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Environmental News Network -- Know Your Environment
To make natural gas and biogas suitable for use, the methane has to be separated from the CO?. This involves the use of membranes: filters that stop the methane and let the CO? pass through. Researchers at KU Leuven have developed a new membrane that makes the separation process much more effective.
Using a Lidar, a laser ranging instrument, at the University’s Bayfordbury Observatory near Hertford, the team monitored the height of the particles throughout the day. Laser pulses reflected from the particles show their arrival around midday, their growing height in the atmosphere, and their eventual departure in the evening.
The atmospheric profile was measured every second, allowing the changes in the particle layering to be observed throughout the day. The particles responsible for the red sky are seen as a diagonal stripe in the profile sequence. The layer of dust arrived over Hertford around 11:00 GMT at 1 km altitude, drifted past over the next 6 hours at progressively higher altitudes, and reached 2-3 km altitude by the time it moved away from Hertford around 18:00 UTC.
Climate change is putting many tropical high altitude beetles at risk of extinction, warn an international team of scientists.
Forest fires in British Columbia. Floods in Quebec. Hurricanes in Texas. While it’s difficult to say definitively that such events are caused by climate change, there’s little doubt that a warming world exacerbates such extreme weather—and that our society will need to be ready for more of them.
These are the kinds of issues on Anika Bell’s mind as she prepares to pursue her master’s of applied science at the University of Victoria in the new year. Bell’s previous research was featured in an infographic at the Livable Cities Forum in Victoria in September, where planners, policymakers and other professionals across Canada discussed ways to build cities equipped for current and future climate change impacts.
Using a modified version of the CRISPR genome-editing system, MIT researchers have developed a new way to screen for genes that protect against specific diseases.
Future high temperature extremes and soil moisture conditions may cause some regions to become more suitable for rainfed, or non-irrigated, agriculture, while causing other areas to lose suitable farmland, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study.
These future conditions will cause an overall increase in the area suitable to support rainfed agriculture within dryland areas. Increases are projected in North America, western Asia, eastern Asia and South America. In contrast, suitable areas are projected to decline in European dryland areas.
