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ECOLOGY NEWS - Pollution
T U E S D A Y - N O V E M B E R 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
Afloat in the Ocean, Expanding Islands of Trash
ABOARD THE ALGUITA, 1,000 miles northeast of Hawaii — In this remote patch of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from any national boundary, the detritus of human life is collecting in a swirling current so large that it defies precise measurement.
Light bulbs, bottle caps, toothbrushes, Popsicle sticks and tiny pieces of plastic, each the size of a grain of rice, inhabit the Pacific garbage patch, an area of widely dispersed trash that doubles in size every decade and is now believed to be roughly twice the size of Texas.
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M O N D A Y - N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 0 9
NASA Researchers Explore Lightning's NOx-ious Impact on Pollution, Climate
Every year, scientists learn something new about the inner workings of lightning.
With satellites, they have discovered that more than 1.2 billion lightning flashes occur around the world every year. (Rwanda has the most flashes per square kilometer, while flashes are rare in polar regions.) Laboratory and field experiments have revealed that the core of some lightning bolts reaches 30,000 Kelvin (53,540 ºF), a temperature hot enough to instantly melt sand and break oxygen and nitrogen molecules into individual atoms.
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T H U R S D A Y - J U N E 4 , 2 0 0 9
Mystery Ingredient Cleaning Earth's Atmosphere
Mother Nature has a previously unknown cleaning agent that scrubs away toxic air pollution, scientists have discovered.
What's more, the existence of the still mysterious substance has shaken up decades-long assumptions about our atmosphere's self-cleaning process.
But the breakdown spews out ozone, itself a toxic pollutant and a greenhouse gas.
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T U E S D A Y - J U N E 2 , 2 0 0 9
Trade Group Warns Against Biodegradable Plastics
The National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) has called for restraint in the use of degradable additives in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic packaging, raising concerns about the lack of public data in the use of degradable additives in PET packaging. The trade organization says proper testing and verification must be conducted before degradable additives are introduced into the consumer product stream.
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W E D N E S D A Y - M A Y 2 7 , 2 0 0 9
Report: Carbon pollution to grow by 40 percent
WASHINGTON - The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide seeping into the atmosphere will increase by nearly 40 percent worldwide by 2030 if ways are not found to require mandatory emission reductions, a U.S. government report said Wednesday.
The Energy Information Administration said world energy consumption is expected to grow by 44 percent over the next two decades as the global economy recovers and continues to expand. The biggest increases in energy use will come from economically developing countries such as China and India.
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Stimulus Money Put To Work At Superfund Sites
A hundred years ago, the Welsbach and General Gas Mantle factories kept the lights on across the country by making a popular precursor to the light bulb called a mantle, but they left a toxic, radioactive legacy behind in Camden and Gloucester City, N.J.
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T U E S D A Y - M A Y 1 9 , 2 0 0 9
Obama to Toughen Rules on Emissions and Mileage
President Obama will announce tough new nationwide rules for automobile emissions and mileage standards on Tuesday, embracing standards that California has sought to enact for years over the objections of the auto industry and the Bush administration.
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W E D N E S D A Y - M A Y 1 3 , 2 0 0 9
Barack Obama's key climate bill hit by $45m PR campaign
America's oil, gas and coal industry has increased its lobbying budget by 50%, with key players spending $44.5m in the first three months of this year in an intense effort to cut off support for Barack Obama's plan to build a clean energy economy.
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T U E S D A Y - M A Y 1 2 , 2 0 0 9
The Razing of Appalachia:
Over the past two decades, mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia has obliterated or severely damaged more than a million acres of forest and buried more than 1,000 miles of streams. Now, the Obama administration is showing signs it plans to crack down on this destructive practice.
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M O N D A Y - M A Y 1 1 , 2 0 0 9
China Outpaces U.S. in Cleaner Coal-Fired Plants
TIANJIN, China Chinas frenetic construction of coal-fired power plants has raised worries around the world about the effect on climate change. China now uses more coal than the United States, Europe and Japan combined, making it the worlds largest emitter of gases that are warming the planet.
But largely missing in the hand-wringing is this: China has emerged in the past two years as the worlds leading builder of more efficient, less polluting coal power plants, mastering the technology and driving down the cost.
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