 / 5 (8) | comments 1

Deforestation has had a big influence on the increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the past three centuries, but its impact is tapering off relatively. Nowadays, the burning of fossil fuels is a more crucial factor. ...


More than 18 million cubic metres of sand are set to be poured onto the new coastal band of dunes until 2011

Dutch build more dunes against rising seas

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 20, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 0

On the beach at Monster, bulldozers painstakingly turn sand dredged from the bottom of the North Sea bed into dunes in an ambitious effort to safeguard the Netherlands from flooding.


Obama to plead US case at global warming summit (AP)

Obama to plead US case at global warming summit

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 26, 2009 | popularity 1.7 / 5 (6) | comments 1

(AP) -- President Barack Obama will commit the United States to substantial cuts in greenhouse gas pollution over the next decade - despite resistance in Congress over higher costs - when he travels to a ...


Global study of salmon shows: 'Sustainable' food isn't so sustainable

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 1

Popular thinking about how to improve food systems for the better often misses the point, according to the results of a three-year global study of salmon production systems. Rather than pushing for organic or land-based ...


The e-waste dilemma

The e-waste dilemma

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Electronic devices could create significant environmental and health problems after they are thrown away. UC Irvine researchers are working with engineers, manufacturers and public health ...


Controversial new climate change results

Controversial new climate change results

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 10, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (48) | comments 131

(PhysOrg.com) -- New data show that the balance between the airborne and the absorbed fraction of CO2 has stayed approximately constant since 1850, despite emissions of CO2 having risen from about 2 billion ...


UN: Fight climate change with free condoms (AP)

UN: Fight climate change with free condoms

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity 2.9 / 5 (12) | comments 38

(AP) -- The battle against global warming could be helped if the world slowed population growth by making free condoms and family planning advice more widely available, the U.N. Population Fund said Wednesday.


A ferry sails off the port of Rotterdam

Dutch approve project to store CO2 underground

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (5) | comments 3

The Dutch government said Wednesday it had approved the experimental below-ground storage of excess CO2 to curb damaging emissions, dismissing concerns of residents who live on top of the project.


Unique Uranium Source in Naturally Bioreduced Sediment

Unique Uranium Source in Naturally Bioreduced Sediment

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A recently published Pacific Northwest National Laboratory study of a naturally bioreduced sediment sample from a former uranium mill tailings site reveals insights that enhance understanding ...


Fighting climate change by turning CO2 to stone

Fighting climate change by turning CO2 to stone

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (12) | comments 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- While politicians debate the best ways to cut global carbon dioxide emissions, researchers at Idaho National Laboratory's Center for Advanced Energy Studies are charging ahead on a strategy ...


It's not just dirt!

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 25, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Soil is the linchpin of the environment, where atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere meet. Despite that, many students see soil as "just dirt" - a place to grow plants, but nothing more. Soil science educators are challenged ...


NASA Aircraft Flies Calif. Wildfire Post-Burn Mission

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 25, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's remotely piloted Predator B aircraft, named Ikhana, recently conducted post-burn assessments of two Southern California wildfire sites, the Piute Fire in Kern County and the Station Fire in the Angeles ...


Unseasonably hot and dry weather combined with strong winds to fan scores of blazes in the country's southeastern states

Australia issues 'catastrophic' alerts as fires rage

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 21, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Australia has issued "catastrophic" alerts after record-breaking temperatures and wild lightning storms sparked more than 100 fires across the country, officials said Saturday.


Human emissions rise 2 percent despite GFC

Fossil fuel CO2 emissions up by 29 percent since 2000

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (18) | comments 7

The strongest evidence yet that the rise in atmospheric CO2 emissions continues to outstrip the ability of the world's natural 'sinks' to absorb carbon is published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience. ...