Follow the climate money! Skeptics are the David vs. the warmist Goliath

http://bit.ly/2FksLDU Let's do follow the climate money! By Paul Driessen| The climate crisis industry incessantly claims that fossil fuel emissions are causing unprecedented temperature, climate and weather changes that pose existential threats to human civilization and our planet. The only solution, Climate Crisis, Inc. insists, is to eliminate the oil, coal and natural gas that provide [...]

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Another Climate Propaganda Story Promoting the Normal as Abnormal

Guest Opinion: Dr. Tim Ball Almost every day there are stories in the media about weather or climate events that create the impression that they are new and outside of the normal pattern. None of them are. The objective is to sensationalize the story, even if it means using a meaningless period. A simple trick…

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U.S. Media Bans Scientific Dissent – Claim Wildfires, Floods, Droughts, Hurricanes Are Human-Controlled

http://bit.ly/2Qv6l4T By Kenneth Richard on 7. January 2019 NBC News' Chuck Todd recently asserted that we humans can control the climate and the frequency or intensity of extreme weather events (hurricanes, floods, droughts) and disasters (wildfires) with our CO2 emissions. He has declared the science is "settled" on this point and therefore no "denier" is allowed on his Meet [...]

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Water Oxidation behind Photoreduction of Graphene Oxide

Chem. Commun., 2019, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C8CC08427K, Communication

Hongjiang Li, Xuedan Song, Yantao Shi, Yan Gao, Duanhui Si, Ce Hao
By means of H₂¹⁸O labeling experiment in combination with mass spectrometry tracking, we study GO photoreduction. The finding of ¹⁸O labeled O₂ provides direct evidence to confirm the water oxidation...
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Nanomaterials as versatile adsorbents for heavy metal ions in water: a review

Abstract

Over the years, heavy metal pollution has become a very serious environmental problem worldwide. Even though anthropogenic sources are believed to be the major cause of heavy metal pollution, they can also be introduced into the environment from natural geogenic sources. Heavy metals, because of their toxicity and carcinogenicity, are considered to be the most harmful contaminants of groundwater as well as surface water, a serious threat to both human and aquatic life. Nanomaterials due to their size and higher surface area to volume ratio show some unique properties compared to their bulk counterpart and have drawn significant attention of the scientific community in the last few decades. This large surface area can make these materials as effective adsorbents in pollution remediation studies. In this review, an attempt has been made to focus on the applicability of different types of nanomaterials, such as clay-nanocomposites, metal oxide-based nanomaterials, carbon nanotubes, and various polymeric nanocomposites as adsorbents for removal of variety of heavy metals, such as As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sn, U, V, and Zn, from water as reported during the last few years. This work tries to analyze the metal–nanomaterial interactions, the mechanism of adsorption, the adsorption capacities of the nanomaterials, and the kinetics of adsorption under various experimental conditions. The review brings forward the relation between the physicochemical properties of the nanomaterials and heavy metal adsorption on them.

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Degradation of pharmaceuticals in different water matrices by a solar homo/heterogeneous photo-Fenton process over modified alginate spheres

Abstract

A solar homo/heterogeneous photo-Fenton process using five materials (Fe(II), Fe(III), mining waste, Fe(II)/mining waste, and Fe(III)/mining waste) supported on sodium alginate was used as a strategy to iron dosage for the degradation of eight pharmaceuticals in three different water matrices (distilled water, simulated wastewater, and hospital wastewater). Experiments were carried out in a photoreactor with a capacity of 1 L, using 3 g of iron-alginate spheres and an initial hydrogen peroxide concentration of 25 mg L⁻¹, at pH 5.0. All the materials prepared were characterized by different techniques. The Fe(III)-alginate spheres presented the best pharmaceutical degradation after a treatment time of 116 min. Nineteen transformation products generated during the solar photo-Fenton process were identified by liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry, using a purpose-built database developed for detecting these transformation products. Finally, the transformation products identified were classified according to their toxicity and predicted biodegradability.

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Biochar synthesized via pyrolysis of Broussonetia papyrifera leaves: mechanisms and potential applications for phosphate removal

Abstract

In this study, Broussonetia papyrifera leaves collected from land near a restored manganese mine in the Hunan Province of China were converted into biochar under high-temperature anaerobic conditions, regeneration and utilization of agricultural and forest waste, and applied to the prevention of eutrophication. The physicochemical properties of the B. papyrifera biochar were characterized using Micromeritics 3Flex analyzer, scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS), zeta potential meter (zeta), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The effects of pH, ionic strength, coexisting ions, time, initial concentration, and temperature on the decontamination process of phosphate in water were studied. The results indicated that adsorption was enhanced under alkaline conditions. The pseudo-second-order model of adsorption kinetics was applied to illustrate the adsorption processes. The chemical adsorption reaction was the main rate-limiting step in the adsorption process. Isotherm experimental data were best fitted by the Freundlich model at 25 °C and by the Langmuir model at 35 °C. The phosphate combined with B. papyrifera biochar mainly in the forms of exchangeable phosphorus (Ex-P), Al-bound phosphorus (Al-P), and Fe-bound phosphorus (Fe-P). These results indicate that B. papyrifera biochar is a suitable candidate for the treatment of a eutrophic body of water.

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Essential oils from Varronia curassavica (Cordiaceae) accessions and their compounds ( E )-caryophyllene and α-humulene as an alternative to control Dorymyrmex thoracius (Formicidae: Dolichoderinae)

Abstract

The process of urbanization of natural environments has dramatically increased the incidence of pest insects. To control these organisms in urban environments, the last decades have been marked by an increase in the use of synthetic insecticides. However, the intensive and indiscriminate use of synthetic insecticides has provoked a series of environmental problems and human health. In this way, the concern and the searching for environmentally safer alternatives for the control of urban pests is increasing. In the present study we evaluated the lethal and sublethal effects of essential oils (EOs) of six accessions of Varronia curassavica (Jacq.) (Cordiaceae) and their constituents (E)-caryophyllene and α-humulene on the ant Dorymyrmex thoracicus Gallardo, 1916 (Formicidae: Dolichoderinae), a species commonly found in urban environments and which can cause damage to human health. Bioassays of fumigation toxicity and locomotor activity in partially treated arenas were performed. The lethal concentrations to kill 50% of the D. thoracicus population ranged from 0.69 to 2.48 μL/L for EOs and from 3.75 to 1.49 μL/L for the (E)-caryophyllene and α-humulene compounds. The survival of the ants exposed to LC₉₅ of the treatments was reduced over time, ranging from 4.2 to 35.6 h to kill 50% of the D. thoracicus population. In general, EOs of V. curassavica caused repellency and affected the locomotor activity of the ants. Our results indicate that EOs of V. curassavica are a promising source for the control of the urban ant D. thoracicus.

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Spatiotemporal heterogeneity of photosystem II function during acclimation to zinc exposure and mineral nutrition changes in the hyperaccumulator Noccaea caerulescens

Abstract

We investigated changes in mineral nutrient uptake and translocation and photosystem II (PSII) functionality, in the hyperaccumulator Noccaea caerulescens after exposure to 800 μM Zn in hydroponic culture. Exposure to Zn inhibited the uptake of K, Mn, Cu, Ca, and Mg, while the uptake of Fe and Zn enhanced. Yet, Ca and Mg aboveground tissue concentrations remain unchanged while Cu increased significantly. In the present study, we provide new data on the mechanism of N. caerulescens acclimation to Zn exposure by elucidating the process of photosynthetic acclimation. A spatial heterogeneity in PSII functionality in N. caerulescens leaves exposed to Zn for 3 days was detected, while a threshold time of 4 days was needed for the activation of Zn detoxification mechanism(s) to decrease Zn toxicity and for the stomatal closure to decrease Zn supply at the severely affected leaf area. After 10-day exposure to Zn, the allocation of absorbed light energy in PSII under low light did not differ compared to control ones, while under high light, the quantum yield of non-regulated energy loss in PSII (Φ_NO) was lower than the control, due to an efficient photoprotective mechanism. The chlorophyll fluorescence images of non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) and photochemical quenching (q_p) clearly showed spatial and temporal heterogeneity in N. caerulescens exposure to Zn and provided further information on the particular leaf area that was most sensitive to heavy metal stress. We propose the use of chlorophyll fluorescence imaging, and in particular the redox state of the plastoquinone (PQ) pool that was found to display the highest spatiotemporal heterogeneity, as a sensitive bio-indicator to measure the environmental pressure by heavy metals on plants.

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Tuning of the aggregation number of Platonic micelles with binary mixture of calix[4]arene surfactants

Chem. Commun., 2019, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C8CC09621J, Communication

Ji Ha Lee, Shota Fujii, Rintaro Takahashi, Kazuo Sakurai
The mixture ratios were used as a factor for aggregation number (N_agg) determination in binary mixtures of calix[4]arene surfactants. Platonic micelles having different N_agg were prepared by adjusting the ratio...
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What Proof Our Climate is Warming?

This is a reblog of a post at Manhattan Contrarian How Do You Tell If The Earth's Climate System "Is Warming"? Excerpts in italics with my bolds

Back in August I had a post by the title of "How Do You Tell If The Earth's Climate System "Is Warming"? The post took note of the fact that, with a time series (like for temperature) that fluctuates up and down, you can always give a presentation that makes the trend look to be whatever you want it to be, so long as you get to pick the start date. If you want to make it look like the trend is up, you pick a start date where the value of the series is low; and if you want to make it look like the trend is down, you pick a start date where the value of the series is high. Nothing to it! With the earth's climate system, you have nearly infinite numbers of years that you can go back to get the result you want. Those who want to convince you that the earth's climate system "is warming" typically pick as their start date either the 1880s or the 1970s, both of which were notable low points in the temperature times series. The trick is so obvious that you would think that nobody could be fooled. But, among others, they seem to have bamboozled Google, which as that August post noted, had taken to including on YouTube videos involving climate skeptics a legend stating "Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming."

"Multiple lines of evidence"? Really Google, is there any "line of evidence" that matters as to whether something "is warming" or "is cooling" other than the temperature time series? They don't enlighten us as to what that other "line of evidence" might be.

Anyway, enough months have now passed for another year to end, so we now have three full years since the most recent temperature peak, which occurred in January 2016. Here is the latest UAH satellite temperature graph for the lower troposphere, going from the time the satellites were launched (1979) to December 2018:

The 0.25 deg C temperature anomaly of the latest value represents a decline of some 0.61 deg C from the peak anomaly of 0.86 deg C in January 2016. That 0.61 deg C decline is not small in the context of this series. The whole range on this chart from coldest month (-0.51 deg C in 1984) to warmest month (+ 0.86 deg C in 2016) is only 1.37 deg C; and the 0.61 deg C drop represents close to half of that.

According to Dr. Roy Spencer of UAH (publisher of the graph), 2018 came in as the 6th warmest in the 40 years of the satellite time series. That would still put 2018 among the warmer years. But it also means that five previous years were warmer, one of them being 1998 — a full 20 years ago.

A number of questions occur to me, as I'm sure they do to you:

To support the assertion that the earth's climate system "is warming," shouldn't the temperature be higher each year over the preceding year?

CO2 emissions have been increasing year by year, and the amount of cumulative CO2 in the atmosphere has been increasing year by year. Isn't that supposed to be the driving mechanism behind global temperature? How is it possible for temperature to decline, and by a rather significant amount, when CO2 has increased?

Obviously, there must be some force at work sufficient to overcome the increase in CO2. What is that force? How do you know that that force will not continue to overcome the influence of the CO2? Indeed, how do you know that that force, alone or in combination with some other forces known or unknown, will not so completely overcome the influence of CO2 as to bring on the next ice age?

How many years of temperature decline does it take before it is no longer appropriate to assert that the climate system "is warming"? I mean, we're using the present tense here. Since when do we use the present tense in our language to mean "something that occurred more than three years ago but has not occurred for the last three years"?

You might be interested in the take of our various highly prestigious "scientific societies" on the question of whether the earth's climate system "is warming." You can find a compilation of summary statements on that subject at the NASA web site at this link. NASA's page is titled "Scientific consensus: Earth's climate is warming." (Side question: What is a page with that title still doing up two years into the Trump administration?). A few examples:

American Association for the Advancement of Science: "The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society."

American Medical Association: "Our AMA … supports the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's fourth assessment report and concurs with the scientific consensus that the Earth is undergoing adverse global climate change and that anthropogenic contributions are significant."

American Physical Society: "The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring."

OK, these guys are a little more slippery with the wording than just saying (along with Wikipedia, Google and NASA) that "the climate system is warming." But clearly NASA wants you to think that the phrase "climate change is occurring" is functionally the same thing.

Unfortunately for these societies, the question of whether the earth "is warming" is really not a scientific question, but rather only one of appropriate use of the English language. I don't know where the temperatures may go from here — and neither do they. But a full three years into an obvious cooling cycle, isn't it time to recognize that this awkward use of language is no longer appropriate?

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U.S. Carbon Emissions Skyrocketed in 2018!

Guest "EXCELLENT!" by David Middleton U.S. Carbon Emissions Surged in 2018 Even as Coal Plants Closed By Brad Plumer Jan. 8, 2019 WASHINGTON — America's carbon dioxide emissions rose by 3.4 percent in 2018, the biggest increase in eight years, according to a preliminary estimate published Tuesday. […] Under the Paris climate agreement, the United States…

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CBR-based integration of a hydrodynamic and water quality model and GIS—a case study of Chaohu City

Abstract

Monitoring on urban water environment and analysis of engineering improvement measures are intricate and time-consuming tasks. In previous studies, the integration of hydrodynamic and water quality models and geographical information system (GIS) usually takes three approaches: loose coupling, tight coupling, and full coupling. However, this paper adopted a special loose coupling approach—case-based reasoning (CBR) to develop an integrated decision support system. This was characterized by invoking the case base stored in the GIS platform as the output of the model. The fused capability of model's water quality predication and strong spatial data processing analysis of GIS can be realized at the same time by integration. The functionality of the integrated system was illustrated through a case study of Chaohu, a medium-sized city in China, which includes case retrieval, result interpretation, and the visual display in the GIS platform. Results verified the feasibility and operability of the developed method. As a useful tool, the integrated decision support system makes it simpler and more convenient for decision makers to make decisions efficiently and quickly.

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[ASAP] Dramatic Electronic Perturbations of CuA Centers via Subtle Geometric Changes

Journal of the American Chemical Society

DOI: 10.1021/jacs.8b12335

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Computational and experimental study on the index of antiaromaticity for 4n π-systems (n≥2)

Chem. Commun., 2019, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C8CC09448A, Communication

T Nishinaga, Hinako Hamaoka
A linear correlation between nucleus-independent chemical shift (NICS) and relative hardness for various size of antiaromatic 4n π-systems (n≥2) was revealed with HF computations using the gauge-including atomic orbital (GIAO)...
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A Twisted Macrocyclic Hexanuclear Palladium Complex with Internal Bulky Coordinating Ligands

Chem. Commun., 2019, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C8CC09643K, Communication

Akira Nagai, Takashi Nakamura, Tatsuya Nabeshima
A macrocyclic hexanuclear palladium complex, which accumulates coordination sites on metals inside the cavity, was synthesized. The macrocycle was found to take a uniquely-twisted C₂-symmetric conformation when six molecules of...
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The dynamic nexus of crop production and population growth: housing market sustainability pathway

Abstract

The urban poor residents in South Africa are over time known for imbalance and inadequate housing amidst recent concern of shock in food production. In studying this peculiar problem, this study investigates the cointegration and long-run equilibrium relationship of population growth, crop production, and the housing price in the country. Empirically, a quarterly data from 1975:Q1 to 2015:Q4 is employed using the conventional Autoregressive Distributed Lag. The investigation shows strong significant evidence of cointegration and a quarterly speed of adjustment of 17.2% to long run in the system. Also, as the population grows, a decline in house price index is experienced in the long run. Although unusual, adequate and sustainable housing plan, demand-supply dynamics, in respect to a country's population expansion could posit observation. But, in the short run, a strongly significant positive association is observed. It shows further that positively short-run and long-run relationships significantly exist between crop production and house price index. In reality, caution is essential in the introduction of land redistribution policy to avoid hampering the housing policies and 2030 housing target of the government.

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China’s cement demand and CO 2 emissions toward 2030: from the perspective of socioeconomic, technology and population

Abstract

China is the largest cement producer and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitter in the world. The country has attracted too much attention in calculating and comparing its CO₂ emissions. However, as the second largest CO₂ emitter after the fire power industry, China's long-term cement demand and cement-related CO₂ emission projections were not fully studied. The Chinese government, however, committed that by 2020 and 2030, China's per capita GDP of CO₂ emissions would be lower than that in 2005 by 40–45% and 60–65%, respectively. In this paper, China's cement demand in 2030 was projected based on the population size, urbanization rate, fixed assets investment, and per capita GDP. Furthermore, decoupling study in China's cement industry was also involved based on the GDP and CO₂ emissions during 2001–2015. We also used the diffusion rate of 12 types of CO₂ reduction measures and two changed scenarios of clinker-to-cement ratio, to project the cement CO₂ emission factors toward 2030 after determining the accounting scope. Meanwhile, the CO₂ emissions of China's cement industry through 2030 were projected naturally. The results showed that China's cement output in 2030 will be approximately 2000, 1650, and 937 Mt. based on the fixed assets investment, urbanization rate, and per capita GDP respectively. The projected two scenarios cement CO₂ emission factors were resp. 407.83 and 390.02 kg CO₂/t of cement which were 42.6 and 45.1% lower than that in 2005. The cement CO₂ emissions were projected to be in the range of 366 to 818 Mt. in 2030. Additionally, China's total cement output value has been decoupling from cement CO₂ emissions from 2012, which is mainly attributed to eliminating backward capacity, reducing excess capacity or the declining cement output. And decoupling economic from China's cement CO₂ emissions may change to be strong or weak decoupling in the near future. As cement production is one of the factors effecting cement CO₂ emissions, the most important measure for controlling cement CO₂ emissions is a reasonable capacity utilization rate. It is therefore important to control the growth of cement CO₂ emissions by regulating the capacity utilization rate within a reasonable range. Eliminating backward capacity, removing excess capacity, controlling new capacity, staggered production, and the "going global" of cement equipment can have great impacts in controlling the total amount of cement output and CO₂ emissions.

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Concentration, contamination level, source identification of selective trace elements in Shiraz atmospheric dust sediments (Fars Province, SW Iran)

Abstract

Geogenic dust is one of the most important environmental hazards in Iran. This study investigated the concentration, contamination level, potential sources, and ecological risk and human health assessment of Shiraz atmospheric dust, the largest city in southern Iran. Contents of atmospheric dust sediments geochemistry were determined by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The mean concentrations of the elements in atmospheric dust are Zn (106.6 mg/kg), Cr (98.4 mg/kg), Ni (68.1 mg/kg), Cu (40.5 mg/kg), Pb (30.6 mg/kg), As (4.5 mg/kg), and Cd (0.28 mg/kg). Except As and Cd, levels of all other elements in dust sediments samples were higher than corresponding background world soils. In comparison with the concentrations of studied heavy metals in Shiraz urban street dust, the concentrations of heavy metals in Shiraz atmospheric dust were substantially at low levels. Based on Enrichment Factor (EF) and Geo-accumulation index (Igeo), Shiraz atmospheric dust is moderately to minimally polluted by selected heavy metals. The values of risk index (RI) for seven heavy metals in all dust samples were 146.2 and 130.8, which were lower than 150, indicating that ecological risks posed by studied elements in atmospheric dust were moderate. Human health risk assessment (non-carcinogenic) suggested that of the three exposure pathways, ingestion of atmospheric dust was the major pathway exposure to heavy metals in dust, followed by skin contact. The hazard index (HI) values for all studied heavy metals decreased in the following order: Cr > Pb > Ni > Cu > Zn > Cd for both children and adults. Cr and Ni contribute most to health risk posed by atmospheric dust exposure for both children and adults, and Cd, Zn, and Cu have smaller contributions. The result of cancer risk assessment suggested that Cr, Ni, and Cd were all below the safe level. Principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that grouped Cd, Ni, and Zn and grouped Cr, Cu, and Pb could be controlled by two different types of anthropogenic source. Whereas, As and Zn were controlled by both human and geogenic sources.

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High rice husk ash doses applied to the soil can lead to phosphorus water contamination

Abstract

The goal of this work was to evaluate the rice husk ash (RHA) effect on soil phosphorus (P) adsorption and to analyze the probable consequences of these in the parameters that affect P availability to the plants and the risk of soil P loss by superficial run-off. For this, a factorial experiment was conducted in laboratory with samples of two soils (factor A: Hapludult and Hapludox) that were submitted to five doses of RHA (factor B: 0; 25; 50; 75 and 100 g RHA kg^-1 of soil). The experimental units were plastic pots with 200 g of air-dry fine earth from horizon A of each soil. The experimental design was completely random with three replications. After 30 days of soils incubation where moisture was maintained in field capacity, the phosphorus adsorption isotherms were made in subsamples of each experimental unit. The RHA decreases sharply the phosphorus adsorption power but decreases very little the maximum soil phosphate adsorption. The RHA increases the soluble silicium and phosphorus contents, but these are not responsible for the decrease in phosphorus adsorption later applied in the soil. The major cause of the negative effect of RHA in the soil phosphate adsorption is the increase in soil pH. As a consequence of these effects, the RHA decreases the buffering ability and increases the phosphorus effective diffusion coefficient in the soil. Moreover, as a consequence of the adsorption power decrease, the RHA increases the risk of environmental contamination by phosphorus by superficial runoff, especially in soils with originally low phosphorus adsorption ability.

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