Feature Channels: Pollution

• share
• favorite_border

When a fire broke out on the deck of the M/V XPress Pearl cargo ship on May 20, 2021, an estimated 70-75 billion pellets of preproduction plastic material, known as nurdles, spilled into the ocean and along the Sri Lankan coastline. That spill of about 1,500 tons of nurdles, many of which were burnt by the fire, has threatened marine life and poses a complex clean-up challenge.

• share
• favorite_border

Nebraska scientist says time is running out for West Antarctic ice sheet

• share
• favorite_border

A new international study coordinated by IIASA shows how near-term mitigation can help to prevent an overshoot in global temperatures, thereby reducing climate risks and bringing long-term economic gains.

• share
• favorite_border

The SINC Center aims to develop technologies to decrease the use of nitrogen fertilizer, a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, by 12% without the loss of crop productivity.

• share
• favorite_border

The opportunity to make a small charitable donation on a store owner’s nickel may be just the encouragement shoppers need to forgo toting their goods home in a single-use plastic bag, new research suggests.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers report in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters that satellite data from before & during the spring 2020 lockdown in Los Angeles shows that vehicles are the main source of urban airborne ammonia, which forms small particles that contribute to air pollution & harm human health.

• share
• favorite_border

Broad-based scientific team from government, academia and industry joins forces to identify new opportunities to reduce the environmental impact of polyurethane — one of the most widely used but little recycled plastic materials.

• share
• favorite_border

Climate change is causing rapid warming in the arctic and tropical regions where natural wetland store large pools of carbon and emit methane.

• share
• favorite_border

Global change is eroding life on earth at an unprecedented rate and scale. Species extinctions have accelerated over the last decades, with the concomitant loss of the functions and services they provide to human societies.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers are continuing a first-of-its-kind evaluation of both the short-term and potential long-term health effects of harmful algal blooms among Florida residents. The study also will be the first-of-its-kind to evaluate the potential effect of exposure to COVID-19. Researchers will explore if there is a relationship between a history of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection and susceptibility to the effects of harmful algal blooms exposure.

• share
• favorite_border

The World Climate Conference in Glasgow has just ended. Empa researchers show how the energy transition could lead to the lowest possible cumulative emissions: Instead of slowly cutting back emissions, we should quickly push ahead with the conversion to solar energy and use fossil power plants at full capacity for one last time to do so.

• share
• favorite_border

The humdrum task of garbage-sorting can elicit confusion or even suspicion. Compost? Recycle? Are those corn-based disposable forks truly compostable or are they just feel-good trash? Many recyclable plastics never even make it into the right bin, and while products with terms like “eco” and “plant-derived” in their brand names can let us feel like we are making Earth-friendly choices, scientists say their benefits may be oversold.

• share
• favorite_border

Glitter is the bane of every parent and primary school teacher. But beyond its general annoyance factor, it’s also made of toxic and unsustainable materials, and contributes to plastic pollution.

• share
• favorite_border

In a new review article, published today in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from University Hospitals (UH), Case Western Reserve University and Boston College discuss evidence linking pollution and cardiovascular disease. The research team highlights strategies for reducing individual exposure to pollution, and the importance of government-supported interventions encouraging clean energy.

• share
• favorite_border

A specific messaging strategy used in a public service announcement (PSA) video can effectively encourage New Yorkers who struggle with recycling compliance to properly separate their trash from recycling, according to the results of a University at Buffalo study.

• share
• favorite_border

Minority neighborhoods in rural New York experienced a disproportionately greater improvement in air quality compared to other neighborhoods, according to new research conducted at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

• share
• favorite_border

The rates of death and health burdens associated with air pollution are borne unequally and inequitably by people of color and those with lower household income and educational attainment in Washington, D.C., according to a new study.

• share
• favorite_border

• Among adults with hypertension, air pollution exposure was not linked with blood levels of Galectin 3, a marker of scarring in the heart; however, in adults who also had chronic kidney disease, air pollution exposure was associated with rising levels of Galectin 3. • Results from the study will be presented online at ASN Kidney Week 2021 November 4–November 7.

• share
• favorite_border

New climate pledges issued ahead of COP26 boost the chances of limiting global warming to 2 degrees, according to a new study in Science.

• share
• favorite_border

Tackling pollution from the emission of nitrogen compounds, particularly ammonia, could reduce many of the 23.3 million years of life that were lost prematurely across the world in 2013 due to nitrogen-related air pollution.

• share
• favorite_border

Michael Méndez, assistant professor of urban planning & public policy at the University of California, Irvine, will moderate a press conference on California’s approach to integrating environmental justice into climate solutions at 1:15 p.m. GMT on Monday, Nov. 8, at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference being held in Glasgow, Scotland.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

The University of Portsmouth will launch its Global Plastics Policy Centre at the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow today - 4th November, to help find sustainable solutions to tackle plastic pollution around the world.

• share
• favorite_border

In Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, by AIP Publishing, researchers from Caltech report using catalytic pyrolysis to turn plastic wastes into a valuable fuel source. They focused on recycling plastic and upgrading plastic into other products or converting it to a vapor with heat, which met a catalyst and turned into the desired fuel-like product.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology report three ways that Americans can reduce the carbon footprint of their food purchases, without requiring drastic dietary changes.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

As world climate experts begin to gather in Glasgow, Scotland, for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), a provocative Canada-U.K. study co-authored by two Université de Montréal anthropologists is generating a lot of buzz around the globe.

• share
• favorite_border

A new University of Rhode Island web platform, “Plastics: Land to Sea,” has been launched as part of an ongoing collaborative initiative to provide the science community with a burgeoning array of data resources and tools designed to inform and support dialogue concerning research focused efforts to start addressing plastics pollution.

• share
• favorite_border

Eric Zou, an assistant professor in the UO economics department, found that companies and in some cases government agencies will do what they can to help their communities’ air pollution levels meet federal standards, which he documented in a paper published earlier this year: “Unwatched Pollution: The Effect of Intermittent Monitoring on Air Quality.”

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

A group of IIASA researchers shows how recovery from the pandemic and climate mitigation policies might affect access to clean fuels.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

According to new research from the University of Adelaide the 2050 target to reduce climate change emissions is too little and too late.

• share
• favorite_border

By intensively managing grazing, producers can make money converting marginally productive cropland back to grassland, while at the same time reducing agriculture’s impact on the environment.

• share
• favorite_border

Four climate-controlled respiration chambers will be built at Cornell University to study gas exchange of dairy cattle and other livestock with the goal of reducing climate-warming methane emissions.

• share
• favorite_border

Exposure to the heavy metal cadmium is known to irritate the stomach and lungs or cause kidney disease, but new research links another health issue to inadvertently ingesting low doses of the pollutant: high activation of the antibodies that cause an allergic response.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

RUDN University chemist with colleagues from India and Korea created a nanofilter for water purification from synthetic dyes. The graphene-based composite can quickly remove up to 100% of harmful compounds from water, and it can be used up to seven times without losing efficiency. In addition, the synthesis of the nanofilter itself is economical and environmentally friendly.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have long known that air pollution can increase the risk of certain health conditions, but they did not know the exact mechanism. Now, University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers have shown how air pollution reduces sperm count in mice by causing brain inflammation.

• share
• favorite_border