Nearly 40% of India’s population concentrated in Indo-Gangetic Plain to be affected most due to air pollution The Taj Mahal in Agra on a foggy day. Photo: iStock India is the world’s second most polluted country where fine particulate air pollution (Particulate Matter 2.5) shortens an average Indian’s life expectancy by 5.3 years, according … Read more
This report may not be the breath of fresh air climate experts hoped. Air pollution reduces the average life span globally by 2.3 years, making it the “greatest external threat to human life expectancy,” according to the annual Air Quality Life Index report published Tuesday. Researchers from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of … Read more
Scientists at Rice University in Houston, Texas have developed a fabric-based wearable device that “taps” a user’s wrist with pressurized air, silently helping them navigate to their destination. The study, published August 29 in the journal Device, demonstrated that users correctly interpreted which direction the device was telling them to go an average of 87% … Read more
Satellite data from across California’s landscapes reveal an increase in nitrogen dioxide levels in remote forest areas, and wildfire and soil emissions are likely the reasons why, according to a paper from University of California, Davis, published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters. Nitrogen dioxide is short-lived in the atmosphere but plays a central … Read more
The Earth is getting hotter and consequences have been made manifest this summer around the world. Looking back in geological history, global warming events are not uncommon: Around 56 million years ago, during the period known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), the temperatures rose by an average of 5 to 8 degrees Celsius. This … Read more
She’s not on board with this in-flight beverage. “For any passengers out there, whether you are a frequent flyer, an occasional flyer, a seasonal flyer or will be a first-time flyer soon, I would like to say to you: never drink tap water from the plane bathroom,” flight attendant Celina Bedding told The Mirror on … Read more
Plastics — in particular, microplastics — are among the most pervasive pollutants on the planet, finding their way into the air, water systems and food chains around the world. While the prevalence of microplastics in the environment is well known — as are their negative impacts on marine organisms — few studies have examined the … Read more
Anyone who’s been caught in an unexpected downpour knows that weather forecasting is an imperfect science. Now, researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology are taking aim at one of meteorologists’ biggest blind spots: extremely short-term forecasts, or nowcasts, that predict what will happen in a given location over the next few minutes. “This isn’t just … Read more
A team of researchers is designing novel systems to capture water vapour in the air and turn it into liquid. University of Waterloo professor Michael Tam and his PhD students Yi Wang and Weinan Zhao have developed sponges or membranes with a large surface area that continually capture moisture from their surrounding environment. Traditionally, fresh … Read more
Mandatory evacuation orders remain in place Saturday for several Louisiana communities as efforts to battle the Tiger Island fire in Beauregard Parish continue. As of Saturday, the Forestry Department reported that containment remains at approximately 50%, but is improving. Twelve residential structures have been lost to the fire, but there have been no reported injuries … Read more