tipping points
Humanity has dangerously overstepped three of the planet’s nine key natural thresholds, and are on track to cross the remaining six in coming decades, according to a new warning from an international team of scientists. Taken together, the potential threats make it “too late to be a pessimist,” according
traffic
Managing transport effectively has become an urgent priority for municipal planners faced with an increasingly urbanised and polluted world, according to a new research report from IBM. Seventy per cent of the world’s population is expected to be living in cities by 2050. Last year, the UN found that
climate
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is rolling out a new and improved global climate change disclosure system in an effort to both encourage greenhouse gas emission reductions and boost the performance of corporations. Being developed in partnership with Accenture, Microsoft and SAP, the new system will streamline the reporting process
A few weeks back, we posed the question, “What do you think of the Carbon Trust?” Well, our readers have responded, so we’re featuring a few of the best comments here (thanks to EcoConnect for helping with this): I think the Carbon Trust does the best of a bad
carbon sequestration
Green roofs — using grass or other plants instead of shingles — have long been known to cut a building’s heating and cooling costs and reduce polluted stormwater runoff, but they could also provide an eco-friendly way of sequestering substantial amounts of carbon, according to a new study. For example, covering
OLED
Vladimir Bulovic, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, applies an electric charge to a pickle to demonstrate the science behind today’s flat-panel OLED (for “organic light-emitting diode”) video displays:
batteries
Today’s batteries are approaching the limits of their energy densities, which could mean a “power shortage” for users of increasingly small but energy-hungry gadgets, according to a study by NextGen Research. While a new generation of portable devices offer a wealth of features with increased demand for power, battery
traffic
A traffic congestion charging system developed by IBM has cut queuing times in half on Stockholm streets during the morning commute, and has also reduced inner-city carbon dioxide emissions by 14 to 18 per cent. The Stockholm Congestion Charging System has also reduced city traffic by 18 per cent, with
electric cars
Understanding how fluid boils in tiny “microchannels” could help engineers design more efficiently cooled electric and hybrid cars, aircraft, computers and other devices, according to research from Purdue University. Allowing a liquid to boil in cooling systems dramatically increases how much heat can be removed, compared to simply heating a
biodiversity
A fungal disease that’s killing frogs throughout Central America is also dramatically reducing the diversity of frog species, leading to what one researcher is calling “the McDonaldisation of the frog communities.” While it’s already well known that frogs are in trouble in spots around the globe, an analysis
concrete
While the concrete industry has a reputation as a significant contributor to global carbon dioxide emissions, many experts are working to developer “greener” concrete that could be zero-carbon or even carbon-absorbing. And a new programme at Kingston University aims to help speed such innovation along. The new MSc in Sustainable
Long an organisation that promotes corporate interests over social or environmental ones, the US Chamber of Commerce has gone too far in its opposition to climate change action, according to one member that’s publicly quit the group. Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) Chairman and CEO Peter Darbee
