Environmental News For The Week Ending 09 May 2019
This is a collection of interesting news articles about the environment and related topics published last week. This is usually a Tuesday evening regular post at
GEI (but can be posted at other times).
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Note: Because of the high volume of news regarding the coronavirus outbreak, that news has been published separately:
Major coronavirus metrics continue to head lower in the US, and now also globally. New cases in the US during the week ending May 8th were down 18.6% from new cases during the week ending May 1st, and are now down 83.3% from the January peak; this week also saw fewer new cases than any week since September. This week s US deaths attributed to Covid were 6.8% lower than the prior week s, and down 80.5% from the January high; US Covid deaths are now at the lowest rate since since the second week of July.
Water scarcity complicates need to feed a growing global population
Scientists are proposing improvements to precision crop irrigation.
May 11, 2021
With threats of water scarcity complicating the need to feed a growing global population, it is more important than ever to get crop irrigation right. Overwatering can deplete local water supplies and lead to polluted runoff, while underwatering can lead to sub-optimal crop performance. Yet few farmers use science-based tools to help them decide when and how much to water their crops.
A new University of Illinois-led study identifies obstacles and solutions to improve the performance and adoption of irrigation decision-support tools at the field scale.
Carbon emissions from US households have been falling since 2005, but not fast enough
May 11, 2021
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from U.S. households have been falling since 2005, according to a new study. But the analysis also reveals hidden patterns that could block the emissions reductions necessary to limit climate change.
Researchers from the Yale School of the Environment gathered figures from various government databases and calculated energy consumption and GHG emissions associated with heating, cooling, water heating, and other activities (such as lighting, appliances, and electronics) in U.S. households from 1990 through 2015. They used mathematical equations to model how factors such as population growth and distribution, housing types and density, the age of housing stock, the number of people per household, and energy sources (such as oil, natural gas, or electricity) affect energy use and emissions.
Exposure to fine particulate air pollution (PM
2.5) has been linked with significantly increased risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children, particularly if exposure occurs during the third trimester of pregnancy or during early childhood, according to a meta-analysis from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The study was published April 29, 2021, in Environmental Research Letters.
The authors noted that there has been a steep rise in the prevalence of childhood diagnosis of ASD over the past several years, from 6.7 per 1,000 people in 2000 to 16.8 per 1,000 people in 2014. Possible risk factors include those related to family, such as genetics or parental age, or the environment. Previous studies have found an association between exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) and neurobehavioral dysfunction.
Basin Electric Cooperative s Dry Fork Station, shown here last summer, is the newest coal-fired power plant in the nation. Wyoming s Integrated Test Center is attached to the plant, where researchers hope to come up with uses for carbon emissions. (Andrew Graham/WyoFile)
The United States Department of Energy last Friday announced $99 million in grants to study technology that removes carbon from industrial exhaust and uses it for other purposes, like manufacturing. More than half that money went to Wyoming’s Integrated Test Center, a facility based out of the Dry Fork Power Station in Gillette.
The same day, the DOE also announced a $3 million grant to support Wyoming-based research “focused on expanding and transforming the use of coal and coal-based resources to produce coal-based products, using carbon ore, rare earth elements and critical minerals,” delivering on a December letter of support co-signed by Wyoming Congress members Sen. John Barrasso and Rep. Liz Cheney