Net zero – site de știri și informații utile

The development of greener jet fuels is crucial for achieving climate-friendly flying and the UK government's "jet zero" goal by 2050. However, according to the Royal Society, there is currently no clear alternative to traditional fuel. The impact of flying on greenhouse gas emissions is significant, with 2.4% of global emissions and 8% of UK emissions attributed to air travel. As demand for flights is expected to increase, governments and the aviation industry are exploring ways to reduce the climate impact of traditional kerosene fuel. The Royal Society report examined four options for greener fuels to replace the 12.3m tons of jet fuel used annually in the UK, but the report concludes that none of these ...

A report published in the science journal One Earth reveals that mountain forests are disappearing rapidly, with a global loss of 78.1 million hectares (7.1%) since 2000, which is larger than the size of Texas or France. The loss is especially significant in tropical biodiversity hotspots, putting more pressure on already endangered species. Biodiversity plays a crucial role in ensuring food security by providing genetic diversity that enables crops and livestock to adapt to changing environmental conditions, such as droughts, floods, and pests. Biodiversity also plays a crucial role in medicine development, as many medicines are derived from natural compounds found in plants, animals, and microorganisms. Biologically diverse ecosystems can help ...

The hairdressing industry has traditionally been wasteful because there were no solutions for the main waste streams like hair and metal foils contaminated with color. Moreover, 95% of beauty containers are thrown out after one use. However, since 2020, a growing interest in sustainability among both customers and salons has been noticed. Scottish beauty companies Beauty Kitchen and Re are working to make the beauty industry more environmentally friendly by increasing the reuse of packaging. The customers of these companies can return their empty containers in order to be washed and reused. The washing facility used by Beauty Kitchen to clean and sanitize the containers is of medical-grade quality, comparable to what is used in hospitals or laboratories, ensuring that the containers are thoroughly cleaned and safe to be reused. Jo Childley, ...

Researchers exposed mice with an EGFR mutation to microscopic pollutants and found that the mice developed lung tumors at a high rate. The lungs of mice with the EGFR mutation became inflamed, with immune cells called macrophages and the molecule interleukin 1 beta rushing into the lungs. Blocking interleukin 1 beta with an antibody decreased lung cancer in these mice, suggesting that reducing inflammation could be a way to block the growth of lung tumors.

Climate scientists have warned at a meeting in Switzerland that the world is likely to miss the key goal in the fight against global warming. In response to this warning , UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called on all countries to bring forward their net zero plans by a decade in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The latest agreement signed by governments, aims to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, the world has already warmed by 1.1 degrees Celsius, and according to experts, it is likely to breach the 1.5-degree threshold in the 2030s. Small island nations in the Pacific are expected to be among the worst affected by the impacts of climate change. Dr. Pa'olelei Luteru, the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, expressed the frustration felt by many vulnerable countries about the slow progress in addressing the climate crisis, despite...

Ethiopia has been relying on durum wheat varieties for their agriculture for 5,000 years until the 1940s when conventional bread wheat was introduced. Durum wheat is still consumed in various ways in the country. Carlo Fadda, the principal scientist at the Alliance of Biodiversity International and CIAT, emphasizes that the durum wheat varieties in Ethiopia have significant implications for the future of agriculture. These varieties have evolved under natural and artificial selection for thousands of years, making them highly adapted to Ethiopia's climate and soils. Matteo Dell'Acqua, a plant geneticist from the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, has been collaborating with Ethiopian farmers to find new ways to integrate their knowledge into the agricultural innovation process. Ethiopian farmers recognize that they cannot rely solely ...

Climate change could lead to an increase in deadly bacterial infections along certain US coastal areas. A recent study led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the UK and published in the journal Scientific Reports in March 2023, has found that the number of V. vulnificus bacterial infections has increased significantly along the East Coast of the US over the past 30 years. These deadly infections are caused by a flesh eating bacteria that thrive in warm, shallow coastal waters and can enter the body through cuts or insect bites during contact with seawater. The East Coast of the US is a global hotspot for these infections, with the number of cases increasing from 10 to 80 per year. V. vulnificus...

While larger plastic items like bags, bottles, and straws have been identified as a danger for marine life, microplastics are often overlooked. They are tiny plastic fragments smaller than 5mm in size and are a major source of plastic pollution. Microfibers are the most common type of microplastic found in our oceans, and they can account for up to 91% of the microplastics that are present in the water. These tiny fibers come from a variety of sources such as wearing and washing of clothes and from the weathering and abrasion of marine equipment. Marine animals, including shellfish, can encounter and consume microplastics. Shellfish, in particular, are vulnerable because they feed by filtering the water, so they can ingest far higher concentrations of microplastics compared to other marine animals. A ...

Humans have emitted a large amount of carbon dioxide since the Industrial Revolution (more than 2,000 gigatons) , so we have reached a point where we need to make significant changes to combat climate change. It's crucial to reduce emissions quickly, but we also need to remove and store carbon that's already in the atmosphere to keep global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees C and prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Carbon dioxide removal, also known as carbon removal, aims to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to mitigate climate change. Estimates for the amount of carbon removal needed to mitigate climate change range from 5 to 16 billion metric tons per year globally by ...

A team of bioengineers at KU Leuven in Belgium, has been developing hydrogen panels for over a decade, and they have recently made progress towards the industrial production of panels that can extract green hydrogen gas from the air. The team believes that the adoption rate of these hydrogen panels will be similar to that of solar panels. Hydrogen panels resemble solar panels but operate differently. They use solar energy to extract water vapor from the air at night and convert it into hydrogen and oxygen during the day. Hydrogen produced this way would be considered green hydrogen. In 2019, the team of bioengineers were able to improve the efficiency of a single panel to the point where it can produce an output of 250 liters of hydrogen per day. The main purpose of hydrogen panels is...