ENN
Environmental News Network -- Know Your Environment
Ha sido una creencia común que los vehículos de bajas emisiones, como los híbridos y coches eléctricos, son más caros que otras opciones. Pero un nuevo estudio revela que cuando los costos de operación y mantenimiento se incluyen en el precio de un vehículo, los coches más limpios en realidad pueden ser una mejor apuesta.
California está probando si su tráfico pesado puede producir no sólo emisiones y contaminación del aire, sino también electricidad. La Comisión de Energía del Estado informa que invertirá $ 2 millones de dólares para examinar el potencial de utilizar cristales piezoeléctricos incorporados bajo el asfalto como una forma de enviar la energía creada por los coches en movimiento a la red.
California is testing whether its heavy traffic can produce not just emissions and air pollution, but electricity. The state’s Energy Commission says it will spend $2 million to examine the potential of using piezoelectric crystals embedded under asphalt as a way to send the energy created by moving cars to the grid.
Around the world -- from tundra to tropical forests, and a variety of ecosystems in between -- environmental researchers have set up micrometeorological towers to monitor carbon, water, and energy fluxes, which are measurements of how carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapor and energy (heat) circulate between the soil, plants and atmosphere. Most of these sites have been continuously collecting data, some for nearly 25 years, monitoring ecosystem-level changes through periods of extreme droughts and rising global temperatures. Each of these sites contributes to a regional network -- i.e. the European Network (Euroflux) or the Americas Network (AmeriFlux) -- and the regional networks together comprise a global network called FLUXNET.
Habitat degradation poses a greater risk to the survival of turtles and tortoises than rising global temperatures, according to new research.
More than 60 per cent of the group are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered, because they are being traded, collected for food and medicine and their habitats are being degraded. Understanding the additional impact of global warming and changes in rainfall patterns on their diversity and distributions is therefore paramount to their conservation.
It has been a common belief that low-emissions vehicles, like hybrids and electric cars, are more expensive than other choices. But a new study finds that when operating and maintenance costs are included in a vehicle's price, cleaner cars may actually be a better bet.
