The West African republic of Sierra Leone might soon have its first biofuel plant through a pilot program from Maryland-based developer Tseai Energy Unlimited.
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Tseai Energy, still in its early stages of operation, will develop a production plant that will employ small-scale, anaerobic digestion technology.
The plant will process palm fruit abundant in the region into palm [...]
Several recent studies now confirm what had been feared so far — the toxicity of a chemical present in feeding bottles and other plastic products. As reports by P. Hari
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Bisphenol A or BPA is a compound that is found in many plastic products around the world. It has been in use since 1891, and known [...]
The U.S. government is encouraging farmers to spread a chalky waste from coal-fired power plants on their fields to loosen and fertilize soil.
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The material is produced by power plant “scrubbers” that remove acid-rain-causing sulfur dioxide from plant emissions.
The substance is a synthetic form of the mineral gypsum, and it also contains mercury, arsenic, lead [...]
Marine biologists break out in a cold sweat when they think about the impact of greenhouse gases on the oceans. It’s not just the fact that global warming raises the temperature of the sea. Scientists are also worried about acidity. The burning of fossil fuels pumps carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and when it gets [...]
A burst oil pipeline in north China has spewed thousands of gallons (litres) of diesel into a major tributary of the Yellow River, state media said.
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The spill occurred on Wednesday last week on the Chishui river in Shaanxi province when a pipeline operated by the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) ruptured, a statement on the [...]
The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) is to study the impact of meat output on climate change in the light of debate about meat’s contribution to greenhouse emissions, the Paris-based body said .
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The initiative, which will be the OIE’s first on an environmental issue, follows requests from its member countries to look at a [...]
West Bengal is planning to generate 115 megawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2013 from solar power, a thrust that would cost the Indian state 15 billion rupees ($320 million), reported Newkerala.com.
Around 110 MW of the power capacity will be sourced from land-based solar power plants while 5 MW will be produced through rooftop [...]
Far from Copenhagen’s turbulent climate talks, the sea lions, harbor seals and sea otters reposing along the shoreline and kelp forests of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary marine area, stand to gain from any global deal to cut greenhouse gases. These foragers of the sanctuary’s frigid waters, flipping in and out of sight of California’s [...]
Worried you haven’t been green enough in life? Don’t let death come in the way of a more eco-friendly you.
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From coffins made of recycled cardboard to saying no to embalming chemicals that seep into the soil, people are increasingly searching for ways to make their final resting place a more environmentally-friendly one.
Now cremation, the [...]
According to the Met Office, man-made climate change will be a factor and natural weather patterns would contribute less to 2010’s temperature than they did in 1998, the current warmest year in the 160-year record.
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El Niño effect, the cyclical heating of the Pacific Ocean, is much weaker than it was in 1998, but the Met [...]
The Arctic ice cap will disappear completely in summer months within 20 to 30 years, a polar research team said as they presented findings from an expedition led by adventurer Pen Hadow.
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It is likely to be largely ice-free during the warmer months within a decade, the experts added.
Veteran polar explorer Hadow and two [...]
Scientists are now seeing signals that the Sahara desert and surrounding regions are greening due to increasing rainfall, all thanks to the rising temperatures due to climate change.
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According to National Geographic News, these rains could revitalize drought-ravaged regions, reclaiming them for farming communities.
This trend is supported by climate models, which predict a return to [...]
Craig Venter, the controversial American scientist who helped decode the human genome, has announced the discovery of ancient bacteria that can turn
coal into methane, suggesting they may help to solve the world’s energy crisis. The bugs, discovered a mile underground by one of Venter’s microbial prospecting teams, are said to have unique enzymes that can [...]
Could it be possible to run your car on urine? Well, it may be, if Ohio University scientists are to be believed.
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And their confidence stems from the fact that they have found a novel way to produce hydrogen energy from urine.
According to Discovery News, the scientists used a nickel-based electrode to make cheap hydrogen from [...]
A team of Indian technologists are working on developing hybrid solar solutions that is expected to bring down electricity costs significantly and help supply power without transmission lines.
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Around 50 students drawn from various Indian Institutes of Technology have already had four-five brainstorming sessions in this regard, said secretary in the Department of Science [...]
Recent studies show how global warming will impact warm-weather plants and animals:-
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Many scientific arguments are no different from mere common sense. Yet common sense requires a lot of experiment and theory to become part of science. We know in our bones that the tropical species are in trouble from climate change. When the planet warms [...]
A reddish microbe found on the inside of a tree at a secret location in the rain forests of northern Patagonia could unlock the biofuel of the future, say scientists.
Its potential is so startling that the discoverers have coined the term “myco-diesel” — a derivation of the word for fungus — to describe [...]
With help from a marine bacterium, scientists may soon come up with a bio-adhesive that is several times stronger than the glues currently available.
I wish there was an adhesive the surgeon could use on my belly instead of the stitches,” moans 35-year-old Amita Sen, who recently underwent a Caesarean section. People nowadays seem to be [...]
Bulky and obtrusive rack-mounted solar panels may be a thing of the past.
Spurred by recent advances in technology, solar panel makers are scrambling to come up with neater and cleaner products that will overcome the aesthetic objections of home owners to traditional solar panels.
They are building their technology directly into different kinds of roof tiles, [...]
One more unwanted consequence of global warming may be an increase in cases of kidney stones in areas with rising temperatures, US researchers said.
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A kidney stone: Researchers say climate change could cause a 30 per cent rise in cases
Kidney stones — excruciatingly painful hard deposits of minerals and salts that can form in the kidneys [...]
Using sheets of glass covered with organic dyes, scientists have devised an efficient and practical solar power device that they believe can help make this clean, renewable energy source more affordable.
Experts eager for energy sources that do not involve the burning of fossil fuels often point to the promise of solar energy — harnessing sunlight [...]
Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) are designing a ventilation system that could protect schools, hospitals, and other public buildings from chemical warfare and bioterrorist attacks, thus making the buildings “immune”.
According to engineering dean and lead researcher Janusz Kozinski, “Think of it as a complex fire alarm for industrial chemical spills, airborne [...]
Ever thought the curtains in your house are not bright enough? Researchers at MIT have created designs for flexible photovoltaic materials, known as solar textiles, that can also be draped as curtains, which may change the way buildings receive and distribute energy.
According to a report in Science Daily, these new materials work like the now-familiar [...]
The closing of the ozone hole over Antarctica has positive implications for the southern hemisphere as well as global climate in general.
“The ozone layer is a thin layer of ozone in the atmosphere, 10 – 50 kilometres above the earth.”
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If ever there was a successful international agreement, it was the Montreal Protocol on Substances that [...]
Scientists are close to overcoming a major problem in the path of hydrogen cars — storing the gas in a viable form.
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It is touted as the stone that could kill two birds. Hydrogen gas, if tapped as an energy source, could help address the earth’s depleting fossil fuel reserves as well as the accumulation of [...]
A new research program in the US is finding ways of making asphalt more environmentally sustainable.
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Called the Asphalt Research Consortium (ARC), the research program is the Federal Highway Administration’s first major consortium to improve asphalt technology since the Superpave effort of the early 1990s.
According to University of Wisconsin-Madison civil engineering professor Hussain Bahia, more than [...]
It’s pretty much common knowledge that plastic bags take 1000 years to decompose, if they do at all, but that fact just wasn’t good enough for 16-year-old Daniel Burd. He’s found a way to make plastic bags decompose in about three months by his estimation.
The Waterloo, Ontario, high school junior figured that something must [...]
Image via WikipediaThe current bamboo flowering cycle has wrought much misery on the people of Mizoram, in India with humans and rats fighting over what little there is.
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The bamboo seeds trigger an exponential growth in the rat population
Flowering trees don’t always signal prosperity. At least not in Mizoram. For the blossoming bamboo — the [...]
Image via WikipediaBreathing in air pollution from traffic fumes can raise the risk of potentially deadly blood clots, a US study says.
Exhaust fumes contain small particulates
Exposure to small particulates – tiny chemicals caused by burning fossil fuels – is known to increase the chances of heart disease and stroke.
But the Harvard School of Public [...]
If scientists are to be believed, a new fuel may turn driving into a really sweet experience.
Researchers have developed a “revolutionary” process for converting plant sugars into hydrogen, which they claim could be used to cheaply and efficiently run vehicles.
According to the researchers, the conversion process involves combining plant sugars, water and a cocktail of [...]