http://www.physorg.com/space-news/environment/ en-us PhysOrg Team PhysOrg.com provides the latest news on the environment, environmental issues, earth science and space exploration. (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Columbia University have successfully discovered a beneficial use for carbon dioxide in the conversion of organic materials, such as grass and bark, into fuel. Their findings show that if utilized on a broad scale, their technique could help significantly reduce overall carbon emissions, both from the use of carbon dioxide in biofuel production and the creation of a more energy-efficient production process. The study appears this week on the website of the Journal of Environmental Science & Technology. http://www.physorg.com/news177179481.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-11T16:31:39-07:00 NOAA deployed the seventh in a series of "smart buoys" to monitor weather conditions and water quality in the Chesapeake Bay today. The buoy, located at the mouth of Severn River near Annapolis, Md., will be used by commercial and recreational boaters to navigate safely and provide data for educators and scientists to monitor the Bay's changing conditions. http://www.physorg.com/news177157129.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-11T10:50:01-07:00 Georgia Tech City and Regional Planning Professor Brian Stone publishes a paper in the December edition of Environmental Science and Technology that suggests policymakers need to address the influence of global deforestation and urbanization on climate change, in addition to greenhouse gas emissions. http://www.physorg.com/news177139558.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-11T06:00:01-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- Americans love their consumer electronics, but what happens to all the gadgets when their useful life is over? Despite being one of the largest generators of "e-waste" in the world, the U.S. has no federal policies on recycling electronic waste or handling hazardous materials from technological trash. http://www.physorg.com/news177095650.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-10T17:15:07-07:00 Agricultural soils accumulate trace metals, particularly copper and zinc, as a result of their presence in wastes (sewage biosolids and manures) and fungicides that are applied over long periods of time. Regulations and guidelines for tolerable concentrations of these potentially plant-toxic elements in soils are based on the assumption that the toxic effects of the metals are substantially independent and not additive. However, additivity would imply that soil tolerance limits for each metal must be adjusted to compensate for the presence of another metal. There has been very little experimental work to date to provide a basis for determining the degree to which copper-zinc interaction in soils is additive as defined by the toxicity response in crops. http://www.physorg.com/news177076138.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-10T12:10:01-07:00 (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 tons a year in 1850 to 35 billion tons a year now. http://www.physorg.com/news177059550.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-10T07:50:02-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- Australian marine scientists have issued an urgent call for massive and rapid worldwide cuts in carbon emissions, deep enough to prevent atmospheric CO2 levels rising to 450 parts per million (ppm). http://www.physorg.com/news177019636.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-09T20:20:01-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- Climate forecasts are becoming more useful to farmers and ranchers, thanks to research by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their cooperators. http://www.physorg.com/news177009006.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-09T17:40:01-07:00 The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced plans to fund research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Engineering on technologies that would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the capture and permanent safe storage, or sequestration, of carbon dioxide (CO2). The project is in collaboration with Southern Company, the parent company of Alabama Power. http://www.physorg.com/news176997779.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-09T14:04:06-07:00 In the middle of a day filled with a stream of information-packed PowerPoint displays and alarming projections of what the future holds for our planet and our civilization, Judith Layzer`s talk was something of an anomaly. http://www.physorg.com/news176731801.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-06T12:30:02-07:00 Twelve states and the District of Columbia urged the Environmental Protection Agency Thursday to adopt more rigorous national policies so they can meet federal air pollution reduction requirements for the region. http://www.physorg.com/news176703698.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-06T05:50:01-07:00 Growing up in the southwest suburbs, Sara Beardsley had a view of the Chicago skyline from her house. Today, she is transforming that skyline, but you won't find her work glorified on a $6 mug or gracing postcards. http://www.physorg.com/news176703943.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-06T05:00:02-07:00 (AP) -- Lower-than-feared sea temperatures this summer gave a break to fragile coral reefs across the Caribbean and the central Gulf of Mexico that were damaged in recent years, scientists said Thursday. http://www.physorg.com/news176703133.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-06T04:30:05-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- Although America's supply of drinking water is considered among the world's safest, there is an urgent need to develop more stringent regulations to guide how water is monitored for pollutants, according to April Gu, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University. Gu is working on the fundamental research underlying our ability to identify and monitor real and potential pollutants in water and remove them at lower cost than is now possible. http://www.physorg.com/news176659712.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-05T19:40:02-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- In the Mojave Desert winds howl across this hottest place in North America, blowing sands across Death Valley and through empty ghost towns, swirling across treeless land for hundreds of miles. But even in the otherworldly Mojave, life thrives. The Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia), an indicator species for this desert, defines the Mojave's boundaries. In spring when the rains come, brightly colored flowers bloom in profusion--nature's paintbrush on an otherwise monotone landscape. http://www.physorg.com/news176660557.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-05T17:10:05-07:00 An innovative proposal by the Ecuadorian government to protect an untouched, oil rich region of Amazon rainforest is a precedent-setting and potentially economically viable approach, says a team of environmental researchers from the University of Maryland, the World Resources Institute and Save America's Forests. http://www.physorg.com/news176652576.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-05T14:30:01-07:00 One of the first set of studies to examine what tourists and recreation enthusiasts actually think about coral reef ecosystems suggests they are a rare exception to controversies over human use versus environmental conservation - their stunning beauty is so extraordinary that almost everyone wants them protected in perpetuity. That core belief is often strong enough that if it means people have to be kept out, so be it. http://www.physorg.com/news176652349.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-05T14:20:02-07:00 International scientists, researchers and decision makers met at the 'Space and the Arctic workshop' to identify the needs and challenges of working and living in the rapidly changing Arctic and to explore how space-based services can help to meet those needs. http://www.physorg.com/news176650747.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-05T13:50:03-07:00 Sergey Paltsev, a principal research scientist in MIT`s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, was the lead author of a recent report that analyzed the costs of climate legislation currently being debated in Congress. The analysis looked at the costs associated with the Waxman-Markey bill that was passed in June, and found the bill`s cap-and-trade provisions would have an average annual cost per U.S. household of $400. http://www.physorg.com/news176624842.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-05T07:00:01-07:00 Thanks for killing the planet, dog owners. Well, that's a rough paraphrase of a New Zealand study that claims a medium-size dog leaves a larger ecological footprint than an SUV. http://www.physorg.com/news176582720.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-04T20:20:05-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- Curbing greenhouse gas emissions from cultivated fields may require going beyond cutting back on nitrogen fertilizer and changing crop rotation cycles, according to research by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists. http://www.physorg.com/news176575543.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-04T17:20:03-07:00 The Seoul city government will help fund a tree-planting project in a Chinese desert to reduce the amount of harmful "yellow dust" blowing over South Korea, officials said Wednesday. http://www.physorg.com/news176567358.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-04T14:29:54-07:00 Cholera, an acute diarrheal disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, has reemerged as a global killer. Outbreaks typically occur once a year in Africa and Latin America. But in Bangladesh the epidemics occur twice a year - in the spring and again in the fall. http://www.physorg.com/news176551613.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-04T10:07:51-07:00 What's the point of setting up marine reserves to protect coral reefs from pollution, ship groundings and overfishing if climate change could cause far more damage? A study published this week in London in Proceedings of the Royal Society B provides the answer. http://www.physorg.com/news176524830.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-04T02:50:01-07:00 The Environmental Restoration Project at Sandia National Laboratories reports the successful construction of an alternative evapotranspirative cover at the Mixed Waste Landfill (MWL) in September. The 2.6-acre site is located in Technical Area 3 in the west-central part of Kirtland Air Force Base. http://www.physorg.com/news176464927.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-03T10:30:02-07:00 The rapid growth of China's forests over the past 20 years makes them the fastest growing forest resources in the world, according to an assessment published in the November issue of BioScience. http://www.physorg.com/news176387511.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-02T13:00:01-07:00 (AP) -- Bernice and Jerry Angely like to show visitors the singed T-shirt a friend was wearing when their water well exploded and shot flames 30 feet high. http://www.physorg.com/news176354190.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-02T03:17:21-07:00 Chinese meteorologists covered Beijing in snow Sunday after seeding clouds to bring winter weather to the capital in an effort to combat a lingering drought, state media reported. http://www.physorg.com/news176293628.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-01T10:27:56-07:00 Swathes of dirty clouds brood over a coal plant in rural Japan, but scientists are now hoping to send the pollutants the other way, deep into the bowels of Mother Earth. http://www.physorg.com/news176270789.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-01T04:20:01-07:00 China on Saturday opens a new bridge over the Yangtze that will pave the way for rapid development of the country's "last virgin island," Chongming -- now just an hour's drive from booming Shanghai. http://www.physorg.com/news176270468.html Space & Earth - Environment 2009-11-01T04:05:36-07:00