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Filtering mass-amounts of water can be an energy-intensive process, but that could soon change thanks to a team of researchers. Using carbon dioxide resumes, the researchers developed a new process that requires one thousand times less energy to remove suspended particles and bacteria from water. Read More...
From The Optimist Magazine Summer 2014 Forget the airpocalypse—the skies are getting cleaner. Hopeful signs from Mexico City, no longer the world’s dirtiest. On a cool Saturday morning, I check the air quality report on Twitter before putting on my running shoes. “Good,” the tweet says—as Read More...
The solution to our overburdened, outdated power grid? One word: microgrids—localized power networks that are cheaper, cleaner and more reliable. What’s not to like? By Greg Nichols From The Optimist Magazine Fall 2015 In late 2000 and early 2001, rolling blackouts swept across California. Read More...
At the end of this month the Swiss company Climeworks will open the first commercial plant that sucks carbon dioxide out of the air and feeds it to vegetables in a neighboring greenhouse. It will be the first business to sell carbon dioxide drawn right out of its surroundings, using a technology Read More...
Russian scientists Sergey Zimov and Nikita Zimov believe they can slow the thawing of the Siberian permafrost, that contains vast amounts of carbon dioxide and methane, by bringing back grazing animals to a swath of land called Pleistocene Park. “When animals trample down the snow, they Read More...
Can we use trees and other plants as a weapon in the fight against climate change? Earth's greenery comes with natural carbon-capturing abilities, but now several studies are investigating how to tweak those tendencies to have a maximum impact on carbon dioxide levels in the Read More...
The company behind the cup, which uses a revolutionary type of 'bioplastic', describes it as a "world first". It says the plastic, which uses eucalyptus, means the cup can withstand heat better than other types of bioplastic. Yet within three months on a compost heap, both the cup and the lid break Read More...
The rapid growth of solar energy requires storage innovation to make sure that the clean energy is available 24/7. In Sweden, a team of scientists is developing a liquid energy storage medium that can not only release energy from the Sun on demand but is also transportable. Meanwhile, in China Read More...
New figures published by China’s National Burea of Statistics show that while the country’s total energy consumption increased by 1.4% in 2016, the country’s coal consumption declined by 4.7%. Following China’s use of coal and the country’s corresponding carbon dioxide emission levels has Read More...
The discussion on climate has persisted for decades since we first discovered that there is a man-made influence on the environment. From then, many researchers have come together to finagle innovations that reduce our industrial carbon footprint. One such innovation is the molecular leaf. Read More...