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Trees and Air Pollution

EPA researchers have discovered that controlling man-made sources of air pollution will have the added benefit of also reducing air pollution formed from compounds released from trees and plants.

Trees and plants release more than just oxygen into the atmosphere as a result of photosynthesis: They also release a variety of gases that contribute to air pollution. In fact, the planet's vegetation accounts for about two-thirds of the pollutants known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted globally.

Future Air Travel: Quieter, Cleaner and More Environmentally Friendly?

Less noise, less exhaust, less refuse -- air travel of the future is expected to be quieter, cleaner and more environmentally friendly. To achieve this goal, new structural concepts and aerodynamic profiles have to be engineered, along with better drive concepts as well as adapted logistical designs, and then put to use. In the EU project Clean Sky, Fraunhofer researchers want to make their contribution to solving this Herculean task.

Exploring Kenya's Sky Island

Rising over 2,500 meters from Kenya's northern desert, the Mathews Range is a sky island: isolated mountain forests surrounded by valleys. Long cut off from other forests, 'sky islands' such as this often contain unique species and ecosystems. Supported by the Nature Conservancy, an expedition including local community programs Northern Rangelands Trust and Namunyak Conservancy recently spent a week surveying the mountain range, expanding the range of a number of species and discovering what is likely a new insect.

New Carbon Dioxide Emissions Model

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calculated projected temperature changes for various scenarios in 2007 and researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg have now gone one step further: they have developed a new model that specifies the maximum volumes of carbon dioxide that humans may emit to remain below the critical threshold for climate warming of two degrees Celsius. To do this, the scientists incorporated into their calculations data relating to the carbon cycle, namely the volume of carbon dioxide absorbed and released by the oceans and forests. The aim of the international ENSEMBLES project is to simulate future changes in the global climate and carbon dioxide emissions and thereby to obtain more reliable threshold values on this basis. (Climatic Change, July 21, 2010).

Reaching Out for the Oceans: Europe's Biggest Nautical Spectacle

IUCN News

Once every five years, tall ships from all over the world converge on the Dutch capital for a five-day international nautical spectacle—SAIL Amsterdam. Attracting more than 600 ships and an expected 1.8 million visitors, this is Europe’s largest ‘admission free’ nautical event.

The highlight of SAIL Amsterdam 2010 which takes place this month is the SAIL-IN parade on the first day (19 August), an impressive fleet of tall ships and a large accompanying fleet crossing the North Sea Canal to Amsterdam.