Read the full story in Yale Environment360.
As the National Park Service marks its centennial this month, the parks are being celebrated for their natural beauty and priceless recreational opportunities. But they also provide a less recognized benefit: the parks serve as a living laboratory for critical scientific research.
Read the full story from the University of Michigan.
A new study from University of Michigan researchers challenges the widely held assumption that biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel are inherently carbon neutral.
Contrary to popular belief, the heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas emitted when biofuels are burned is not fully balanced by the CO2 uptake that occurs as the plants grow, according to a study by research professor John DeCicco and co-authors at the U-M Energy Institute.
Read the full story at Herald.net.
Can recycling be successfully launched in outer space?
Tethers Unlimited, Inc., a Bothell-based aerospace technology company, plans to find out when its recycling/3D printing system is tested aboard the International Space Station.
The company has been awarded a NASA contract to develop and deliver a Positrusion Recycler to sterilize and recycle plastic waste such as packaging materials, utensils, trays and food storage containers into high-quality 3D filament.
Read the full story from the American Chemical Society.
At the grocery store, most foods—meats, breads, cheeses, snacks—come wrapped in plastic packaging. Not only does this create a lot of non-recyclable, non-biodegradable waste, but thin plastic films are not great at preventing spoilage. And some plastics are suspected of leaching potentially harmful compounds into food. To address these issues, scientists are now developing a packaging film made of milk proteins—and it is even edible.
The researchers are presenting their work today at the 252nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS, the world’s largest scientific society, is holding the meeting here through Thursday. It features more than 9,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.
Read the full story in O’Fallon Weekly.
Braden Gaab, a freshman at O’Fallon Township High School and an Eagle Scout, has left a lasting legacy at Amelia V. Carriel Junior High in an attempt to aid in the preservation and migration of Monarch butterflies. Gaab, under the supervision of his seventh grade science teacher, Mrs. Amanda Mellenthin, created a butterfly garden and certified Monarch Waystation.
Thomason Machine Works, Inc. (TMW) located in Rockford, Illinois, is a second generation family-owned business that has been in operation since 1978. They specialize in replacement parts for a wide variety of header, roll thread, and general machining products. From prototype runs to mass production of parts, the company has the ability to meet the ever-changing demands in an industry with especially diverse customer needs. TMW has also found ways to conserve energy, reduce waste volume, and educate their employees, customers, and community on the importance of environmental responsibility.
Harms, R. and Linton, J. D. (2016), Willingness to Pay for Eco-Certified Refurbished Products: The Effects of Environmental Attitudes and Knowledge. Journal of Industrial Ecology 20: 893–904. doi:10.1111/jiec.12301.
Abstract: Refurbishing products, which are increasingly sold in business-to-consumer markets, is a key strategy to reduce waste. Nevertheless, research finds that consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for refurbished products is low. Strategies for a higher WTP are needed in order to grow consumer markets for refurbished products. Eco-certification of refurbished products may be a key strategy here. Drawing on the consumer WTP literature concerning “green” products, we investigate the impact of independent eco-certificates. Our analysis is based on a survey of 231 potential customers. The results suggest that, across various product categories, the WTP for products with refurbished components is significantly lower. Adding an eco-certificate tends to return the WTP toward the virgin product level. We show that consumers with proenvironmental attitudes particularly exhibit green buying behavior. Our findings indicate that eco-certification is often worthwhile because it enhances the business rationale for producing products with refurbished components.
O’Rourke, D. and Ringer, A. (2016), “The Impact of Sustainability Information on Consumer Decision Making”. Journal of Industrial Ecology 20: 882–892. doi:10.1111/jiec.12310.
Abstract: This article presents an empirical analysis of the impact of sustainability information on consumer purchase intentions and how this influence varies by issue (health, environment, and social responsibility), product category, type of consumer, and type of information. We assess over 40,000 online purchase interactions on the website GoodGuide.com and find a significant impact of certain types of sustainability information on purchase intentions, varying across different types of consumers, issues, and product categories. Health ratings in particular showed the strongest effects. Direct users—those who intentionally sought out sustainability information—were most strongly influenced by sustainability information, with an average purchase intention rate increase of 1.15 percentage points for each point increase in overall product score, reported on a zero to ten scale. However, sustainability information had, on average, no impact on nondirect users, demonstrating that simply providing more or better information on sustainability issues will likely have limited impact on changing mainstream consumer behavior unless it is designed to connect into existing decision-making processes.
Read the full story in the Washington Post.
A new paper is challenging our understanding of how long human-caused climate change has been at work on Earth. And the authors say their findings may question existing ideas about how sensitive the planet is to greenhouse gas emissions — with potentially big implications for our global climate policy.
The new study, just out on Wednesday in the journal Nature, suggests human-caused, or anthropogenic, climate change has been going on for decades longer than existing temperature records indicate. Using paleoclimate records from the past 500 years, the researchers show that sustained warming began to occur in both the tropical oceans and the Northern Hemisphere land masses as far back as the 1830s — and they’re saying industrial-era greenhouse gas emissions were the cause, even back then.
The Endangered Species Act is the world’s strongest law protecting animals and plants on the brink of extinction. In fact, 99 percent of species protected under the Act have avoided extinction. For the Center’s third in-depth report on the Act’s efficacy, A Wild Success: A Systematic Review of Bird Recovery Under the Endangered Species Act — the most exhaustive analysis of its kind — we examined how well the Act is recovering species by determining the objective, long-term population trends of all 120 bird species that have been listed as threatened or endangered under the Act since 1967. Drawing on more than 1,800 scientific population surveys, our study used scientifically vetted data points to determine (1) if bird populations increased, decreased or stabilized after being protected by the Act, (2) the magnitude of population changes, (3) whether recovery rates are consistent with rates projected in federal recovery plans, and (4) how endangered birds fared in comparison to more common birds. Twenty-three of the birds we examined had no Endangered Species Act population trend because they likely went extinct prior to being protected, were delisted for reasons not related to population trends, or were protected under the Act for fewer than 10 years. Our trend analyses were based on the remaining 97 species. On average our datasets spanned 83 percent of the time each species was protected by the Act; thus they represent a true picture of the Act’s long-term effect. We found that the Endangered Species Act has been extraordinarily successful in recovering imperiled birds:
- Eighty-five percent of bird populations in the continental United States increased or stabilized while protected by the Act.
- The average population increase was 624 percent.
- Birds from the Pacific Islands (Hawaii, Guam, Palau and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianna Islands) recovered less robustly, with 61 percent either increased or stabilized.
- On average birds have been protected under the Act for 36 years, but their federal recovery plans estimate they need 63 years to fully recover; thus, few birds were expected to have recovered by 2015.
- Birds are recovering at the rate expected by federal recovery plans.
Read the full story in the Washington Post.
The first time Vadoud Niri walked into a nail salon, he quickly had to walk straight out.
“I went with my wife and couldn’t handle it,” he said. “You could smell all the VOCs,” or volatile organic compounds — pollutants like acetone, formaldehyde and toluene that easily become gases and pollute indoor air.
Niri, a chemist at the State University of New York at Oswego, knew that if he could smell these compounds in the air, it probably wasn’t great to be breathing it. So when he got back to his lab, he started looking for ways to mitigate the pollutants’ noxious effects.
On Wednesday, at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, he’s presenting his surprisingly simple solution: potted plants.
According to Niri’s research, common house plants are effective at removing VOCs from the air. In 12 hours, an unassuming bromeliad (a tropical plant with long, swordlike leaves and spiky red flowers) removed at least 80 percent of six different compounds from the air inside a 76-liter container (roughly the size of a sedan’s gas tank). A dracaena, with its long, strap-like leaves, was exceptionally good at gobbling up acetone — it removed 94 percent of the gas from the air. Spider plants were lightning fast — the minute one was placed inside the container, the concentration of VOCs immediately began to go down.
Read the full story from the BBC.
A worldwide ban on plastic microbeads in cosmetics should be imposed as soon as possible, MPs have demanded.
Mark Ziemann, Yotam Eren and Assam El-Osta (2016). “Gene name errors are widespread in the scientific literature.” Genome Biology 17(177). DOI: 10.1186/s13059-016-1044-7
Abstract: The spreadsheet software Microsoft Excel, when used with default settings, is known to convert gene names to dates and floating-point numbers. A programmatic scan of leading genomics journals reveals that approximately one-fifth of papers with supplementary Excel gene lists contain erroneous gene name conversions.
Read the full story in FutureStructure.
Researchers used evidence from 1952 incident to show at air pollution exposure early in life leads to higher incidence of asthma during both childhood and adulthood.
Read the full story at Futurestructure.
Piezoelectric energy harvesters are unproven at scale, so the California Energy Commission wants to see just how much power they could produce.
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