Tag Archives: environment

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Two-sided solar panels that track the sun produce a third more energy

Double-sided solar panels that tilt based on the sun’s position could boost the amount of energy collected. The two approaches existed independently before, but researchers have now looked at the effects of combining them.

Carlos Rodríguez-Gallegos at the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore and his colleagues found that double-sided solar panels that track the sun would produce 35 per cent more energy and reduce the average cost of electricity by 16 per cent.

June 6, 2020

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Fossils Face $25-Trillion in Losses Due to Coronavirus – The Energy Mix

“We are witnessing the decline and fall of the fossil fuel system,” said report author and Carbon Tracker new energy analyst Kingsmill Bond. “Technological innovation and policy support is driving peak fossil fuel demand in sector after sector and country after country, and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this,” meaning that “we may now have seen peak fossil fuel demand as a whole.”

That reality translates into a “huge opportunity for countries that import fossil fuels which can save trillions of dollars by switching to a clean energy economy in line with the Paris Agreement,” he added. “Now is the time to plan an orderly wind-down of fossil fuel assets and manage the impact on the global economy rather than try to sustain the unsustainable.”

June 6, 2020

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Heat-trapping carbon dioxide in air hits new record high

KENSINGTON, MD. – The world hit another new record high for heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, despite reduced emissions because of the coronavirus pandemic, scientists announced Thursday.

Measurements of carbon dioxide, the chief human-caused greenhouse gas, averaged 417.1 parts per million at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, for the month of May, when carbon levels in the air peak, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. That’s 2.4 parts per million higher than a year ago.

Even though emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels dropped by as much 17% in April, it was a brief decline. Carbon dioxide can stay in the air for centuries, so the short-term reductions of new carbon pollution for a few months didn’t have much of a big picture effect, said NOAA senior scientist Pieter Tans.

June 5, 2020

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Atmospheric CO2 levels rise sharply despite Covid-19 lockdowns

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen strongly to a new peak this year, despite the impact of the global effects of the coronavirus crisis.

The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere reached 417.2 parts per million in May, 2.4ppm higher than the peak of 414.8ppm in 2019, according to readings from the Mauna Loa observatory in the US.

June 4, 2020

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Here’s every environmental protection in Canada that has been suspended, delayed and cancelled during COVID-19

In Alberta, Energy Minister Sonya Savage has said the COVID-19 restrictions on gathering sizes mean it’s a “good time to build a pipeline.” And even as the government jostled to host NHL games, it suspended environmental monitoring requirements for the oil and gas sector, saying the pandemic was too severe for that work to continue — a change that aligned closely with some asks made by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

And in Ontario, Premier Doug Ford’s government suspended a large section of environmental oversight law, saying it could delay response to the pandemic. Under the temporary rules, the government does not need to notify or consult the public about any environment-related changes it makes or projects it approves.

“The bottom line for both Ontario and Alberta is that essentially the old adage about not letting a crisis go to waste,” Marshall said.

“We’re in COVID times and people are distracted with more fundamental things like their jobs and their salaries and their health. I think that’s when you see the true colours of some of these governments.”

June 4, 2020

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Steve MacLellan

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Tag Archives: environment