Environment
press releases.

Environment5 Mar 2025

Highly radioactive nuclear waste – how to keep it from oblivion

Sweden’s radioactive nuclear waste will be stored in a sealed bedrock repository for 100,000 years. It will be hazardous for a very long time. So how can we ensure that humanity does not forget that it is there? Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, have come up with a proposal for how to keep the memory alive over generations. “We’re trying to do something that no one has ever done before. The person who eventually reads this might not even be human, but perhaps a kind of AI or something ...

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Environment5 Mar 2025

Concrete evidence: Japanese buildings absorb 14% of cement production's carbon footprint

A team of Japanese researchers has discovered that Japan’s concrete structures—including buildings and infrastructure—absorb and store about 14% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated during cement production. This research provides vital knowledge to offset CO2 emissions from cement production, a significant contributor to global carbon emissions at approximately 8%. The study was published in the Journal of Cleaner Production. With the growing urgency of climate change, scientists are focusing not only on reducing ...

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Environment5 Mar 2025

A sustainable iron catalyst for water oxidation in renewable energy

A newly developed pentanuclear iron complex (Fe5-PCz(ClO₄)₃) can offer an efficient, stable, and cost-effective solution for water oxidation. By electrochemically polymerizing the complex, researchers from Institute of Science Tokyo obtained a polymer-based catalyst, poly-Fe5-PCz, and achieved water oxidation with up to 99% Faradaic efficiency and exceptional stability, even under rigorous conditions. This breakthrough offers a scalable alternative to rare metal catalysts, advancing hydrogen production and energy storage for renewable energy. Water oxidation plays a vital role in renewable energy technologies, ...

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Environment5 Mar 2025

Beyond our solar system: scientists identify a new exoplanet candidate

Scientists from UNSW Sydney have located a potential new exoplanet – a planet that orbits a star outside of our solar system – using a technique known as ‘transit timing variation’. In research highlighted in a new paper, published today in The Astrophysical Journal, Scientia Senior Lecturer Ben Montet and PhD candidate Brendan McKee analysed changes in the timing of a known planet’s transit across its star, to infer the presence of a second exoplanet. After ...

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Environment4 Mar 2025

30 million euros for a novel method of monitoring the world's oceans and coastal regions using telecommunications cables

Summary The worldwide network of telecommunications cables lying on the bottom of the world's oceans offers unique potential for scientific use if the fibre-optic cables themselves are used as or equipped with sensors. Based on this, the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam and the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel are now setting up the research infrastructure SAFAtor (SMART Cables And Fiber-optic Sensing Amphibious Demonstrator), that can be used to monitor the world's oceans. It will be included in the portfolio of the major Helmholtz infrastructures and funded by ...

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Environment4 Mar 2025

Equal distribution of wealth is bad for the climate

Both the UN and several Nobel laureates have said that political and economic inequality is a driver of high carbon emissions. The argument is that more democratic societies – where wealth, power and opportunities are more evenly distributed – are better at reducing their emissions. But that is not true – quite the opposite. “Some people hold that a rich power elite stands in the way of climate action, and that democracies can more easily implement measures such as banning emissions or raising taxes,” said Professor Indra de Soysa from the Norwegian ...

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Environment4 Mar 2025

News article or big oil ad? As native advertisements mislead readers on climate change, Boston University experts identify interventions

In the battle against climate disinformation, native advertising is a fierce foe. A study published on March 4, 2025 in npj Climate Action led by Boston University (BU) researchers, in collaboration with Cambridge University colleagues, evaluates two promising tools to fight misleading native advertising campaigns put forth by big oil companies. Many major news organizations now offer corporations the opportunity to pay for articles that mimic in tone and format the publication’s regular reported content. These ‘native advertisements’ are designed to camouflage seamlessly into ...

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Environment4 Mar 2025

Chemistry: Triple bond formed between boron and carbon for the first time

Boron, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen: these four elements can form chemical triple bonds with each other due to their similar electronic properties. Examples of this are the gas carbon monoxide, which consists of one carbon and one oxygen atom, or the nitrogen gas in the earth's atmosphere with its two nitrogen atoms. Chemistry recognizes triple bonds between all possible combinations of the four elements – but not between boron and carbon. This is astonishing because there have long been stable double bonds between boron and carbon. In addition, ...

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Environment4 Mar 2025

Enhancing climate action: satellite insights into fossil fuel CO2 emissions

Reliable and accurate monitoring of CO2 emissions is a cornerstone of effective climate change mitigation strategies. While traditional methods largely depend on ground-based measurements and bottom-up inventories, these approaches are often resource-intensive and prone to errors. Satellite Technology has emerged as a promising alternative, but the challenge remains in distinguishing anthropogenic emissions from natural processes. The long atmospheric lifetime of CO2 makes it difficult to pinpoint localized sources of emissions and track changes over time. Additionally, natural emissions and background concentrations ...

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Environment4 Mar 2025

Who gets the lion’s share? HKU ecologists highlight disparities in global biodiversity conservation funding

The extensive loss of biodiversity represents one of the major crises of our time, threatening not only entire ecosystems but also our current and future livelihoods. As scientists realise the magnitude and scale of ongoing extinctions, it is vital to ascertain the resources available for conservation and whether funds are being effectively distributed to protect species most in need. A team of researchers from the School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong (HKU), addressed these questions in a recent paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), USA, by compiling information ...

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Environment3 Mar 2025

Turning plastic waste into valuable resources: A new photocatalytic approach

A recent study published in Engineering presents an innovative strategy for converting plastic waste into useful products. The research, led by a team of scientists from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and other institutions, focuses on polystyrene (PS), a commonly used plastic that poses significant challenges for waste management. Plastic pollution has become a pressing environmental issue due to the increasing production and improper disposal of plastic products. PS, in particular, is difficult to degrade naturally and often ends up in landfills or the environment, contributing to the spread of microplastics. Current methods for treating ...

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Environment3 Mar 2025

Integrated framework for ecological security: A case study of the Daqing river basin

In a recent study published in Engineering, researchers have developed an innovative analytical framework for ecological security assessment, prediction, and zoning management. Guided by the Social–Economic–Natural Complex Ecosystems (SENCE) theory, this framework aims to enhance ecological security for sustainable development. The Daqing River Basin in the North China Plain was chosen as a case study due to its ecological significance and the increasing human-land conflicts. The research team established an assessment index system based on the pressure-state-response ...

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Environment3 Mar 2025

How London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone is changing the school run

London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is transforming children’s journeys to school by making streets safer, improving perceptions of air quality and encouraging children to live healthier lives. A new study published today in BMJ Open, and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), highlights its benefits, with many families noticing cleaner air and safer roads. However, it also reveals challenges, particularly for those living in outer boroughs who are more reliant on the car and may struggle to adapt. Road traffic is a major source of air pollution in London, posing serious health risks. One in 11 children in the city has asthma, a condition ...

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Environment3 Mar 2025

SwRI, U-Michigan engineers create more effective burner to reduce methane emissions

SAN ANTONIO — March 3, 2025 —Researchers at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and the University of Michigan (U-M) have published a new study showing an advanced new methane flare burner, created with additive manufacturing and machine learning, eliminates 98% of methane vented during oil production. The burner was designed by U-M engineering researchers and tested at SwRI. Oil producers can generate methane during oil production and typically use flare stacks to burn off this gas. However, wind blowing across conventional ...

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Environment3 Mar 2025

Melting Antarctic ice sheets will slow Earth’s strongest ocean current

Melting ice sheets are slowing the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), the world’s strongest ocean current, researchers have found. This melting has implications for global climate indicators, including sea level rise, ocean warming and viability of marine ecosystems. The researchers, from the University of Melbourne and NORCE Norway Research Centre, have shown the current slowing by around 20 per cent by 2050 in a high carbon emissions scenario. This influx of fresh water into the Southern Ocean is expected to change ...

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Environment28 Feb 2025

Rice researchers develop efficient lithium extraction method, setting stage for sustainable EV battery supply chains

In the race to meet the growing global demand for lithium — a critical component in batteries for electric vehicles — a team of researchers from Rice University’s Elimelech lab has developed a breakthrough lithium extraction method that could reshape the industry. In their study published in Science Advances, the researchers demonstrated near-perfect lithium selectivity by repurposing solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) as membrane materials for aqueous lithium extraction. While originally designed for the rapid conduction of lithium ions in solid-state batteries — where there are no other ions or liquid solvents — the highly ordered and confined structure ...

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Environment28 Feb 2025

Vacuum glazing: A promising solution for low-carbon buildings

A new review article published in Engineering offers a comprehensive look at vacuum glazing, a technology that shows great potential in enhancing energy efficiency in buildings. As buildings account for around 40% of society’s total energy consumption, improving the thermal performance of glazing is crucial for achieving low-carbon building goals. Vacuum glazing has gained attention for its heat preservation, sound insulation, lightweight features, and anti-condensation properties. The concept dates back to 1913, but it was not until 1989 that researchers in Australia successfully produced vacuum glazing with excellent thermal insulation performance. Since then, significant ...

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Environment27 Feb 2025

NASA’s Hubble provides bird’s-eye view of Andromeda galaxy’s ecosystem

Located 2.5 million light-years away, the majestic Andromeda galaxy appears to the naked eye as a faint, spindle-shaped object roughly the angular size of the full Moon. What backyard observers don't see is a swarm of nearly three dozen small satellite galaxies circling the Andromeda galaxy, like bees around a hive. These satellite galaxies represent a rambunctious galactic "ecosystem" that NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is studying in unprecedented detail. This ambitious Hubble Treasury Program used observations from more than a whopping 1,000 Hubble orbits. Hubble's optical stability, clarity, and efficiency ...

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Environment27 Feb 2025

Study finds support for solar energy has become politically polarized

A new analysis of social media posts finds public support for solar energy remains high, though that support declined significantly from 2016 to 2022. The study also found solar power has become an increasingly polarized issue, with the shift in support being driven largely by opposition to solar power among people in regions that lean Republican. “The U.S. saw significant growth in the solar energy sector between 2013 and 2022, but that growth has not been spread evenly across the country – some areas have seen more deployment of solar energy technologies than other areas,” says Serena Kim, corresponding author of ...

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Environment27 Feb 2025

Study finds aged biomass emissions could pose greater risk to lungs than fresh wildfire smoke

Biomass burning—whether from wildfires, wood stoves or agricultural fires—sends massive amounts of tiny particles and chemicals into the air. These emissions are not just an environmental issue; they pose serious health risks, especially for our lungs. An Environmental Pollution study, co-authored by Dr. Jason Surratt, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at UNC-Chapel Hill, reveals how two key components of biomass smoke—levoglucosan and 4-nitrocatechol—affect human lung cells. Their findings suggest that aged ...

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Environment27 Feb 2025

An emissions tale of two cities: Salt Lake City vs. Los Angeles

They may both be Olympic host cities, but Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, the major population hubs of their respective states, are much different places. However, they both experience poor air quality and share valley topography that traps pollutants during weather inversions. Utah and Southern California differ sharply in their approaches to this problem, with the latter implementing more stringent regulations and fuel standards aimed at reducing emissions from motor vehicles. New research from the University ...

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Environment26 Feb 2025

Influencer marketing can help tourism industry mitigate waste, pollution

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Social media influencers who are passionate about environmental causes can help the tourism industry inspire tourists to engage in pro-environmental behavior to help mitigate waste and pollution, according to a new study from researchers in the Penn State School of Hospitality Management. The research team found that influencers who are highly passionate about sustainability lifestyles — coined “green influencers” — can increase tourists’ environmental support through social media messaging. The researchers also found that environmental support, or backing waste reduction and wildlife conservation efforts, ...

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Environment26 Feb 2025

Student refines 100-year-old math problem, expanding wind energy possibilities

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A Penn State engineering student refined a century-old math problem into a simpler, more elegant form, making it easier to use and explore. Divya Tyagi’s work expands research in aerodynamics, unlocking new possibilities in wind turbine design that Hermann Glauert, a British aerodynamicist and the original author, did not consider. Tyagi, a graduate student pursuing her master’s degree in aerospace engineering, completed this work as a Penn State undergraduate for her Schreyer Honors College thesis. Her research was published in Wind Energy Science. “I created an addendum ...

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Environment26 Feb 2025

Researchers make recommendations for promoting sustainable development in mangrove forest areas

Although preventing all the consequences of climate change is now impossible, we can adopt policies to mitigate its impact. In a set of policy recommendations produced by the University of Jyväskylä, researchers examine the development of sustainable livelihoods in the Sundarbans, a coastal region of India and Bangladesh that is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The Sundarbans is one of the largest threatened mangrove ecosystems, which efficiently store carbon dioxide and protect coastal areas from cyclones. In a research project funded by the Research Council ...

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Environment26 Feb 2025

Eavesdropping on whale songs sparks new discoveries in whale ecology

Eavesdropping on baleen whale songs in the Pacific Ocean reveals year-to-year variations that track changes in the availability of the species they forage on, reports a new study led by John Ryan, of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), U.S., published February 26, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One. In the vast oceans, monitoring populations of large marine animals can be a major challenge for ecologists. Scientists deploy underwater microphones called hydrophones to study and track baleen whales, which communicate ...

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