Yale E360

AUGUST 2, 2021

Next week, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will unveil its latest scientific assessment, widely considered the most authoritative review of climate research. But ahead of its release, scientists have had to grapple with the fact that several next-generation models used in the assessment project that the Earth will warm far faster than previous estimates, Science reported.

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Climate Change 341

Real Climate

AUGUST 5, 2021

After more than 15 years with basically the same layout, the Realclimate website – while still functional – has become increasing anachronistic both in appearance and ‘under the hood’ In order to take advantage of more up to date web-site designs and new features that have been developed since the early 2000s (!), we need to upgrade the site, and while we are at it, update the theme and design, while maintaining an aesthetic link to the original.

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Circle of Blue

AUGUST 3, 2021

U.S. utilities have been slower to adopt the energy- and emissions-saving technologies than those in other parts of the world. Wastewater-to-energy systems start with a process called anaerobic digestion, which treatment plants have been using for ages to reduce the volume of sewage waste. Photo © Richard Webb / Wikimedia Commons. Despite the economic advantages of these technologies and their potential environmental benefits, U.S. utilities have been slower than those in other parts of the worl

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Carbon Emissions Waste Renewable Energy Carbon Dioxide 317

Legal Planet

AUGUST 5, 2021

Investor-owned utilities supply almost three-quarters of U.S. electricity. With some notable exceptions, they’ve tended to drag their feet on the energy transition. In order to push the transition forward, we need to get them on board. This post will try to diagnose the problem and sketch some possible remedies. The proposed Clean Energy Standard is one effort to deal with this problem.

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Fossil Fuels Regulations Clean Energy Renewable Energy 299

Speaker: Nikhil Joshi, Founder & President of Snic Solutions

Is your manufacturing operation reaching its efficiency potential? A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) could be the game-changer, helping you reduce waste, cut costs, and lower your carbon footprint. Join Nikhil Joshi, Founder & President of Snic Solutions, in this value-packed webinar as he breaks down how MES can drive operational excellence and sustainability.

Waste

Yale E360

AUGUST 5, 2021

The third-place winner of the 2021 Yale Environment 360 Video Contest vividly depicts how, as the Venezuelan state collapses, the nation’s corrupt leaders are controlling — and profiting from — a flood of illegal mining in what was once one of South America’s wildest regions. Read more on E360 ?.

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2021 339

Union of Concerned Scientists

AUGUST 5, 2021

A conservationist writes about how many anti-trophy hunting conservation efforts miss the real needs of the people, environment, and animals most affected.

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Conservation 325

Legal Planet

AUGUST 5, 2021

There’s a lot of news coverage about the wildfires on the West Coast right now, and rightly so. But with that news coverage comes a lot of commentary, some of which might lead us down the wrong policy path. I want to highlight an example from the New York Times opinion page, not because it is the most egregious example, but because the Times is particularly influential with a range of policy and intellectual elites who might take what the piece says seriously.

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Yale E360

AUGUST 3, 2021

While pandemic-related lockdowns led to a dramatic drop in greenhouse gas emissions last year, the event that had the biggest impact on the climate in 2020 was actually a series of devastating bushfires in Australia, according to a new study. Using computer modeling, researchers compared the effect of both the drop in vehicle emissions and industrial activity during the pandemic with smoke released by the Australia wildfires.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

AUGUST 4, 2021

A new proposed bill would finally set a precedent for fossil fuel companies to pay for the pollution they cause–which means they'll fight it with everything they've got.

Fossil Fuels 246

Fossil Fuels Climate Change 246

Circle of Blue

AUGUST 2, 2021

Rio Acre © Arison Jardim/Secom. Christian Thorsberg, Circle of Blue. Canopied by rubber trees and sprawling vines with apple-sized nuts, Acre state in northwest Brazil frames earth’s portrait of natural beauty. To the north and west, montane forests sweep atop the Andes, the mountain home of thousands of endemic animal species, not least endangered tapirs and giant armadillos.

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Rainforest Deforestation Carbon Dioxide Environmental Protection 246

Speaker: Kevin Kai Wong, President of Emergent Energy Solutions

In today's industrial landscape, the pursuit of sustainable energy optimization and decarbonization has become paramount. ♻️ Manufacturing corporations across the U.S. are facing the urgent need to align with decarbonization goals while enhancing efficiency and productivity. Unfortunately, the lack of comprehensive energy data poses a significant challenge for manufacturing managers striving to meet their targets. 📊 Join us for a practical webinar hosted by Kevin Kai Wong of Emergent Ene

2024

Physics World

AUGUST 6, 2021

Like many science writers, I have often adopted the conceit that quantum mechanics and general relativity are our two principal (if incompatible) theories of the physical world. With his superb new book Einstein’s Fridge: the Science of Fire, Ice and the Universe , documentary filmmaker Paul Sen has made me doubt that this is the right way to express it.

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Law Conservation Radiation Technology 145

Yale E360

AUGUST 4, 2021

During a typical year, some 55 million people pass through San Francisco International (SFO), the nation’s seventh-busiest airport. At some point during their journey to or from the terminal, each one of them will travel by a seemingly unremarkable 180-acre parcel of land, soggy and spartan, bounded by highways and train tracks, bisected by rows of power lines.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

AUGUST 3, 2021

Yesterday, EPA announced a new roster of 47 Science Advisory Board (SAB) members which includes qualified experts, including a third who identify as people of color, with a rich assortment of backgrounds. The majority of members (roughly three-quarters) are university researchers, with three affiliated with consulting firms, five from government agencies or Tribes, and four […].

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Government 276

Circle of Blue

AUGUST 6, 2021

YOUR GLOBAL RUNDOWN. In the American West, drought and wildfire are threatening California’s power grid and Nestle will continue bottling water in a drought-stricken Colorado county. Drought in Hawaii results in the state’s largest wildfire on record. Ranch cattle are starving to death in Mexico amid a historic drought. In South America, snowfall on the Andes Mountain range is at a historic low.

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2021 Carbon Emissions Technology Technology 195

Speaker: Antoine M. Thompson, Executive Director of the Greater Washington Region Clean Cities Coalition

Diversity, Equity, Justice, and Inclusion (DEJI) policies, programs, and initiatives are critically important as we move forward with public and private sector climate and sustainability goals and plans. Underserved and socially, economically, and racially disadvantaged communities bear the burden of pollution, higher energy costs, limited resources, and limited investments in the clean energy and transportation sectors.

Clean Energy

Physics World

AUGUST 6, 2021

The British physicist John Enderby has died aged 90. He is best known scientifically for his development of new techniques using neutrons to study the structure of liquids. Knighted for his services to physics in 2004, Enderby had a long association with Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP) in Bristol, where he served for many years as scientific advisor.

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2004 145

New Scientist

AUGUST 4, 2021

A preliminary study suggests that, among those most likely to develop myocarditis, the heart condition is six times more likely to occur after having covid-19 than after getting vaccinated

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Union of Concerned Scientists

AUGUST 3, 2021

As a PhD candidate in biostatistics who works on problems of data quality, my concerns related to under-counting in the 2020 Census are significant, particularly in regards to political representation and accountability. Beginning with the COVID-19 pandemic, Census deadlines were shuffled due to the rapidly changing public health crisis, with multiple recommended timeline changes to […].

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2020 Politics 253

Scientific American

AUGUST 3, 2021

The mycologist Paul Stamets discusses the potential extraterrestrial uses of fungi, including terraforming planets, building human habitats—and providing psilocybin therapy to astronauts. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com.

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Speaker: Laurie Schoeman Director, Climate & Sustainability, Capital

As households and communities across the nation face challenges such as hurricanes, wildfires, drought, extreme heat and cold, and thawing permafrost and flooding, we are increasingly searching for ways to mitigate and prevent climate impacts. During this event, national climate and housing expert Laurie Schoeman will discuss topics including: The two paths for climate action: decarbonization and adaptation.

2022

Physics World

AUGUST 5, 2021

“Hello, World!” is a simple and commonly used code to introduce people to a programming language. Pronouncing “Hello, World!” out loud, however, while instinctive for most adults, involves a complex series of respiratory, phonetic and resonance tasks to produce sound and articulate the correct words. Speech originates in the brain, with neural signals fired from the brain cortex effortlessly coordinating vocal tract muscles to communicate.

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Electricity Technology Technology 145

Inside Climate News

AUGUST 4, 2021

At least two forestry projects used by businesses including BP and Microsoft to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions are burning in Oregon and Washington. By Camilla Hodgson, Financial Times Forests in the United States that generate the carbon offsets bought by companies including BP and Microsoft are on fire as summer blazes rage in North America.

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Greenhouse Climate Change 144

Ocean Conservancy

AUGUST 3, 2021

By now, we all know the damage single-use items can do to our ocean and the creatures that call it home. That’s why thousands of people have taken Ocean Conservancy’s pledges to reduce waste in their daily lives by skipping the straw and quitting the cutlery. With more than 11 million metric tons of plastic entering our ocean every year, we need a sea change in our relationship with single-use items.

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Scientific American

AUGUST 6, 2021

The first assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change in eight years will sound the alarm on soaring temperatures and other effects of unchecked carbon pollution. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com.

Climate Change 145

Climate Change 145

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Sustainability impacts every nation, company, and person around the world. So much so that, in 2015, the United Nations (UN) issued a call for action by all countries to work toward sustainable development. In response to this and as part of a global Sustainability at Retail initiative, Shop! worked collaboratively with its global affiliates to address these critical issues in this white paper.

Sustainable Development

Physics World

AUGUST 4, 2021

An international team of physicists has created what might seem like a contradiction in terms: a non-radiating source of electromagnetism. By placing antennas inside a hollow dielectric disc, the researchers exploited interference phenomena to create a non-radiative “meta-atom” that could have applications in several areas, including sensing and wireless power transfer.

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Environmental Leader

AUGUST 3, 2021

Major automakers including Ford, VW and Tesla are increasingly leveraging lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, substituting for the more commonly used nickel or cobalt formulations, to capitalize on lower costs. Thus far, VW’s CEO Herbert Diess has committed to using LFP in the company’s entry-level EVs to bring. Read more ».

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Technology Technology Electricity 140

Frontiers

AUGUST 1, 2021

By Suzanna Burgelman, Frontiers science writer. Image: Isabelle Kuehn/Shutterstock. Small juvenile sea turtles from the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean have a very high occurrence of ingested plastic, a new study shows. Of the studied species, green turtles had the highest incidence of ingested plastics, whereas hawksbill turtles showed no ingestion.

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Ocean Conservation 136

New Scientist

AUGUST 3, 2021

Interstellar, Moon, Proxima, Alien, Hidden Figures. From science fiction to biographical drama, does your favourite movie about space make our list?

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Physics World

AUGUST 4, 2021

Combining proton and photon beams provides the optimal dose distribution for a head-and-neck cancer treatment. (Courtesy: Jan Unkelbach). Proton therapy offers precision tumour targeting with low integral dose to normal tissue. But for certain situations, photon-based radiotherapy may hold the advantage. In some cases, the penumbra of a photon beam may be sharper, for example, while proton treatments of lung or breast cancer can suffer from robustness problems.

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Scientific American

AUGUST 4, 2021

Similar work in San Francisco, Atlanta and other locations is revealing which parts of a city get hottest and why. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com.

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Climate Change 144

Breezometer

AUGUST 3, 2021

As climate change makes annual wildfire seasons longer and more devastating, predicting when and where these disastrous blazes will spread has become crucial. But is it actually possible to do this? How Weather Conditions Feed the Combustion Triangle. In order to start, a wildfire needs fuel, oxygen, and something to ignite it. In many cases, certain weather and climate conditions combine to make wildfire events more likely - affecting how they spread and how much land they burn through within s

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New Scientist

AUGUST 4, 2021

Over a millennium before the Greek philosopher Pythagoras, Babylonian surveyors were using Pythagorean triangles to accurately share out farmland

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Physics World

AUGUST 2, 2021

Planetary nebulae as far away as 40 Mpc (about 130 million light–years) have been observed by astronomers for the first time. The objects had been too distant to see until an international team of astronomers used a new filter on data from the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument – which operates on European Space Agency’s Very Large Telescope (VLT).

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Scientific American

AUGUST 6, 2021

Melanie Mitchell says digital minds will never truly be like ours until they can make analogies. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com.

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Technology Technology 145