Energy: Alternative Fuels Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Solar-powered system converts plastic and greenhouse gases into sustainable fuels      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have developed a system that can transform plastic waste and greenhouse gases into sustainable fuels and other valuable products -- using just the energy from the Sun.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Two out of three glaciers could be lost by 2100      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have made new projections of glacier mass loss through the century under different emissions scenarios.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Spring sunny heat waves caused record snow melt in 2021, adding to severe water supply impacts across the Western US      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers examine the role of spring heatwaves on the melting rates of mountain snowpacks across the West. They found that in April 2021, record-breaking snowmelt rates occurred at 24% of all mountain snowpack monitoring sites in the region, further compounding the impacts of extended drought conditions.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

How climate change impacts the Indian Ocean dipole, leading to severe droughts and floods      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers now have a much better understanding of how climate change can impact and cause sea water temperatures on one side of the Indian Ocean to be so much warmer or cooler than the temperatures on the other -- a phenomenon that can lead to sometimes deadly weather-related events like megadroughts in East Africa and severe flooding in Indonesia.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Specific outdoor air pollutants linked to asthma attacks in urban children      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Moderate levels of two outdoor air pollutants, ozone and fine particulate matter, are associated with non-viral asthma attacks in children and adolescents who live in low-income urban areas. The study also identifies associations between exposure to the two pollutants and molecular changes in the children's airways during non-viral asthma attacks, suggesting potential mechanisms for those attacks.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Paleontology: Climate
Published

Climate change could cause 'disaster' in the world's oceans      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Climate change will slow down deep overturning ocean circulation in the coming centuries. Using three dozen Earth system models, researchers have concluded that the Southern Meridional Overturning Circulation could completely shut down by 2300, causing disaster to the marine ecosystem on a large portion of the planet.

Chemistry: Thermodynamics Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Scientists develop a cool new method of refrigeration      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have developed a new kind of heating and cooling method that they have named the ionocaloric refrigeration cycle. They hope the technique will someday help phase out refrigerants that contribute to global warming and provide safe, efficient cooling and heating for homes.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

London Underground polluted with metallic particles small enough to enter human bloodstream      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The London Underground is polluted with ultrafine metallic particles small enough to end up in the human bloodstream, according to researchers. These particles are so small that they are likely being underestimated in surveys of pollution in the world's oldest metro system.

Anthropology: General Archaeology: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Drought encouraged Attila's Huns to attack the Roman empire, tree rings suggest      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Hunnic peoples migrated westward across Eurasia, switched between farming and herding, and became violent raiders in response to severe drought in the Danube frontier provinces of the Roman empire, a new study argues.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Plastic pollution kills sea urchin larvae      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Sea urchin larvae raised in high levels of plastic pollution die due to developmental abnormalities, new research shows.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

New study sheds light on boric acid transport and excretion in marine fish      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Seawater is known to contain a significant concentration of boric acid, which can be toxic and deadly to living systems. As such, fish living in marine habitats need to be able to excrete boric acid in order to maintain a healthy boron balance. Researchers have now identified the gene and mechanism of boric acid transport in seawater fish and contrasted it to freshwater species.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Offbeat: Earth and Climate
Published

Microplastic pollution swirling in city air: Millions of plastic bottles per year      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers calculated that 74 metric tons of microplastics are dropping out of the atmosphere onto the city annually, the equivalent of more than 3 million plastic bottles falling from the sky.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Researchers shed (laser) light on emerging water treatment technique      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Assuring that a growing global population has access to clean water will require new water treatment methods. One of these next-generation methods involves a form of iron called ferrate, which creates fewer toxic byproducts than chemicals like chlorine and is potentially cheaper and easier to deploy than complex ozone treatment systems. For ferrate to work best, however, it needs to be combined with other compounds or excited by light energy. Now, using a technique involving ultra-fast laser and X-ray pulses, a team of researchers has revealed new details about the chemical reaction that occurs when ferrate is exposed to visible and ultraviolet light.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Electric car sales drive toward cleaner air, longer lives      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Electric cars -- and their continued sales growth -- are expected to have a greener, cleaner influence on air pollution and reduce early human mortality in most, if not all, U.S. metropolitan areas.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Salton Sea dust triggers lung inflammation, research finds      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A mouse study has found that dust collected at sites near the Salton Sea in Southern California triggered lung neutrophil inflammation in mice -- an important direct demonstration that chronic exposures to Salton Sea dust may have a role in the asthma in residents closest to the sea.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Germicidal UV lamps: A trade-off between disinfection and air quality, study finds      (via sciencedaily.com) 

When winter chill strikes, people stay indoors more often, giving airborne pathogens -- such as SARS-CoV-2 and influenza -- prime opportunities to spread. Germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) lamps can help disinfect circulating air, but their UVC wavelengths could also transform airborne compounds into potentially harmful substances. Now, researchers have modeled the reactions initiated by UVC sanitizing light and find that there's a trade-off between removing viruses and producing air pollutants.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology
Published

Megadrought: How the current Southwestern North American megadrought is affecting Earth's upper atmosphere      (via sciencedaily.com) 

New research, based on two decades' worth of data, shows that in the ten years after its onset in 2000, the Southwestern North American (SWNA) megadrought caused a 30% change in gravity wave activity in Earth's upper atmosphere.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Itchy eyes and a runny nose? It could be climate change      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have simulated how climate change will affect the distribution of two leading allergens -- oak and ragweed pollens -- across the contiguous United States. The results may make your eyes water. Using computer models, the team found that by 2050 climate change significantly will increase airborne pollen loads, with some of the largest surges occurring in areas where pollen is historically uncommon.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Transport of air masses in connection with 'El Niño' decoded      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The El Niño phenomenon influences the weather in distant regions, as far away as the USA, India or the Mediterranean region. But how exactly these so-called teleconnections actually work has not yet been clarified completely. Atmospheric researchers at have now succeeded in demonstrating that variations of the transport of air mass, heat, moisture and energy from the tropical Pacific are responsible for many of these climate anomalies. And: El Niño also warms up the Atlantic.

Ecology: Trees Environmental: Ecosystems Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Forest resilience linked with higher mortality risk in western US      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A forest's resilience, or ability to absorb environmental disturbances, has long been thought to be a boost for its odds of survival against the looming threat of climate change. But a new study suggests that for some Western U.S. forests, it's quite the opposite. The results of one of the first large-scale studies of its kind show that while high ecosystem resilience correlates with low mortality in eastern forests, it is linked to high mortality in western regions.