Energy, Water and Waste Management

There are initiatives in many countries to increase the uptake or popularity of renewable or sustainable fuels. It is possible that hydrogen is the best-known and most feasible of these. However, it appears that there is a new, even more, familiar player in the game.

The European Commission published a report, in 2011, regarding the level of plastics in the environment and its negative impact on human and marine health. In that article, plastic wastes in the ocean were referred to as a “growing concern,” and the authors stated that even though there was a decrease in plastic production, maintenance of such a situation could be challenging.

As the world’s population is increasing, each year about 300 million metric tons of plastic is being generated, with more than half this number polluting the environment, specifically our oceans, by improper disposal systems and the large amounts of non-biodegradable items in it.

Electric cars are great, in theory. They may help you reduce your personal travel costs, carbon footprint and emissions. However, their range (or distance they can drive on a single charge) may be underwhelming for new customers. The manufacturers of these fossil fuel-free vehicles claim that the range of their electric cars improves every product cycle; however, real-world tests may find that it falls short of maximum ranges on paper.

The high levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) found in the Earth’s atmosphere is a consistent environmental and socioeconomic problem. Many scientists assert that it is a major contributing factor to overall global temperature trends. Even if this was not the case, it is also a prominent air pollutant, which affects the quality of life and respiratory health of millions worldwide.

For most of the last century, humanity has become largely dependent on antibiotics to keep wounds and immunocompromised tissue free of dangerous bacterial infections. These novel chemicals initially experienced huge success in tackling these contaminations. However, over time, a number of bacterial types, or strain, have evolved molecular strategies that invalidate the actions of many antibiotics, particularly older ones.

Some regions of the United States, such as California, face severe water shortage in the summer months, owing to reasons such as climate change and poor infrastructure. Statistics show that the drought-stricken west coast of America relies on snow water from the mountains, which itself could diminish in the next decade or so. This justifies the need to create sustainable systems and environments to address the crisis.

“Water is the driving force of all nature” yet today, 85% of the world’s population reside in some of the driest regions on the planet where millions suffer from a scarcity of water. The United Nations has predicted that availability of this elixir-of-life is only going to decrease in the future, if immediate action is not taken.

Located just off the Welsh coastline, the new wind farm, known as the Burbo Bank Extension, has recently installed the tallest and most powerful wind turbines in world. In order to claim this title, the sheer size and scale of these turbines is incredible – each blade is 80 metres long and the turbines themselves tower at some 195 metres above the sea.

Yesterday, the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, made an exciting announcement on Twitter that orders for their innovative solar roof tiles were opening that afternoon. After the first teaser tweet, Musk went on to provide more information, namely that the roof can be ordered for “almost any country” for a deposit of $1000.

The challenge of converting salt water into drinking water is one that has been testing scientists for quite some time, but with our supplies of fresh drinking water starting to dwindle, a solution to this problem is becoming ever more necessary.

On March 11, 2011, the world witnessed one of the worst nuclear disasters. The Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was hit by a tsunami generated by a powerful 9.1 earthquake off the coast of Sendai, Japan. The Tohoku earthquake triggered an automatic shutdown of the fission reactions at the power plant, but the tsunami destroyed the emergency generators that provide cooling for the reactors.