Carbon emissions are created all the time, all around the world. So what? Carbon dioxide creates the largest man-made contribution to the greenhouse effect, which is what is slowly, yet persistently, warming our globe. That makes it the most important greenhouse gas out there. It's currently responsible for about 25% of the greenhouse effect. Methane and ozone, the next two on the list, incidentally, don't crack the double digits, so carbon emissions are in the lead, in a bad way, when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions.
We live not only in a carbon-based world, but a carbon emission-based society, and the scope of activities that produce carbon emissions is just huge. Anything involving petroleum, coal, natural gas has a carbon emission ticket attached; that includes all cars and most transportation, the vast majority of our nations' electricity production (about half comes from coal alone), and a whole lot of home heating systems, just as a small snapshot. So if you don't care, you should start to care.
Spinning Composter
This Spinning Composter is made of 50% post-consumer recycled plastic and it produces up to 85 pounds of odorless, fertile compost in about a month. Removable base collects water drippings (a nutritious byproduct). Eight built-in rollers spin to mix in oxygen and speed decomposition. This is a great way to keep more garbage out of our landfills.
Maritime Group Seeks Cleaner Fuel for Ships
Oceangoing ships are not the cleanest form of transportation. Their fuels usually have high sulfur content, which leads to high particulate emissions. And air that is high in particulates has been linked to health problems like asthma, heart attacks and lung cancer, particularly among people who live in coastal areas.
As a result, the International Maritime Organization has adopted policies calling for reducing the sulfur content of marine fuels, from an average of about 3 percent currently to 0.5 percent by 2020. A few areas have been created, notably in the Baltic and North seas, that will require use of fuel with even less sulfur.
A study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology suggests that such reductions, if enforced, would cut the number of potential premature deaths due to ship emissions in half in some cases.
James J. Winebrake of the Rochester Institute of Technology and colleagues modeled the impact of reducing sulfur content globally, and within 200 miles of coastal areas, versus maintaining the status quo. They found that by 2012, with no reduction in sulfur content, about 87,000 premature deaths annually could be attributed to ship emissions.
Reducing sulfur content to half of one percent worldwide would cut that number by about 41,000, they said.
As a result, the International Maritime Organization has adopted policies calling for reducing the sulfur content of marine fuels, from an average of about 3 percent currently to 0.5 percent by 2020. A few areas have been created, notably in the Baltic and North seas, that will require use of fuel with even less sulfur.
A study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology suggests that such reductions, if enforced, would cut the number of potential premature deaths due to ship emissions in half in some cases.
James J. Winebrake of the Rochester Institute of Technology and colleagues modeled the impact of reducing sulfur content globally, and within 200 miles of coastal areas, versus maintaining the status quo. They found that by 2012, with no reduction in sulfur content, about 87,000 premature deaths annually could be attributed to ship emissions.
Reducing sulfur content to half of one percent worldwide would cut that number by about 41,000, they said.
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