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Topic Review
Mitigation of Global Warming in Australia
Mitigation of global warming involves taking actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance sinks aimed at reducing the extent of global warming. This is in distinction to adaptation to global warming, which involves taking action to minimize the effects of global warming. Scientific consensus on global warming, together with the precautionary principle and the fear of non-linear climate transitions, is leading to increased effort to develop new technologies and sciences and carefully manage others in an attempt to mitigate global warming. In order to make a significant change, coal from Australia needs to be replaced with alternatives. Carbon capture and storage in Australia has been put forward as a solution for production of clean hydrogen from natural gas. Following the introduction of government mandatory renewable energy targets, more opportunities have opened up for renewable energy technologies such as wind power, photovoltaics, and solar thermal technologies. The deployment of these technologies provides opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gases. A carbon price was introduced on 1 July 2012 by the government of Julia Gillard with the purpose of reducing Australia 's carbon emissions. It requires large businesses (defined as those with annual carbon dioxide equivalent emissions over 25,000 tonnes annually) to pay a price for emissions permits. The tax was scrapped by the Abbott government in July 2014 in what was a widely criticized and highly publicized move.
  • 543
  • 12 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Global Warming
Global warming is the ongoing rise of the average temperature of the Earth's climate system. It is a major aspect of climate change which, in addition to rising global surface temperatures, also includes its effects, such as changes in precipitation. While there have been prehistoric periods of global warming, observed changes since the mid-20th century have been unprecedented in rate and scale. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that "human influence on climate has been the dominant cause of observed warming since the mid-20th century". These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of major nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing. The largest human influence has been the emission of greenhouse gases, with over 90% of the impact from carbon dioxide and methane. Fossil fuel burning is the principal source of these gases, with agricultural emissions and deforestation also playing significant roles. Climate sensitivity to these gases is affected by feedbacks, such as loss of snow cover, increased water vapour, and melting permafrost. Land surfaces are heating faster than the ocean surface, leading to heat waves, wildfires, and the expansion of deserts. Increasing atmospheric energy and rates of evaporation are causing more intense storms and weather extremes, damaging infrastructure and agriculture. Surface temperature increases are greatest in the Arctic and have contributed to the retreat of glaciers, permafrost, and sea ice. Environmental impacts include the extinction or relocation of many species as their ecosystems change, most immediately in coral reefs, mountains, and the Arctic. Surface temperatures would stabilize and decline a little if emissions were cut off, but other impacts will continue for centuries, including rising sea levels from melting ice sheets, rising ocean temperatures, and ocean acidification from elevated levels of carbon dioxide. Mitigation efforts to address global warming include the development and deployment of low carbon energy technologies, policies to reduce fossil fuel emissions, reforestation, forest preservation, as well as the development of potential climate engineering technologies. Societies and governments are also working to adapt to current and future global warming impacts, including improved coastline protection, better disaster management, and the development of more resistant crops. Countries work together on climate change under the umbrella of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which has near-universal membership. The goal of the convention is to "prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system". The IPCC has stressed the need to keep global warming below 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) compared to pre-industrial levels in order to avoid some irreversible impacts. With current policies and pledges, global warming by the end of the century is expected to reach about 2.8 °C (5.0 °F). At the current greenhouse gas (GHG) emission rate, the carbon budget for staying below 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) would be exhausted by 2028.
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  • 12 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Tethys (Database)
Tethys is an online knowledge management system that provides the marine renewable energy (MRE) and wind energy communities with access to information and scientific literature on the environmental effects of devices. Named after the Greek titaness of the sea, the goal of the Tethys database is to promote environmental stewardship and the advancement of the wind and marine renewable energy communities. The website has been developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in support of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Wind and Water Power Technologies Office. Tethys hosts information and activities associated with two international collaborations known as OES-Environmental and WREN, formed to examine the environmental effects of marine renewable energy projects and wind energy projects, respectively.
  • 246
  • 12 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Advanced Oxidation Technologies
Advanced oxidation process (AOPs) based on sulfate radical (SO4●−) and singlet oxygen (1O2) has attracted a lot of attention because of its characteristics of rapid reaction, efficient treatment, safety and stability, and easy operation. SO4●− and 1O2 mainly comes from the activation reaction of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) or persulfate (PS), which represent the oxidation reactions involving radicals and non-radicals, respectively. The degradation effects of target pollutants will be different due to the type of oxidant, reaction system, activation methods, operating conditions, and other factors.
  • 289
  • 12 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Committee on Climate Change
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) is an independent non-departmental public body, formed under the Climate Change Act (2008) to advise the United Kingdom and devolved Governments and Parliaments on tackling and preparing for climate change. The Committee provides advice on setting carbon budgets (for the UK Government carbon budgets are designed to place a limit or ceiling on the level of economy-wide emissions that can be emitted in a five-year period), and reports regularly to the Parliaments and Assemblies on the progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The CCC has recommended net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom by 2050 and the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) has said it would be affordable. On 27 June 2019 the British Parliament amended the Climate Change Act (2008) to include a commitment to net zero emissions by 2050. However some environmental groups, such as Extinction Rebellion, are calling for a more ambitious target.
  • 362
  • 12 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Ken Cuccinelli
Kenneth Thomas Cuccinelli II (/ˈkuːtʃɪˈnɛli/ KOO-chi-NEL-ee; born July 30, 1968) is an American politician and lawyer currently serving as Principal Deputy Director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency and Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. He previously served as the 46th attorney general of Virginia from 2010 until 2014, and acting Director of USCIS agency. Before this, he was in the Virginia Senate, representing the 37th district in Fairfax County from 2002 until he took office as attorney general in 2010. On May 18, 2013, Cuccinelli won the Republican Party's gubernatorial nomination at the state party convention. Cuccinelli was the Republican nominee for Governor of Virginia in the 2013 Virginia gubernatorial election, losing to the Democratic nominee, Terry McAuliffe, by 56,435 votes or 2.5% of the total votes cast. A self-described opponent of homosexuality, Cuccinelli in his position as Virginia Attorney General defended anti-sodomy laws and prohibitions on same-sex marriage. Cuccinelli rejects the scientific consensus on climate change, and in his position as Attorney General investigated climate scientists whom he accused of fraud. He filed lawsuits against the Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency. Characterized as an immigration hard-liner, Cuccinelli sought to prohibit undocumented immigrants from attending universities, repeal birthright citizenship, and force employees to speak English in the workplace. As CIS Director, he implemented and defended policies that would reject applications for visas or permanent residency for immigrants considered likely to utilize publicly funded benefits programs.
  • 1.7K
  • 12 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Carbon Sequestration in Soil
The agroforestry systems with a high potential for carbon (C) sequestration are those degraded by poor management strategies. Studies on changes in soil C status in these ecosystems mostly take into account labile C pools. Labile and stable soil organic matter (SOM) fractions are affected by soil management and land-use changes. Stable C pools are essential to understanding effects of land-use on soil C storage in the long term. 
  • 392
  • 12 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Phenotyping in Protected Cropping
Protected cropping produces more food per land area than field-grown crops. Protected cropping includes low-tech polytunnels utilizing protective coverings, medium-tech facilities with some environmental control, and high-tech facilities such as fully automated glasshouses and indoor vertical farms. High crop productivity and quality are maintained by using environmental control systems and advanced precision phenotyping sensor technologies that were first developed for broadacre agricultural and can now be utilized for protected-cropping applications.  The adoption of climate monitoring and control technologies and precision phenotyping methodologies in protected cropping is required for sustaining future food security and enhancing nutritional quality.
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Topic Review
Sediment Organic Contents Required for Gas Hydrate Formation
Advances in basin and petroleum system modelling have allowed for the investigation of gas hydrate systems, including modelling of the generation, migration, and accumulation of biogenic and thermogenic gas within gas hydrate deposits.
  • 356
  • 12 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Artificial Island
An artificial island or man-made island is an island that has been constructed by people rather than formed by natural means. Artificial islands may vary in size from small islets reclaimed solely to support a single pillar of a building or structure, to those that support entire communities and cities. Early artificial islands included floating structures in still waters, or wooden or megalithic structures erected in shallow waters (e.g. crannógs and Nan Madol discussed below). In modern times artificial islands are usually formed by land reclamation, but some are formed by the incidental isolation of an existing piece of land during canal construction (e.g. Donauinsel, Ko Kret, and much of Door County), or flooding of valleys resulting in the tops of former knolls getting isolated by water (e.g. Barro Colorado Island). One of the world's largest artificial islands, René-Levasseur Island, was formed by the flooding of two adjacent reservoirs.
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  • 11 Oct 2022
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