Northwest China hit by sandstorm as Beijing is smothered in smog

BEIJING: A northwest Chinese city was engulfed by a massive sandstorm that sparked rural fires, forced traffic to slow down and prompted residents to cover their faces, according to state media.  vehicles were made to slow down and police in high visibility vests were seen directing traffic. Winds also sparked fires in rural areas when heating kindle was blown onto haystacks. Authorities in the city also put out an advisory warning of dry weather and a risk of fire, telling residents to "take precautions". Such storms regularly occur in the dry season, when winds blow loose, dry soil and sand into urban areas from the Gobi desert, coating cities in a layer of yellow grime. While the northwest faced a sandstorm, Beijing was on Monday shrouded in a thick smog that prompted many to wear protective face masks.

Could an anti-global warming atmospheric spraying program really work?

A program to reduce Earth's heat capture by injecting aerosols into the atmosphere from high-altitude aircraft is possible, inexpensive, and would be unlikely to remain secret.Those are the key findings of new research published today in Environmental Research Letters, which looked at the capabilities and costs of various methods of delivering sulphates into the lower stratosphere, known as stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI).

The researchers examined the costs and practicalities of a large scale, hypothetical 'solar geoengineering' project beginning 15 years from now. Its aim would be to halve the increase in anthropogenic radiative forcing, by deploying material to altitudes of around 20 kilometres.

Four ways our cities can cut transport emissions

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently warned that global warming could reach 1.5℃ as early as 2030. The landmark report by leading scientists urged nations to do more to avert an impending crisis.We have 12 years, the report said, to contain greenhouse gas emissions. This includes serious efforts to reduce transport emissions.

In Australia, transport is the third-largest source of greenhouse gases, accounting for around 17% of emissions. Passenger cars account for around half of our transport emissions.

Better wastewater treatment in India with Dutch expertise

India is facing extreme water scarcity. Urbanization increases the demand for clean drinking water, while the water supply is increasingly polluted. That is why Dutch researchers are working on new ways to manage wastewater within the Water for Health programme, a collaboration between NWO and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) of the Indian government. The projects that started in July 2017 are promising.

The Arctic is turning brown because of weird weather – and it could accelerate climate change

Over the last few years Arctic scientists have reported a surprising finding: large areas of the Arctic are turning brown. This is in part due to extreme events linked to winter weather, such as sudden, short-lived periods of extreme warmth. These events are occurring as the climate warms, which is happening twice as fast in the Arctic compared with the rest of the planet. Extreme events are therefore happening more and more often, with increasingly severe effects – including widespread damage and death in Arctic plants.