Global Warming Issues

The downpour that washed out Olympic events in tennis, archery and rowing Sunday also cleared up much of Beijing’s dirty air.

On Monday, the city’s air pollution levels dropped by more than half, registering a level of 38 - falling within the World Health Organization’s guidelines for healthy air. It was the first significant drop in the air pollution index since the beginning of August.

Heavy rains that drenched the city Sunday continued into Monday with sporadic showers, replacing the recent hot and muggy patch of weather with cooler temperatures averaging 77 degrees, though humidity remained relatively high.

Read more…

While some conservationists seem hellbent on asking people to do without the conveniences of the modern era, I find it somewhat comforting that there are engineers working on solutions that don’t involve reverting to a pre-industrial lifestyle. One greentech startup called GreenCore Air has come up with an ingenious solution to free us from our electricity guilt: an A/C unit that draws its power directly from the very flaming ball of gas that heats our planet. How cool is that?

Read more…

Last year, a private company proposed “fertilizing” parts of the ocean with iron, in hopes of encouraging carbon-absorbing blooms of plankton. Meanwhile, researchers elsewhere are talking about injecting chemicals into the atmosphere, launching sun-reflecting mirrors into stationary orbit above the earth or taking other steps to reset the thermostat of a warming planet.

This technology might be useful, even life-saving. But it would inevitably produce environmental effects impossible to predict and impossible to undo. So a growing number of experts say it is time for broad discussion of how and by whom it should be used, or if it should be tried at all.

Read more…

In a bright studio at New York University, Natalie Jeremijenko welcomes visitors to her environmental health clinic. She wears a white lab coat with a rotated red cross on the pocket. A clipboard with intake forms hangs by the door.

Inside, circuit boards, respirators, light bulbs, bike helmets and books on green design clutter the high shelves. In front of a bamboo consultation desk sits a mock medicine cabinet, which turns out to be filled with power tools.

Read more…

The Bush administration is proposing to let federal agencies decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants, according to a draft of planned rule changes obtained by The Associated Press.

The proposed regulations, which do not require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews that government scientists have been performing for 35 years.

Read more…

While methods to convert the energy into usable electricity still need to be developed, the sheets could one day be manufactured as lightweight “skins” that power everything from hybrid cars to iPods with higher efficiency than traditional solar cells, say the researchers, who report their findings Aug. 13 at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 2008 2nd International Conference on Energy Sustainability in Jacksonville, Fla. The nanoantennas also have the potential to act as cooling devices that draw waste heat from buildings or electronics without using electricity.

Read more…

This year, the first aphid was caught on 25 April, which is almost four weeks ahead of the 42-year average.

Dr Richard Harrington of the Rothamsted Insect Survey said: “One of the most noticeable consequences of climate change in the UK is the frequency of mild winters. As a direct result of this, aphids seeking new sources of food are appearing significantly earlier in the year and in significantly higher numbers. We have been studying the seasonal biology of aphids for a long time now and we know that populations can continue to grow over the winter and spring provided that conditions are warm enough. After a warm winter, there are much larger numbers flying and they are hence detected much earlier. This means that there are more aphids flying in spring and early summer, when crops are particularly vulnerable to damage.”

Read more…