emissions

The Earth's atmosphere must feel somewhat like a fire hydrant staring at a pack of dogs. It seems we humans have made it a habit of polluting and dumping on the atmosphere for almost a century now. Whether it's chemicals, particles, or biological material, emissions have long been a threat to the Earth's ecosystem and to mankind's health.

Solid particles, liquid droplets, or gases can all pollute the air. Many harmful emissions are man-made, but some are natural, as well. For example, ash from a volcanic eruption would be considered a natural emission. Carbon monoxide gas from a car's exhaust would be considered a man-made emission. About 4% of the deaths in the United States can be attributed to air pollution.

There are several air pollution and emission control technologies and strategies in place to reduce air pollution. Land use planning (zoning and transport infrastructure), increased fuel efficiency (hybrid cars), conversion to cleaner fuels (bio ethanol, fuel pellets, and bio diesel), and electric vehicles are all methods that help reduce emissions. China, The United States, and Russia rank as the largest air polluters in the world, while Canada, South Korea, and Italy rank at the very bottom of the list.

Bloggers speaking about emissions can be found at sites like aimzeroemissions and mongabay.

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Latest blogosphere posts tagged “emissions”

• What’s up, Copenhagen?

  
  Student Direct — Authority: 440
  Droughts, heat waves, tropical cyclones. Australian rivers all but dried up, glaciers melting away in the Arctic, Amazon rainforests dying, Ozone holes popping up all over Europe. The signs of climate change are becoming increasingly more obvious, although critics maintain warming of the Earth’s atmosphere happens ...
  59 minutes ago

• Bringing hope to Copenhagen?

  
  Student Direct — Authority: 440
  President Barack Obama will stop by the conference on Wednesday, December 9, to emphasise the increased emphasis his administration is placing on climate change as opposed to his predecessor. “It is true that for too many years, mankind has been slow to respond or even recognize the magnitude of the climate ...
  59 minutes ago

• IPCC Chief on Copenhagen Climate Conference: ‘the global community may have to move ahead without any commitment from the United States’

  
  Trends Updates — Authority: 590
  A lot of skepticism has grown regarding the success of the just opened United Nations Climate Change Conference (December 7-18, 2009), more commonly called Copenhagen Climate Conference. Skeptics believe that climate agreements will not be reached during the summit. On the other hand, chairman of the UN ...
  1 hour ago

• US failure to make binding commitments at Copenhagen Climate Conference: “Yes We Can!” has become “No, sorry, we couldn’t possibly.”

  
  Trends Updates — Authority: 590
  ’No one said Copenhagen was going to be easy. After all, at its heart, the climate summit is about persuading nearly 200 nations to use drastically less of the fossil fuels that power the global economy.’ The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States gave hope that a  legally binding climate ...
  1 hour ago

• DIY Solar Collector

  
  3stepADS - Free Advertising Blog — Authority: 573
  In the last 12 months the use of solar collectorhas doubled. In previous years its taken twice as long to achieve the same growth. The great thing about them is that they have zero carbon emissions so theyre good for the enviroment and in the long run theyll save you loads of money.
  1 hour ago

• Majority of Indians worried about climate change

  
  Thaindian News — Authority: 727
  New Delhi, Dec 7 (IANS) Concern for climate change in the country has increased in the past few months with 54 percent of Indians being “very concerned” about global warming, a survey released Monday said.Indians are open to taking energy efficient measures but believe that the main responsibility for finding ...
  1 hour ago

• Rich Countries Urged to Provide Financing for Poor Ones at Climate Talks

  
  Green Inc. — Authority: 718
  Connie Hedegaard of Denmark calls on wealthy nations to come up with "money you can count on in the long term."
  1 hour ago

• Greenhouse gas cuts just ‘token gestures’

  
  Celebrity Paycut Encouraging celebrities all over the world to save us from global warming by taking a paycut. — Authority: 173
  The cuts in greenhouse gas emissions being proposed at the Copenhagen climate conference, which opens today, are completely inadequate to stop dangerous climate change, one of Britain’s leading climate scientists warns.
  2 hours ago

• South Africa: Efficient Use a Key Weapon in Energy Arsenal

  
  Celebrity Paycut Encouraging celebrities all over the world to save us from global warming by taking a paycut. — Authority: 173
  TODAY, like every other day of the past few years, humankind will release more than 116-million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Emissions are rising faster now than in any other decade and without new policies our daily emissions will be 140- million tons by 2020.
  2 hours ago

• Carbon emissions data: can the Copenhagen climate summit bring these down? Full data, new viz

  
  The Guardian - guardian.co.uk — Authority: 988
  The Copenhagen climate change summit has started. Now, the US is no longer number one emitter of carbon dioxide, having been overtaken by China in these latest figures. But when did it happen? 阅读中文 | Read this in Chinese • Get the data The Csummit is finally here - and Copenhagen is likely to be a ...
  2 hours ago

• Video: Copenhagen needs to be the turning point

  
  The Guardian - guardian.co.uk — Authority: 988
  As the Copenhagen climate conference opens, the UNs top climate change official Yvo de Boer calls on world leaders to deliver immediate action to limit emissions
  2 hours ago

• Copenhagen Climate Conference: why it would, could, and should fail

  
  Trends Updates — Authority: 590
  Realists claim that the Copenhagen Climate Conference or the COP15 UN Climate Change Conference 2009 will fail in its intended agenda, and that no climate deals will be forged between December 7 and 18 of 2009. Months before the climate summit, it had already been clear that climate negotiations will hit a standoff. ...
  2 hours ago

• China’s ‘new’ carbon reduction targets: only a domestic goal, not for Copenhagen deal

  
  Trends Updates — Authority: 590
  Beijing’s declaration that the country aims ‘to reduce its carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent by 2020’ does not mean that ‘China’s overall emissions will drop, it just means that CO2 emissions per unit of GDP will decline. Because China’s economy is growing at such a torrid pace, overall emissions will ...
  2 hours ago

• “The Copenhagen Diagnosis”: climate scientists dramatically debunk themselves

  
  Trends Updates — Authority: 590
  Right before the Copenhagen Climate Conference, ‘a group of scientists issued an update on the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Their conclusions? Ice at both poles is melting faster than predicted, the claims of recent global cooling are wrong, and world leaders must act fast if steep ...
  2 hours ago

• China, world’s largest CO2 emitter, pledges to cut greenhouse gases

  
  Trends Updates — Authority: 590
  China, the world’s largest CO2 emitter, has pledged to increase its efforts to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will also attend the Copenhagen Climate Summit, officially known as COP15 UN Climate Change Conference 2009, ‘to show the country’s commitment to the global effort to ...
  2 hours ago

• Brazil: ‘Gringos’ Destroy Rainforests

  
  Trends Updates — Authority: 590
  It is the industrialized countries that have done the most damage to the Amazon rainforests. ‘Brazil’s president says “gringos” should pay Amazon nations to prevent deforestation, insisting rich Western nations have caused much more past environmental destruction than the loggers and farmers who cut and burn ...
  2 hours ago

• Coal Kills (and no such thing as ‘clean coal’)

  
  Trends Updates — Authority: 590
  A comprehensive and critical medical report by the Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) entitled Coal’s Assault of Human Health , replete with expert medical and public health opinion, states that ‘coal pollutants damage every major organ in the human body and contribute to four of the top five leading ...
  2 hours ago

• Copenhagen Climate Conference: Lessons from the Kyoto Protocol

  
  Trends Updates — Authority: 590
  The road to Copenhagen has become torturous. The ghosts of things past such as the 1997 Kyoto Protocol whose provisions the Copenhagen Climate Conference hopes to rectify and revise continue to haunt the imperative climate negotiations and the ultimate climate deal. Kyoto’s promise of 5% emissions cuts (by 2012, ...
  2 hours ago

• Tom Clark, leader writer, on how 56 newspapers published same editorial

  
  The Guardian - guardian.co.uk — Authority: 988
  Tom Clark, Guardian leader writer, on how 56 newspapers published the same editorial Tom Clark
  3 hours ago

• Alun Anderson, author of After the Ice, on global warming in the Arctic

  
  The Guardian - guardian.co.uk — Authority: 988
  Alun Anderson, author of After the Ice, talks to Alok Jha about global warming in the Arctic Alok Jha
  3 hours ago

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