Environmental
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Study maps abundance of plastic debris across European and Asian rivers
Rivers in southeast Asia transport more plastic to the ocean than some rivers in Europe, evidence from a new study in Environmental Research Letters suggests. In the first study of its kind, researchers from the Netherlands examined the amounts of floating plastic debris at 24 locations on rivers in seven European and Asian countries. Lead […]
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‘Daring multi-level club solution’ could offer key to combating climate change
‘Climate clubs’ offering membership for sub-national states, rather than just countries, could speed up progress towards a globally-harmonised climate change policy. This is the key finding of a new study by researchers from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Spain, published today in Environmental Research Letters. The study’s lead author, Nick Martin from UAB, explained: […]
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Energy advances open the door to more aggressive climate policies
An international research team has called for a more sober discourse around climate change prospects, following an extensive reassessment of climate change’s progress and its mitigation. They argue that climate change models have understated potential warming’s speed and runaway potential, while the models that relate climate science to consequences, choices and policies have understated the […]
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Machine learning and artificial intelligence to aid climate change research and preparedness
Machine learning and artificial intelligence are expected to provide significant new insights into understanding climate change and how to fight it, according to a study published today in Environmental Research Letters. The study, led by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, UK, provides a compelling argument that machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) can […]
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Increase in cannabis cultivation or residential development could impact water resources, study shows
Cannabis cultivation could have a significant effect on groundwater and surface water resources when combined with residential use, evidence from a new study suggests. Researchers in Canada and the US investigated potential reductions in streamflow, caused by groundwater pumping for cannabis irrigation, in the Navarro River in Mendocino County, California, and contextualized it by comparing […]
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Superconducting wind turbine chalks up first test success
A superconducting rotor has been successfully tested on an active wind turbine for the first time. The EcoSwing consortium designed, developed, manufactured a full-size superconducting generator for a 3.6 megawatt wind turbine, and field-tested it in Thyborøn, Denmark. They report their results in the IOP Publishing journal Superconductor Science and Technology. Corresponding author Anne Bergen, […]
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Aviation emissions’ impacts on air quality larger than on climate, study finds
New research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has quantified the climate and air quality impacts of aviation, broken down by emission type, altitude and location. The MIT team found that growth in aviation causes twice as much damage to air quality as to the climate. Writing today in IOP Publishing’s Environmental Research Letters, […]
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New study investigates the important role of Tambora eruption in the 1816 ‘year without a summer’
A new study has estimated for the first time how the eruption of Mount Tambora changed the probability of the cold and wet European ‘year without a summer’ of 1816. It found that the observed cold conditions were almost impossible without the eruption, and the wet conditions would have been less likely. 1816 recorded exceptionally […]
