In the future, the energy needed to run the powerful computers on board a global fleet of autonomous vehicles could generate as many greenhouse gas emissions as all the data centers in the world today.
Using artificial intelligence, Cornell University engineers have simplified and reinforced models that accurately calculate the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) – the soot, dust and exhaust emitted by trucks and cars that get into human lungs – contained in urban air pollution.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), a federal agency, is not currently considering a ban on gas stoves. Therefore the claim that the government is banning gas stoves or that they plan on seizing people’s stoves is false.
About a quarter of the world’s electricity currently comes from power plants fired by natural gas. These contribute significantly to global greenhouse gas emissions (amounting to 10% of energy-related emissions according to the most recent figures from 2017) and climate change.
On Jan. 9, a United Nations-backed panel of experts announced that Earth’s protective ozone layer is on track to recover within four decades, closing an ozone hole over the Antarctic that was first noticed in the 1980s. But it was research conducted at the University of California, Irvine in the 1970s that made this good new possible.
A new report and upcoming international virtual event addresses the unequal burden of marine plastics on different communities. The illustrated report includes case studies from around the world and recommends future changes.
A new paper in PNAS Nexus, published by Oxford University Press, finds that children living near one California airport have higher lead levels in their blood.
UC Davis Health researchers assessed the carbon footprint and potential savings in lives, costs and time of telehealth visits during the pandemic’s first two years. They found that video visits in five UC health systems resulted in substantial savings in patient costs and carbon emissions.
University of California, Riverside, scientists have moved a step closer to finding a use for the hundreds of millions of tons of plastic waste produced every year that often winds up clogging streams and rivers and polluting our oceans.
Today, the EPA released an inadequate proposed rule that fails to protect the health of the American public from the life-threatening effects of common daily exposures to the air pollutant, particulate matter.
UC San Diego researchers suggest that rising levels of manmade chemicals, accumulating in marine plankton, might be used to monitor the impact of human activity on ecosystem health and perhaps study links between ocean pollution and land-based rates of childhood and adult chronic illnesses.
Moderate levels of two outdoor air pollutants, ozone and fine particulate matter, are associated with non-viral asthma attacks in children and adolescents who live in low-income urban areas, a study funded by the National Institutes of Health has found.
Ships are a major means of commercial transport, contributing to 80% of global goods and energy trade. However, they emit exhaust gases—from the engines when they are sailing, and from the engines and boiler when they dock in ports.
Bladderwrack in the Baltic Sea emits significant amounts of methane, which, to some extent, can offset the uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide by these algae.
Wind, sewage sludge, and waste water carry tyre wear particles from roads onto farmland. A new lab study shows: The pollutants contained in the particles could get into the vegetables grown there.
When horseweed is grown in contaminated soil, it extracts and accumulates heavy metals like lead, copper, and zinc. These fast-growing plants could help to detoxify even highly polluted environments.
The total amount of microplastics deposited on the bottom of oceans has tripled in the past two decades with a progression that corresponds to the type and volume of consumption of plastic products by society.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Institute for Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics (iCOUP) have developed a new method for recycling high-density polyethylene (HDPE).
An analysis published today in the New England Journal of Medicine describes the significant benefits The Inflation Reduction Act offers to improve public health through tax credits and other financial incentives.
Emergency preparedness in nursing homes should be commensurate with local environmental risks to ensure residents’ safety, but new research in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that nursing homes in California that face a greater risk of wildfire exposure have poorer compliance with Medicare’s emergency preparedness standards.
UK forests could store almost double the amount of carbon than previous calculations suggest, with consequences for our understanding of carbon stocks and humanity’s response to climate change, according to a new study involving UCL researchers.
Biodegradable medical gowns, designed to be greener than conventional counterparts, actually produce harmful greenhouse gases, according to new research published Dec. 20 in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
Consumers told that not recycling their batteries ‘risked polluting the equivalent of 140 Olympic swimming pools every year’ were more likely to participate in an electronic waste recycling scheme, a new study has found.
The London Underground is polluted with ultrafine metallic particles small enough to end up in the human bloodstream, according to University of Cambridge researchers.
Significantly higher arsenic and uranium concentrations in public drinking water have been linked to communities with higher proportions of Hispanic/Latino, American Indian/Alaskan Native, and non-Hispanic Black residents, according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Electric cars – and their continued sales growth – are expected to have a greener, cleaner influence on air pollution and reduce human mortality in most, if not all, U.S. metropolitan areas, according to Cornell University research published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.
The threat chemical pollution poses to biodiversity on a global scale has been acknowledged in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. In its current form, Target 7 proposes to regulate the release of chemicals to the environment and names specific indicators focusing on pesticides, nutrients, and plastic waste. The Minamata Convention on Mercury reinforces that Target 7 of the Framework must include the following per new supporting publications: nonagricultural biocides, PFAS, toxic metalloids including mercury, and endocrine disrupting chemicals.
Western wildfires have been increasing over the last decade and are expected to become more frequent. As a result, communities are seeing more unhealthy air days. In southern Oregon, Jackson County is creating a smoke management community response plan with the help of two University of Oregon graduate students.
University of California scientists have a new way to demonstrate which neighborhoods returned to pre-pandemic levels of air pollution after COVID restrictions ended.
A six-month study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers concludes that the use of portable home air purifiers can improve some markers of cardiovascular health in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD
The central aim of the Paris climate agreement is clear: Limiting man-made global warming to well below 2°C. This limit requires a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to net zero.
Exposure to traffic related air pollution is associated with an increased likelihood of having multiple long-term physical and mental health conditions according to a new study of more than 364,000 people in England.
On their own, microplastics are potentially harmful, and it’s unclear what effect they could have on pollutants. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters show that, when attached to microplastics, UV filters in sunscreens can make chromium metal more toxic.
By 2033, more than 1 billion laptops, cellphones, and other electronic devices could be entering the U.S. waste stream each year. However, with better end-of-life management, new Berkeley Lab research shows electronic waste could also represent a source of valuable metals, namely gold, that could benefit the future economy by offsetting increasing demand for virgin mining.
Operating room (OR) personnel who rethink how they deliver surgical care to focus more on sustainability interventions could substantially reduce hospital costs and decrease their ever-growing carbon footprint.
Kennedy Dechant, a sophomore Environmental and Sustainability Studies major at the University of Northern Colorado, never imagined that she would one day be running her own business. Now the owner of the online thrift store, Eclecticism, her business began as a website she created for her web design class in high school.
Next week the UN intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC) on plastic pollution will meet in Uruguay to develop an international legally binding instrument against plastic pollution. There is concern among scientists that the negotiations will overlook the diversity and complexity of chemicals present in plastics. This would severely undermine the treaty’s effectiveness, according to a new study published in the recent issue of the scientific journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.
They are the salt-tolerant shrubs that thrive in the toughest of conditions, but according to new UniSA research, mangroves are also avid coastal protectors, capable of surviving in heavy metal contaminated environments.