Ice Core Data Shows Why Air Pollution is Reducing Slower than Sulfur Emissions Reductions
Written by AZoCleantechJun 1 2021
Ice core data obtained from Greenland indicates why air pollution has been decreasing slower compared to reductions in sulfur emissions.
The researchers in the drilling operation (left) and the drilled samples (right). Image Credit: Hokkaido University
When cloud droplets turn out to be less acidic, the chemical reaction that converts sulfur dioxide into sulfate aerosol becomes more effective. These findings can enhance the models that predict climate change and air quality.
In the United States and Western Europe, the air is much cleaner compared to how it was a decade ago. Low-sulfur gasoline standards and regulations on power plants have been successful in cutting sulfate concentrations in the air, thereby decreasing the fine particulate matter that tends to impact human health and cleaning up the environmental risk of acid rain.
Scientists have shown that the population of the Yakushima sika deer has declined due to natural factors, suggesting that the population can be regulated.
With increasing public awareness of crises associated with degraded environments and mounting pressure to act, governments worldwide have begun to examine environmentally sustainable policies. However, there are many questions about whether enacting these policies will negatively affect economic growth. Now, a model created by researchers in Japan suggests that sustained GDP growth is possible even after spending to clean up pollution as it is created, providing hope that a zero-emission society is an achievable goal.
Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have enhanced super-resolution machine learning techniques to study phase transitions. They identified key features of how large arrays of interacting particles behave at different temperatures by simulating tiny arrays before using a convolutional neural network to generate a good estimate of what a larger array would look like using correlation configurations. The massive saving in computational cost may realize unique ways of understanding how materials behave.
Scientists from Japan, Europe and the USA have described a pathway leading to the accelerated flowering of plants in low-nitrogen soils. These findings.