Questions tagged [environmental-protection]
Questions that concern the health and safety of people, the environment, and ecosystems. Topics can include natural resource and energy efficiency, environmental protection and/or remediation, and environmental best practices.
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Why is bush encroachement a bad thing?
From what I've read about bush encroachment, it is most often made to sound as a bad thing, potentially as a symptom of land degradation. This sounds counterintuitive to me because bush encroachment ...
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What is the connection between climate change and phosphorus and positive feedback loop?
So what is the connection between climate change and phosphorus and what are some examples of potential feedback loops of this connection.
I think a very common response is probably the leakage of ...
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Emission factor for Arsenic [closed]
What emission factor for natural gas boiler should be used for arsenic other than AP-42?
I need to to calculate emissions from natural gas boiler. What emission factor for arsenic would be the best to ...
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What is the importance of hydrocarbons to the natural environment?
I have not been able to find any scholarly resources citing the impact of hydrocarbons in stasis underground.
Hydrocarbons not being used for as a source of energy have very few noted needs for the ...
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How to interpret land use measures in environmental impact papers?
In reading some papers about the environmental impact of agricultural products such as crops and animal rearing, I am puzzled by the way land use is reported. I understand that inputs such as energy, ...
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convert mol/m2 to μg/m3 [duplicate]
Sentinel-5P satellite provides high-resolution data products on concentration levels for several atmospheric trace gases (NO2, SO2, O3, and others), which are measured in mol/m2 within the total or ...
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Is there open scientific analysis of the proposed discharge of water from Fukushima?
Today in the news Japan has announced it will discharge water from Fukushima.
All news sites I have looked at covering this give very little detail, only that about 1.4M Tonnes of water will be ...
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Discharge waste water - content allowed, most strict, universal rule set
Where can I find non-country specific, general or most strict set of rules that would pass in most countries, about allowed content of waste water that is allowed to be released into the environment, ...
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Is the maximum human population carrying capacity of Earth higher or lower than the current total human population?
Not sure if this is the right stack for this but:
I have been arguing with friends on overpopulation, several are convinced that Earth cannot sustain the current population. Without getting into all ...
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Solution for the coexistence of overpopulated human species with nature [closed]
Is there any solution to deal with the overpopulation of our species at the same time protect the natural environment of ours? (other than finding a inhabitable planet?)
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What are good examples of how software helps solving today's environmental problems? [closed]
I'm collecting examples and inspiration of how existing software products or applications of any kind - non-profit or commercial - directly help solving or preventing environmental problems like GHG ...
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Is there a conventional list of pollutants to consider for calculations? Or an updating one even?
In researching economic damage from various pollutants, I often find that it's very random sources that inform me of various pollutants I need to be mindful of in calculations. Is there any kind of ...
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What is the carbon footprint of Spacex's plan for earth-to-earth transport plan compared to commercial aviation?
According to many articles around the web as well as the SpaceX official website (https://www.spacex.com/human-spaceflight/earth/index.html), Elon Musk plans to replace intercontinental flights with ...
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Will increased level of ocean acidity lead to more frequent acid rain?
Will increased level of ocean acidity lead to more frequent acid rain?
I searched on google and it says acid rain will have minor impact on ocean acidity, but I am not sure if increased ocean acidity ...
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Why is reverse osmosis desalination the dominant method used and not heat-based methods? Also why is brine being dumped back into the ocean? [closed]
So I was recently watching this video regarding desalination efforts around the world and the viability of desalination as a means to provide humans with freshwater. I had a few questions:
1 - They ...
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Where does all the earth from surface mining go?
Surface mining digs up a lot of earth and rock. After the desired ore is separated, where do the earth and rock mined go?
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What is the total mass of organic carbon on Earth?
What is the estimated total mass of organic carbon plus elemental carbon (defined here as all carbon in any chemical form, minus carbon dioxide, inorganic carbonates, and other fully oxidized carbon ...
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What is the Carbon Footprint of not changing car oil?
I am on my second vehicle that I have stopped changing my oil after the car has been broke in or around 90k. The first car I made it 400k miles before the rear end went out. The second car I'm at 130k ...
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Quickly breeding oysters to combat oceanic pollution?
I've been doing some wikipedia binging and it's come to my realization that it may be in the Earth's best interest to raise the world oyster population as quickly as possible. The basis for this is ...
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Can CO2 / greenhouse gas levels override the effects of milankovich cycles?
I understand that we are, in all likelihood, towards the end of an interglacial period (the holocene). What I'd like to know is, what has a stronger effect on global temperatures - the low point of ...
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Sequestration of NO and NO2 Gasses into Soil
The university I'm a student at has been looking into Anaerobic digestion to reduce the environmental impact of the large amount of post-consumer food waste generated on campus. While this project has ...
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What is cluster situation with respect to sand mining?
Guideline on handling cluster issues : The original Environmental Impact Assessment ( EIA ) notification does not provide for the procedure to handle cluster situation, which has been proposed in ...
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What are secondary resources? [closed]
The Indian Resource Panel shall prepare a strategic roadmap for utilisation of secondary resources for meeting the developmental needs. India is the first country to constitute a National Resource ...
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Environmenal flow in the context of global gridded hydrological analyses
Environmental flow (EF) is a widely used concept in river basin management and river ecology. There are more than 200 methods to estimate the flow that should be left to the rivers to ensure a ...
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How to create Indonesian environmental conditions in India?
Need to create and maintain Biofloc for fish farming in India, it's really successful in Indonesia and I believe it's due to environmental conditions.
Can we replicate the same in India?
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Will a country that cares for its environment be affected by climate change due to other countries' pollution?
Let's say my country is very environment conscious, has lots of trees and animals, protects the forest, uses clean/green energy, and has all kinds of environment friendly policies you can imagine. ...
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Finding the emission factor for vehicular energy generation
I hope this is the right venue for my question.
I'm trying to find the conversion factor between vehicular CO2 emissions (in units of mass, e.g. in metric tons) and the energy generated (in kWh).
If ...
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Why don't we feed the plastics to the termites?
I may sound completely stupid but this idea hit me when I saw termites ate a plastic bag packed with papers today in my house. What are the challenges we're likely to face if we decide to do this?
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Was this reef protected?
I came across this satellite animation the other day. It shows a reef being entirely destroyed to build an industrial complex (airport, harbor, various facilities...). The animated GIF is showcased on ...
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What isn't recyclable or compostable? [closed]
This might fit better on another SX site, but thought I'd ask the science majors first.
My community has single-bin recycling. Most consumer-level metal, plastic, and paper can go in there to be ...
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What does 5,000,000 tonnes of CO2 look like?
Reading a news article Probe after Gorgon releases millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas, I am confused. CO2 is a gas, right? Gases are not very dense, right? So what does 5MT of the stuff look like?...
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How to use Maximum Sustainable Yield concept with given a given population, growth rate and carrying capacity? [closed]
For my class, I was given a hypothetical situation that uses the concept of Maximum Sustainable Yield to see how much fish I should harvest. I am given an initial population, a growth rate, and a ...
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The influence of special emissions (possibly coal mining activity) on particulate matters
Based on multiple site sampling of airborne $PM_{2.5}$ and $PM_{10}$ , the elemental concentrations of the trace elements were analyzed.
I have found out in the site near surface coal mining zone ...
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Do solar panels reduce the amount of suns rays reflected back into the atmosphere? Therefore reducing global warming
The way I understand the basics of global warming is we are putting to much CO2 into the atmosphere which increases the size / density of atmosphere shell, sun rays enter the atmosphere then there is ...
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Roughly how much Co2 is generated per kWh of electricity generated [closed]
I’m interested to know how much Co2 is generated by a coal fired power station to produce 1kWh of electricity for electrical grid
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How much does the productivity of modern agriculture depend on Glyphosate?
Glyphosate is the most important herbicide in agriculture by quantity. A committee of the European Union just recently voted against a ban of the substance, after much debate around possible negative ...
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What control the atmospheric lifetime of different metals in aerosols?
Background
I'm analysing the metallic elements in $PM_{2.5}$ to identify their possible anthropogenic sources for the study area.
A total of 19 metallic elements were investigated including dust-...
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How to create a species accumulation curve by hand?
In my Environmental Science class, we were given this data with the sample # and abundance given. I would have to solve for relative abundance, which is finished below:
$$
\begin{array}{c|lcr}
Taxa &...
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How old is Earth's groundwater?
In my house, we drink the groundwater that we get from our well. It is 40 meters deep. The question is, how old is the water that we drink today? Is it from the rain 100 years ago?
Another issue is, ...
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How to calculate the Ecological footprint [closed]
I'm looking for a algorithm or a formula to calculate the ecological footprint of one person who is using any kind of vehicle (car, public transit...).
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Calculate flow rate of wetland for gray water treatment
I'm currently attempting to design a water recycling solution for a carwash in a tropical country that currently uses up to 30m$^3$ (8,000 gallons US) of water in 12 hours.
Based on my research in ...
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Why don't toilets use saltwater? [closed]
My question is in the header. It would seem to be a major environmental benefit if toilets used saltwater in stead of drinkable fresh water, right?
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vehicular pollution [closed]
Is there any way to convert the vehicular emissions from cars during journey to oxygen or safer gases to eliminate/decrease vehicular pollution?
My question is keeping in mind most populated and ...
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What is the difference between climate change and global warming?
1. Question:
In the article, Global Warming vs. Climate Change is an example of the confusion regarding these terms.
What are the "official" definitions of "Climate Change" and "Global Warming"?
...
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How many BTU per cubic meter does typical paper waste yield when burned in a modern domestic fireplace
I am brewing on an idea where instead of cursing and throwing all our physical junk mail in the paper recycling bin, we process it into pellets to be burned in our fireplace as free fuel.
Before I ...
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Does the EPA have a list of the nation's major environmental issues?
I went to their site and read each of the topics in the "Learn the Issues" tab but, is there a list that the EPA deems to be the most important issues that need to be dealt with?
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Biodegradation time for biodegradable shopping bags? [closed]
How long does it take for the plastic/polythene shopping bags marked biodegradable to biodegrade?
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Monitoring air pollution with Landsat satellite data
I'm trying to build an air pollution model. So far I have built one for point sources. Now I'm looking at monitoring air pollution with satellite images, based on the idea that every basic pollutant ...
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Removing agricultural plastic film waste after 10+ years degradation [closed]
I am at a farm where previous tenants left a non-biodegradable plastic film roughly 10-15 years ago. It is inconsistently spread over a few acres and was not discovered until we attempted plowing the ...
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Regarding car exhaust and its possible carcinogenic effects [closed]
Can some of the gaseous chemicals in many of the car exhaust by-products of the combustion engine be carcinogenic or cancer-causing?. Could car exhaust behave in a ways that are similar to 'second' ...
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