The biotic pump theory has ruffled feathers in the climate science community ever since Anastassia Makarieva and Victor Gorshkov submitted their paper “Where do winds come from?” to the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics in 2010 (it was finally published in 2013). It remains a relevant enough topic that some
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The saturated soil conditions predicted to result from increased rainfall in the UK’s upland regions could have a knock-on effect on the ambition to create more woodland in the fight against climate change, a new study has found. Researchers from the University of Plymouth have spent a number of years exploring
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Using machine learning, researchers at Penn State have tied low-magnitude microearthquakes to the permeability of subsurface rocks beneath the Earth, a discovery that could have implications for improving geothermal energy transfer. Generating geothermal energy requires a permeable subsurface to efficiently release heat when cold fluids are forced into the rock. This
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At one of Europe's largest chemical complexes, German group Covestro is trialling the manufacture of a key product using sugar as a base material instead of oil, as the industry seeks to reduce its carbon footprint. The pilot project involves producing "aniline", a chemical used in making foams — used widely
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The concept of solar geoengineering — blocking the sun's radiation to slow Earth's warming — is no longer just the realm of science fiction. In 2023, the U.S. government and the UN released reports on the topic. Whether or not solar geoengineering can save the world is up for debate,
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Trees are struggling to sequester carbon in warmer, drier climates – meaning they may no longer serve as carbon sinks, according to a new study. Planting trees has emerged as one of the few universally accepted approaches to tackling climate change. Forests are natural carbon sinks, sequestering colossal amounts of atmospheric
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Researchers at the University of Bath have invented a new form of high-performance air purifier that promises zero harmful waste. Key to the purifier and how it works is FOAM3R filter technology, patented by the University, which is described as a highly adaptable disruptor technology for microbial, CO2 and volatile organic
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New study offers twist on established explanation, introduces effects of beneficial soil fungi in addition to pathogens A paper published in Nature Communications Biology contributes to the growing appreciation for the outsize role that microbes play in everything from human digestion to crop yields: Microbes in the soil—fungi in this case—appear
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Soil liquefaction is an occurrence in which the strength and stiffness of a soil are reduced by earthquake shaking or other rapid loading, causing it to behave like a liquid. This can lead to significant damage to buildings, bridges, dams, highways, pipelines, and other critical elements of infrastructure. Liquefaction is more likely
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Governments should not rely on risky “nature-based” climate solutions to solve global warming, such as planting trees, a report led by King’s College London (KCL) has found. Many countries are banking on being able to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the future as a way to delay or avoid
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