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Category: climatology – Page 8

Scientists repurpose old solar panels to convert CO₂ exhaust into valuable chemicals

Centuries ago, alchemists worked furiously to convert the common metal lead to valuable gold. Today, chemists are repurposing discarded solar panels to create valuable organic compounds from carbon dioxide (CO2), a common greenhouse gas.

Significantly reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to mitigate the most devastating effects of climate change will require a large reduction in emissions as well as strategies designed to sequester emitted CO2 and other offending gases. While simply sequestering greenhouse gases would fulfill this goal, creating useful organic chemicals from waste CO2 is akin to generating valuable materials from trash.

A team of chemists from Yokohama National University, Electric Power Development Co., Ltd. and the Renewable Energy Research Center at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) recently decided to tackle two waste problems—excess CO2 emissions and decommissioned —in the pursuit of creating value-added organic chemicals. The team designed a study to determine if recycled components of discarded solar panels could be used to efficiently convert CO2 into useful, carbon-based compounds.

Harmful algae blooms have secret to success over other algaes—manipulating its environment

An alga that threatens freshwater ecosystems and is toxic to vertebrates has a sneaky way of ensuring its success: It suppresses the growth of algal competitors by releasing chemicals that deprive them of a vital vitamin.

The finding was reported in a new study from Cornell University, describing how the cyanobacteria Microcystis aeruginosa manipulates its environment to give itself advantages to take over the water column, leading to and mats in lakes during hot summers.

“Microcystis seems to be able to dominate more and more in the changing climate,” said Beth Ahner, professor in the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering and corresponding author of the paper.

Precipitation extremes in 2024 Reviews Earth & Environment

2024 was one of the wettest years on record, witnessing record-breaking extreme precipitation events across the globe, several of which were compound events. Extreme rainfalls were unprecedented in arid regions and parts of the Global South, with severe monsoon rains and rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones causing severe casualties and economic losses.

Beyond shade: Researchers improve radiant cooling to make outdoor temperatures feel cooler

A team of UCLA engineers and researchers has developed a new technique to make it feel up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit cooler outside while preserving a sense of safe and open space.

Featured in Nature Sustainability, the UCLA-led study demonstrated a new way to harness radiant cooling. Instead of relying on dark and windowless spaces, such as a tunnel, to create radiant cooling that raises safety concerns for public outdoor spaces, the new approach combines water-cooled aluminum panels and see-through, infrared-reflective thin polymer film, which allows both efficient cooling and visibility—a top priority, especially for residents in urban communities.

As climate change accelerates, are occurring with greater intensity and frequency, threatening the safety of people who spend significant time outdoors.

How plants sense heat during the day

For a decade, scientists have believed that plants sensed temperature mainly through specialized proteins, and mainly at night when the air is cool. New research suggests that during the day, another signal takes over. Sugar, produced in sunlight, helps plants detect heat and decide when to grow.

The study shows that plants rely on multiple heat-sensing systems, and that sugar plays a central and previously unrecognized role in daytime temperature response. The findings, published in Nature Communications, reshape a long-standing view of how plants interact with their environment and could influence future strategies for climate-resilient agriculture.

“Our textbooks say that proteins like phytochrome B and early flowering 3 (ELF3) are the main thermosensors in plants,” the senior author said. “But those models are based on nighttime data. We wanted to know what’s happening during the day, when light and temperature are both high because these are the conditions most plants actually experience.”

EVs Getting Cleaner More Quickly Than Expected in Europe: Study

As the push for sustainable transportation intensifies globally, a new study from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) reveals that battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) in Europe are becoming significantly cleaner at a pace faster than previously anticipated. This development comes as the continent’s electricity mix transitions toward more renewable sources, providing a profound climate advantage over traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

Key Findings of the Study

Released on Wednesday, the ICCT study highlights that BEVs sold in Europe today produce 73 percent fewer life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions compared to ICE vehicles. This figure marks a noteworthy 24-percent improvement from the organization’s prior estimates in 2021, emphasizing the rapid progress of BEVs as Europe enhances its renewable energy initiatives.

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