Posts Tagged ‘Pollution’
August 2024
This newsletter includes potential new uses of wood; a process for potentially reducing cement emissions; a process which could reduce green hydrogen production costs; a new catalyst for efficiently converting ammonia to hydrogen etc.; converting trucks from diesel to hydrogen combustion; and Danish measures to reduce methane emissions and make its agricultural sector more sustainable. It ends with a reminder of the impacts of the climate crisis on the world’s oceans.
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The Legacy of Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” (first published in 1962) is an environmental science work that documents the harm caused by indiscriminate use of pesticides.
Dr Howell’s presentation identifies implications in the legacy of Rachel’s “Silent Spring” for Engineers for Social Responsibility.
Submission on the Proposed Zero Carbon Bill
Even though the importance of controlling global warming has become increasingly clear and more widely understood over the past 30 years, to date we have not set meaningful targets to significantly reduce emissions and we have not had any mechanisms in place that seem to have had any significant effect on driving reductions in emissions. Hence our net emissions have just continued to increase through most of this period.
Read MoreA New Perspective on the Importance of Methane in New Zealand’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Recent analysis shows that in the relatively short timeframe available to curb our carbon emissions, it is even more important than we thought to get on top of our methane emissions. This is not an easy message to get across in New Zealand, which relies heavily on its agricultural economy.
Read MoreOcean Acidification – The Other CO2 Problem
Ocean acidification (OA) has been described as “global warming’s evil twin” and is considered by many scientists to be one of the greatest environmental challenges to marine organisms in the 21st century. Long-term records have shown a decrease in average ocean pH of 0.1 units since the beginning of the industrial age (from 8.21 to 8.10), and pH is expected to decrease a further 0.3 to 0.4 units by 2100, resulting in seawater that contains 150% more H+ than present.
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