tingilinde

wood burning stoves and pm2.5 pollution

It's a major problem in London and may produce twice as much PM2.5 particulate pollution as cars and trucks in the Winter. In the US it's a big problem in cold places that sit in valleys.  Salt Lake City is often cited as one of the worst where the particulate cloud is held in place by temperature inversions that form in the Winter. Wood is not a safe heating fuel unless you figure out how to deal with the pollution.

 

 

 

 

extinctions

This age is becoming known as a period of major extinctions - a piece on snails.

a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

the "100th meridian"

The North American climate boundary separating the wet East from the dry West isn't the 100th Meridian anymore... it's shifted 140 miles East since 1980

 

ozone in china

China has been moving coal powered generators away from the big cities and building the grid to support them at a rapid rate.  At the same time they're taking over measures to lower particulate pollution in cities as PM2.5 has become a political issue.  It turns out that lowering PM2.5 while not attacking NOx and VOCs increases ozone pollution.  

snip

...

The researchers from SEAS and NUIST found that particulate matter acts like a sponge for the radicals needed to generate ozone pollution, sucking them up and preventing them from producing ozone.

"There was so much particulate matter in Chinese cities that it stunted the ozone production," said Daniel Jacob, the Vasco McCoy Family Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, and co-corresponding author of the study.

But the rapid reduction of PM 2.5 dramatically altered the chemistry of the atmosphere, leaving more radicals available to produce ozone.

"We haven't observed this happening anywhere else because no other country has moved this quickly to reduce particulate matter emissions," said Jacob. "It took China four years to do what took 30 years in the U.S."

...

and the paper in PNAS

 

Anthropogenic drivers of 2013–2017 trends in summer surface ozone in China

Ke Lia,b, Daniel J. Jacobb,1, Hong Liaoa,c,1, Lu Shenb, Qiang Zhangd, and Kelvin H. Batesb

aHarvard–NUIST Joint Laboratory for Air Quality and Climate, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, 210044 Nanjing, China; bJohn A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138; cJiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control, Collaborative Innovation Center of Atmospheric Environment and Equipment Technology, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, 210044 Nanjing, China; and dDepartment of Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, 100084 Beijing, China

Observations of surface ozone available from ∼1,000 sites across China for the past 5 years (2013–2017) show severe summertime pollution and regionally variable trends. We resolve the effect of meteorological variability on the ozone trends by using a multiple linear regression model. The residual of this regression shows increasing ozone trends of 1–3 ppbv a−1 in megacity clusters of eastern China that we attribute to changes in anthropogenic emissions. By contrast, ozone decreased in some areas of southern China. Anthropogenic NOx emissions in China are estimated to have decreased by 21% during 2013–2017, whereas volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions changed little. Decreasing NOx would increase ozone under the VOC-limited condi- tions thought to prevail in urban China while decreasing ozone under rural NOx-limited conditions. However, simulations with the Goddard Earth Observing System Chemical Transport Model (GEOS-Chem) in- dicate that a more important factor for ozone trends in the North China Plain is the ∼40% decrease of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) over the 2013–2017 period, slowing down the aerosol sink of hydro- peroxy (HO2) radicals and thus stimulating ozone production.

 

clean water in iowa

Agricultural runoff means a lot of the drinking water isn't up to snuff.  Some people aren't very happy about that. 

 

ice-ing

An ugly anti-electric vehicle practice that seems to be an outgrowth of the rolling coal "movement."

 

aston martin looks forwards and backwards

In case you're worried about the fate of that DB4 or 6 in your garage as the world electrifies - Aston Martin has you covered.

 

more on the war on the environment

More on the successes the Republicans are having on the massive war they're waging on the environment.  (via The New York Times)

Great stuff for the plutocrats, but hardly for anyone else.

 

making your environment less healthy and hastening global warming

Trump and the Republicans have been busy these past two years.

 

global warming and railroads

Issues in the US -- particularly in the Northeast Corridor.