Saturday, November 3, 2018

People would change their consumption habits to help the climate, study finds

A new study has found that people would change their consumption habits to help the climate—even if this would have implications for their personal lives and shopping habits—and that this could play a significant role in helping the UK to reduce its carbon emissions.
Government projections currently show that the UK will significantly exceed future legally binding carbon reduction targets. To date, climate policy has focused on the efficiency of vehicles and buildings, but how products are made and consumed also has a huge impact on emissions. Strategies that aim to reduce demand for materials and products will be essential to limit rising global temperatures.

Impact of mercury-controlling policies shrinks with every five-year delay

Mercury is an incredibly stubborn toxin. Once it is emitted from the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants, among other sources, the gas can drift through the atmosphere for up to a year before settling into oceans and lakes. It can then accumulate in fish as toxic methylmercury, and eventually harm the people who consume the fish. What's more, mercury that was previously emitted can actually re-enter the atmosphere through evaporation. These "legacy emissions" can drift and be deposited elsewhere, setting off a cycle in which a growing pool of  can circulate and contaminate the environment for decades or even centuries.

Ozone hole modest despite optimum conditions for ozone depletion

The ozone hole that forms in the upper atmosphere over Antarctica each September was slightly above average size in 2018. Colder-than-average temperatures in the Antarctic stratosphere created ideal conditions for destroying ozone this year, but declining levels of ozone-depleting chemicals prevented the hole from as being as large as it would have been 20 years ago. Chlorine levels in the Antarctic stratosphere have fallen about 11 percent from the peak year in 2000. This year's colder temperatures would have given us a much larger ozone hole if chlorine was still at levels. The annual ozone hole reached an average area coverage of 8.83 million square miles (22.9 square kilometers) in 2018, almost three times the size of the contiguous United States. It ranks 13th largest out of 40 years of NASA satellite observations. Nations of the world began phasing out the use of ozone-depleting substances in 1987 under an international treaty known as the Montreal Protocol. The 2018 ozone hole was strongly influenced by a stable and cold Antarctic vortex—the stratospheric low-pressure system that flows clockwise in the atmosphere above Antarctica.

Bengal chemicals keen on resuming anti-snake venom serum production

Bengal chemicals and pharmaceuticals ltd(BCPL). which had forayed into anti-snake venom serum(ASVS) manufacturing India nearly half a ce...