Environment news

How Much Energy Goes Into Making a Bottle of Water?

How Much Energy Goes Into Making a Bottle of Water?

Space & Earth / Environment

created Mar 17, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (44) | comments 39

(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 ...


First Analysis of the Water Requirements of a Hydrogen Economy

First Analysis of the Water Requirements of a Hydrogen Economy

Space & Earth / Environment

created Oct 18, 2007 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (127) | comments 28

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 ...


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 1

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 ...


Controversial new climate change results

Controversial new climate change results

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 10, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (49) | 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 ...


International scientists set boundaries for survival

International scientists set boundaries for survival

Space & Earth / Environment

created Sep 23, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (28) | comments 16

Human activities have already pushed the Earth system beyond three of the planet's biophysical thresholds, with consequences that are detrimental or even catastrophic for large parts of the world; six others ...


Caltech researchers show how organic carbon compounds emitted by trees affect air quality

Researchers show how organic carbon compounds emitted by trees affect air quality

Space & Earth / Environment

created Aug 06, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (9) | comments 6

A previously unrecognized player in the process by which gases produced by trees and other plants become aerosols—microscopically small particles in the atmosphere—has been discovered by a research team led ...


Wastewater produces electricity and desalinates water

Wastewater produces electricity and desalinates water

Space & Earth / Environment

created Aug 06, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (16) | comments 1

A process that cleans wastewater and generates electricity can also remove 90 percent of salt from brackish water or seawater, according to an international team of researchers from China and the U.S.


The first evidence of pre-industrial mercury pollution in the Andes

Space & Earth / Environment

created May 18, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (9) | comments 2

The study of ancient lake sediment from high altitude lakes in the Andes has revealed for the first time that mercury pollution occurred long before the start of the Industrial Revolution.


Coal mining

President Obama Working to Reverse President Bush's Environmental Legacy

Space & Earth / Environment

created May 01, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (179) | comments 63

(PhysOrg.com) -- In the U.S., there is a tradition followed by outgoing presidents: Enact as many new policies as possible -- especially if you think that the incoming president would disapprove. This practice ...


Report: Most Americans in areas with unhealthy air (AP)

Report: Most Americans in areas with unhealthy air

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 29, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 4

(AP) -- Sixty percent of Americans live in areas with unhealthy air pollution levels, despite a growing green movement and more stringent laws aimed at improving air quality, the American Lung Association ...


Fire influences global warming more than previously thought

Fire influences global warming more than previously thought

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 23, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (12) | comments 1

Fire's potent and pervasive effects on ecosystems and on many Earth processes, including climate change, have been underestimated, according to a new report.


What's in your water?: Disinfectants create toxic by-products

Space & Earth / Environment

created Mar 31, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (16) | comments 7

Although perhaps the greatest public health achievement of the 20th century was the disinfection of water, a recent study now shows that the chemicals used to purify the water we drink and use in swimming pools react with ...


Carbon Sequestration Resource

Geologists map rocks to soak CO2 from air

Space & Earth / Environment

created Mar 05, 2009 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (14) | comments 2

A new report by scientists at Columbia University's Earth Institute and the US Geological Survey points to an abundant supply of carbon-trapping rock in the US that could be used to help stabilize global warming. ...


2008 Was Earth's Coolest Year Since 2000

2008 Was Earth's Coolest Year Since 2000

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 23, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (22) | comments 14

(PhysOrg.com) -- Climatologists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City have found that 2008 was the coolest year since 2000. The GISS analysis also showed that 2008 is the ...


NYC eco island

NYC to Construct Eco Tourist Island

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jan 26, 2009 | popularity 2.5 / 5 (6) | comments 8

(PhysOrg.com) -- In 2003, the state and city of New York bought Governor's Island from the federal government for $1. Once used as a military base by the US Army and Coast Guard, the 172-acre island located ...