Filter performs well in removing plastic pollution from water and Chinese researchers say it appears to be scalable
A sponge made of cotton and squid bone that has absorbed about 99.9% of microplastics in water samples in China could provide an elusive answer to ubiquitous microplastic pollution in water across the globe, a new report suggests.
Just as importantly, the filter’s production appears to be scalable, the University of Wuhan study authors said in the paper, which was peer-reviewed and published in the journal Science Advances. That would address a problem that has stymied the use of previous microplastic filtration systems that were successful in controlled settings, but could not be scaled up.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
12/10/2024 - 07:00
12/10/2024 - 06:00
Backers of blocked Utah railway proposal want justices to narrow scope of 50-year-old environmental legislation
The future of environmental safeguards protecting communities, wildlife and waterways from harm will be considered by the US supreme court on Tuesday, in a case about a proposed oil train that threatens to upend five decades of legal precedent.
The case brought by Utah’s Seven County Infrastructure Coalition and Uinta Basin Railway LLC is asking the supreme court to overturn a federal appeals court decision blocking the approval of an 88-mile railway through the Uinta Basin in north-eastern Utah. The railway’s backers want the court to narrow the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act (Nepa) – the country’s landmark environmental legislation passed by Congress and signed by Richard Nixon in 1970.
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12/10/2024 - 00:00
Government should point to evidence of FSA licensing of additive, says chair of environment and climate change committee
The government must urgently reassure consumers that feed additives given to cattle to reduce methane emissions are harmless, and a vital tool in tackling the climate crisis, the chair of an influential parliamentary committee has warned.
Lady Sheehan, chair of the environment and climate change committee of the House of Lords, called on ministers to step up as a row has blown up over the prospective use of the additive Bovaer in British dairy herds supplying Arla, the dairy company.
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12/09/2024 - 16:25
New research has revealed less than a quarter of the remaining tropical rainforests around the globe can safeguard thousands of threatened species from extinction.
12/09/2024 - 16:25
Freshwater fish populations that dwell nearer the poles are outperforming their equatorial counterparts, researchers have found.
12/09/2024 - 12:42
European Commission scientific advisers say technology to offset global heating could wreak havoc on weather
Europe should ban space mirrors, cloud whitening and other untested tools being touted to reflect the sun’s rays, the European Commission’s scientific advisers have warned, but said the door should be left open for research into their development.
The scientists said the risks and benefits of solar radiation modification (SRM) – also known as solar geoengineering – were “highly uncertain”. They called for an EU-wide moratorium on using it as a way to offset global heating.
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12/09/2024 - 12:26
Characterized by darkness and intense pressure, the ocean's hadal zone seems uninhabitable, yet dozens of unique organisms call it home. Each species discovered there adds a crucial piece to the puzzle of how life has evolved and even thrives in one of Earth's most extreme environments. A new study highlights one of those species -- the newly named Dulcibella camanchaca. This crustacean is the first large, active predatory amphipod from these extreme depths.
12/09/2024 - 08:52
Energy company’s deal with Japan’s Jera will allow it to focus on exploiting oil and gas assets
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BP has agreed a deal worth up to £4.5bn to build offshore windfarms with Japan’s biggest power producer, in a shift that will allow it to gain some access to zero-carbon wind energy while focusing on fossil fuels.
The FTSE 100 company will create a 50-50 joint-venture with the Japanese power generator Jera to combine their offshore wind assets, the companies announced on Monday.
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12/09/2024 - 07:42
Conservation groups join those who helped plant woodland in opposing expansion of bottling plant
Harrogate Spring Water, which is owned by the multinational Danone, is planning to cut down a wood planted by schoolchildren in order to expand its bottling factory in the North Yorkshire town.
Two primary schools, along with other local volunteers, helped to plant 450 trees in a project aimed at fighting climate breakdown organised by the Rotary Club of Harrogate almost 20 years ago.
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12/09/2024 - 03:00
An area nearly a third larger than India turned permanently arid in past three decades, research shows
An area of land nearly a third larger than India has turned from humid conditions to dryland – arid areas where agriculture is difficult – in the past three decades, research has found.
Drylands now make up 40% of all land on Earth, excluding Antarctica. Three-quarters of the world’s land suffered drier conditions in the past 30 years, which is likely to be permanent, according to the study by the UN Science Policy Interface, a body of scientists convened by the United Nations.
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