Net zero – site de știri și informații utile

Global warming is driving a greater number of human-wildlife conflicts all over the world, on all continents and oceans, shows a new research paper published in Nature Climate Change. The study was conducted by scientists at the University of Washington's Center for Ecosystem Sentinels. The team examined human-wildlife conflicts specifically linked to the effects of climate change. Events like drought, floods, wildfires, warmer air and ocean temperatures cause aggressive behavior, while alterations of animal habitats cause disruption of food webs, driving wild animals into human settlements in search of food. As climate change intensifies, human-wildlife conflicts are likely to increase. In order to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts...

Cercetătorii de la Universitatea Tehnologică Delft au descoperit că modificarea compoziției bateriilor cu ioni de litiu le poate face să dureze mai mult. În ultimii 30 de ani, bateriile cu ioni de litiu au devenit esențiale pentru dispozitivele uzuale, dar capacitatea și durata lor de viață tind să se degradeze în timp, ceea ce poate fi costisitor și frustrant atât pentru consumatori, cât și pentru producători. Oamenii de știință olandezi au descoperit că bateriile cu ioni de litiu pot avea o viață aproape dublă prin adăugarea în compoziția lor a mai multor tipuri de săruri.  Această nouă compoziție (cu patru săruri) reduce deteriorarea stratului protector dintre electrolit și anod și catod, deteriorare cauzată de încărcarea și descărcarea repetată. Cu mai multe săruri în amestec, se pierd mai puțini ioni de…

The German Sinje Gottwald recently completed a 13,000 km solo ride on her electric CAKE Kalk AP motorcycle in 124 days, definitively proving that electric vehicles can handle long-distance trips. Her journey from Spain to South Africa should hopefully put to rest any lingering hesitancy over electric vehicle reliability. This latest accomplishment follows Gottwald’s ground-breaking circumnavigation of the globe on a motorcycle, and further displays her commitment to normalizing independent female road tripping and globetrotting. This time, she journeyed with only two batteries, two chargers, tools, and spare parts for her bike, managing it all without a single flat tire and no more than 140 charges.Her motorcycle proved very resilient, requiring...

Russia’s war on Ukraine is leaving a toxic trace in the soil of one of the world's most important producers and exporters of cereals and oilseeds. Some of the heaviest hit areas are those from the south, the country’s most fertile lands. Heavy metals, fuel and chemical residues from ammunition and missiles are slowly seeping into the soil of Ukraine, threatening agricultural productivity, wildlife, and the health of local communities and leaving a hazardous legacy for future generations. Physical soil pollution also occurs when heavy machinery compacts the soil, explosions create craters, or fires damage ecosystems. Since the war in Ukraine began, over 600 chemical factories and waste storage facilities have been destroyed or damaged, causing major pollution. War has hindered waste management resulting in waste piling up

Bumble bees populations are in steep decline (up to 75% in some places),due to pesticides, habitat loss, light pollution, and parasites. Now, it would appear that global warming is also taking a toll on this irreplaceable pollinator. In the USA alone, around half of the 45 bumble bee species are affected. The disappearance of bumble bees can lead to disruption of entire ecosystems and reduced crop pollination. Eric Riddell, a global change biologist at Iowa State University, studied individuals from two local bumble bee species : the black and gold bumblebee-Bombus auricomus and the common eastern bumble bee-Bombus impatiens to understand how climate change affects them. He kept them in lab conditions and increased the temperature from 18°C to 30°C. He found that, when the temperature was raised, the black and gold bumble bees ...

Americans are obsessed with big vehicles. Last year, the top three best-selling vehicles were trucks. Most buyers don't need these large vehicles and use them as luxury items and symbols of possibility, rather than to tow things. In an effort to follow the worldwide zero emissions trend and to cater to their customers’ love for big vehicles ,car companies are creating electric versions of their huge bestsellers. The bigger the electric vehicle, the larger the battery it requires. Lithium demand for the batteries could increase 40-fold by 2040, requiring 300 new mines to meet the industry demand. Building a ...

Researchers have been trying to find ways to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but more should be done for the ocean, which absorbs 30-40% of the harmful gas. Actually, the concentration of carbon dioxide in seawater is more than 100 times greater than it is in air. MIT researchers have developed a new method of cheaply and efficiently capturing CO2 from the ocean. The findings were first published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science. First, water is acidified in a set of membrane free electromagnetic cells in order to convert dissolved inorganic bicarbonates to molecular carbon dioxide (gas) which is collected via vacuum. Next, the water is fed to a second set of electromagnetic cells with a reversed...

Can the world feasibly switch to all-nuclear power generation? Or can we hope for more solutions from solar energy? Which is more effective to counter to global warming? The total world energy usage (coal+ oil+ hydroelectric+ nuclear+ renewable) in 2015 was 17.3 Terawatts of continuous power. According to Professor Mehran Moalem, PhD, UC Berkeley, solar panels covering an area of 335 kilometers by 335 kilometers could provide more than 17.4 Terawatts of power - enough to cover the world's energy needs for a year. If such a solar park is installed in the Saharan desert, its surface would represent only 1.2% of the area. Its cost is estimated at around five trillion dollars. This is equivalent to 1/4 of US national debt ...

Hamburg is the first German city that will ban new registrations of combustion engine taxis from 2025. The city has already started to electrify its taxi fleet in 2021, with more than 350 electric taxis already in use (12 percent of the fleet).If the entire taxi fleet switches to to emission-free vehicles, it will save 25,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. Now, 25 of the city's taxis are powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The EU has agreed to end combustion engine sales by 2035, but some places like Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden, plan to phase them out by 2030. Germany is hesitant due to its car industry, which still largely relies on ...

For decades, scientists have considered using screens or other objects to block 1-2% of the sun's radiation in order to help fight global warming. A study led by the Center for Astrophysics -Harvard & Smithsonian and the University of Utah proposes putting a moon dust shield between the Earth and the sun. The idea the team of astronomers came up with was inspired by their research on planet formation. Two scenarios were analyzed in computer simulations. In the first scenario, the authors proposed to create shade by launching dust from a space station platform positioned at L1 Lagrange Point (the closest point between Earth and the sun where the gravitational forces are balanced). They found that the dust would be easily blown off course, so an endless supply of new batches...