Category: Environment
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Low Emissions Flash Method Upcycles Waste Plastic Into Free Hydrogen
Depositphotos Researchers have used a low-emissions method to harvest hydrogen and graphene from waste plastics. They say it not only solves environmental problems like plastic pollution and greenhouse gas production, but the value of the graphene by-product could offset the costs of producing hydrogen. Hydrogen is used to power vehicles, generate electricity, and heat our…
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How To Build a Water Smart City
Cathryn Virginia/Bloomberg As water shortages and drought become increasingly common, cities will need to invest in infrastructure and find ways to recycle their supply. Cities across time have stretched to secure water. The Romans built aqueducts, the Mayans constructed underground storage chambers, and Hohokam farmers dug more than 500 miles of canals in what is now the…
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There’s a Good Chance You Have Plastic in Your Testicles
Getty Images Scientists have been finding microplastics in the most unexpected places lately, including Arctic ice and the Great Blue Hole. The latest discovery involves a much less exotic location: namely, human testicles. There’s no easy way to phrase this: there’s now plenty of evidence that testicles are as likely as anywhere else to contain microplastics. That isn’t…
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The US is Propping Up Gas While The World Moves To Renewable Energy
Maja Hitij / Getty Images The amount of electricity and greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants likely peaked in 2023, according to the annual global electricity review by energy think tank Ember. That means human civilization has likely passed a key turning point, according to Ember: countries will likely never generate as much…
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Costa Rica Restored Its Ravaged Land To Health. The Rich UK Has No Excuse For Such Complete Failure
Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian One of the world’s greatest environmental heroes doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. Though he has done more to protect the living planet than almost anyone alive, his name is scarcely known. It’s partly because he’s quiet and self-effacing and partly because of a general ignorance about Central America that so few…
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This Startup’s AI Designs Enzymes That Can Eat Plastic Waste
SHIRLEY YU/PROTEIN EVOLUTION In a lab tucked away in an old gun factory in New Haven, Connecticut, a machine heated plastic waste to 536 degrees Fahrenheit and spat out gloopy strings of material that start to harden when they hit the air. This substance made of textiles and post-industrial scrap that were destined for a…
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Extra Strong Spore Loaded Plastic Eats Itself When It Hits Landfill
Han Sol Kim Scientists have demonstrated a creative solution to plastic pollution, one of our most pressing environmental problems. Plastic was embedded with spores of plastic-eating bacteria that are activated when dumped in landfill, biodegrading 90% of the material in five months. Weirder still, this actually made the plastic tougher and stronger during use. Plastic is…
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Antarctica’s Extended Ozone Hole Raises Concerns For Penguin And Seal Breeding
(elnavegante/Getty Images) Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forms over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. But over the last four years, even as the hole has shrunk it has persisted for an unusually long time. Our new research found that instead of closing up during November it has stayed open well into December.…
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PayPal To Promote Low Carbon Energy In Bitcoin Mining
The blockchain research division of PayPal, in collaboration with Energy Web and DMG Blockchain Solutions, has unveiled a groundbreaking proposal aimed at expediting the transition of Bitcoin mining to cleaner energy sources. The new PayPal Bitcoin mining proposal, Termed the “Green Mining Initiative,” suggests utilizing “cryptoeconomic incentives” to encourage miners to adopt low-carbon energy sources. The proposal involves identifying…
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How Big Oil Is Taking Us For a Fossil Fuelized Ride
Chris LeBoutillier A recent opinion poll rocked the world of the Big Oil lobbyists in their proverbial thousand-dollar suits and alligator shoes. The Pew Research Center found that 37% of Americans now feel that fighting the climate crisis should be the number one priority of Joe Biden and Congress, and another 34% put it among their…
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The Ocean Apocalypse Is Upon Us, Maybe
From our small, terrestrial vantage points, we sometimes struggle to imagine the ocean’s impact on our lives. We often think of the ocean as a flat expanse of blue, with currents as orderly, if sinuous, lines. In reality, it is vaster and more chaotic than we can imagine. Its waters move in ways that lack…
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How Satellites And Machine Learning Are Being Used To Detect Plastic In The Ocean
Getty While we know plastic is terrible for marine life, detecting plastic pollution in the ocean is notoriously challenging. Plastics come in many colors, break down to microscopic sizes, and are made of a variety of chemicals. Adding to the problem is the vast size of the ocean, to which millions of tons of plastic…
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Landmark Study Links Microplastics To Serious Health Problems
R. Satish Babu/AFP via Getty Microplastics and nanoplastics, tiny particles shed by plastics that end up in the environment, have been linked to human health problems such as heart attacks, strokes, and death, according to a landmark study. The study found that nearly 60% of people undergoing surgery had microplastics or nanoplastics in a main…
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Solar Power Occupies a Lot of Space Here’s How To Make It More Ecologically Beneficial To The Land It Sits On
Matthew Sturchio, CC BY-ND As societies look for ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow climate change, large-scale solar power is playing a central role. Climate scientists view it as the tool with the greatest potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. In the U.S., the Department of Energy predicts that solar will account for nearly…