Pollutants

NASA's newest climate satellite rocketed into orbit Thursday to survey the world's oceans and atmosphere in never-before-seen detail.SpaceX launched the Pace satellite on its $948-million US mission before dawn from Cape Canaveral, Fla., with the Falcon rocket heading south over the Atlantic Ocean to achieve a rare polar orbit.The satellite will spend at least three years studying the oceans from 676 kilometres up, as well as the atmosphere. It will scan the globe daily with two of the science instruments. A third…

The coral species Cladocora caespitosa. Credit: Diego K. Kersting Pollutants from burning fossil fuels have been found embedded in corals, for the first time, offering scientists a potential new tool to track the history of pollution, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The study, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment,…

Alberta's oilsands operations produce far more potentially harmful air pollutants than are officially reported, with the daily output on par with those from gridlocked megacities like Los Angeles, new research suggests.The study, published today in the academic journal Science, measured concentrations of organic carbon emissions in the air by flying overhead and taking samples. Those numbers were compared to estimated amounts, prepared using ground-based data, reported by oilsands operations. The researchers from …

São Paulo city seen from Pico do Jaraguá, its highest point, on a day of temperature inversion during winter. Blue sky contrasts with dense pollution near ground level. Credit: Regina Maura de Miranda/USP People who live in São Paulo city in Brazil certainly recall an event that occurred on August 19, 2019, when dark clouds covered the sky and day turned into night. The phenomenon was not caused by local pollution or emissions…

The Camanducaia is one of the rivers in the PCJ Basin. Credit: Cassiana Carolina Montagner/UNICAMP The Piracicaba, Capivari and Jundiaí (PCJ) River Basin comprises 76 municipalities in São Paulo state, Brazil, with more than 5.8 million inhabitants and a drainage area of more than 14,000 square kilometers. These three rivers and their tributaries are essential sources of drinking water, energy, irrigation for agriculture, and…

A Swiss sportswear maker has a unique solution for Delhi's air pollution — use carbon emissions and air pollutants to make clothes. On, a Swiss sportswear brand, and LanzaTech, a biotech company transformed emissions and pollutants into chemicals to create a new fabric…

The U.S. ecosystem is riddled with PFAS. And anew study released this week by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) revealed that these toxic chemicals are in almost half of the country’s tap water.Biggest Forest Fire in New Mexico HistoryThis is the first time a government agency has tested for and compared PFAS found in private and public water supplies throughout the country. 45% of the locations tested positive for PFAS chemicals. This stands for per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances. They’re also commonly known as…

Sometimes called the Peru-Chile Trench, the Atacama Trench is visible in dark blue on this relief map (sea level is green and mountains are red). Credit: NOAA I was part of a team that recently discovered human-made pollutants in one of the deepest and most remote places on Earth—the Atacama Trench, which goes down to a depth of 8,000 meters in the Pacific Ocean. The presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in such a…

As the Prairies wait for the latest round of snow from a powerful storm system to melt, other parts of Canada bid farewell to the white stuff a long time ago.But what is left behind can be more of a pain than the snow itself.At Regina's snow storage facility, for instance, nearly 24,000 loads of snow are brought to the open plot of land in the city's northeast each winter.What once were tall, white mountains have now become shrinking piles that look more like dirt.Regina's snow storage facility sees, on average, about…

I was part of a team that recently discovered human-made pollutants in one of the deepest and most remote places on Earth – the Atacama Trench, which goes down to a depth of 8,000 meters (26,246 feet) in the Pacific Ocean.The presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in such a remote location emphasizes a crucial fact: No place on Earth is free from pollution.PCBs were produced in large quantities from the 1930s to the 1970s, mostly in the northern hemisphere, and were used in electrical equipment, paints, coolants,…