Category: 9. Environment
-
Thailand urged to halt crop burning after air pollution spike
Bangkok ranked among the most polluted cities in the world in April. Thailand must ban stubble burning by farmers to improve air quality, the head of a leading agricultural body said Monday, after a spike in dangerous pollution left millions needing medical treatment. The kingdom suffered dire air quality earlier in the year, with Bangkok…
-
What is the carbon footprint of a hospital bed?
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Researchers from the University of Waterloo completed the first-ever assessment of a Canadian hospital to reveal its total environmental footprint and specific carbon emission hotspots. Studying a hospital in British Columbia during its 2019 fiscal year, the researchers identified energy and water use and purchasing of medical products as the hospital’s…
-
Magnitude 4.8 earthquake rattles part of Italy northeast of Florence, but no damage reported so far
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A 4.8-magnitude earthquake rattled parts of Tuscany early Monday, geologists and firefighters said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The quake’s epicenter was near Marradi, northeast of Florence, and it struck at 5:10 a.m., after some smaller temblors, according to Italy’s institute of geophysics and vulcanology. The agency…
-
Enhancing scientific transparency in national CO2 emissions reports via satellite-based a posteriori estimates
Methodology overview of a top-down approach to analyze nationwide CO2 emissions Two approaches can be used for estimating GHG emissions: a bottom-up approach relying on forward analysis of global databases28 and top-down approach based on inverse analysis of observational data29. Top-down approaches rely on inverse models such as Lagrangian particle models31 and Bayesian models based…
-
Humanity deep in the danger zone of planetary boundaries: Study
Water falling from a melting iceberg drifting along the Scoresby Sound Fjord, in Eastern Greenland. Human activity and appetites have weakened Earth’s resilience, pushing it far beyond the “safe operating space” that keeps the world livable for most species, including our own, a landmark study said Wednesday. Six of nine planetary boundaries—climate change, deforestation, biodiversity…
-
California sues oil giants, alleging climate risks deception: NYT
California is on the front lines of climate change-fueled wildfires, flooding and other extreme weather phenomena. The US state of California sued five of the world’s largest oil companies on Friday, alleging the firms caused billions of dollars in damages and misled the public by minimizing the risks from fossil fuels, The New York Times…
-
Meat, milk alternatives could slash food system emissions a third: study
Cows belch methane, a potent greenhouse gas whose warming effect is much stronger than carbon dioxide. Replacing half of the pork, chicken, beef and milk products we consume with plant-based alternatives could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and related land use by nearly a third, and virtually halt forest loss, according to research…
-
Mid-to-late Holocene climate variability in coastal East Asia and its impact on ancient Korean societies
Chronology and stratigraphy This study established a depth-age model for our 3-m-long core, founded on 10 radiocarbon dates (Table 1). The deposition rate of the Dongsuak sediments was relatively constant, suggesting that the swamp’s sedimentary environments remained stable during the mid-to-late Holocene. Paleoenvironmental multi-proxy data were obtained from the upper 150 cm of the sediment core…
-
At Climate Week, guaranteeing Indigenous land rights and funding is crucial (commentary)
Indigenous territorial rights are likely to again be affirmed as vital to facing the climate crisis during Climate Week events in New York City from September 17-24. Such statements are welcome but rarely do they come with guarantees of territorial rights or climate finance for Indigenous communities to steward and protect those lands, however. “Discourses…
-
Protected areas a boon for vertebrate diversity in wider landscape, study shows
A new study reveals that protected areas in Southeast Asia not only boost bird and mammal diversity within their confines, but they also elevate numbers of species in nearby unprotected habitats. The researchers say their findings back up the U.N.’s 30×30 target to protect 30% of Earth’s lands and waters by 2030. The findings indicate…