Political Ecology

A system dynamics model is applied to study the impact of spent fuel recycling on the US nuclear energy system and the implications of a bilateral hypothetical collaboration between the US and Brazil. In particular, the impact of different options for advanced fuel cycle facilities needed for the US nuclear energy market alone and under [...]

Using the catalyst technology, Novomer can form both high molecular weight (MW) polymers to make thermoplastic polymers that can be used to make plastics, and low MW polymers that can be used to make resins for use as coatings and adhesives. The technology can also be used to convert carbon monoxide into a range of [...]

At the Biomass Research Centre – University of Perugia some LCA studies were carried out on different biomass chains, using a detailed software (Simapro 7.0) and the EcoIndicator 99 model in order to evaluate the global burden. Results showed that EcoIndicator 99 lacks some important features (e.g. freshwater consumption, nutrient emissions into water, soil erosion) [...]

Climate change is expected to cause mass human migration, including immigration across international borders. This study quantitatively examines the linkages among variations in climate, agricultural yields, and people’s migration responses by using an instrumental variables approach. Our method allows us to identify the relationship between crop yields and migration without explicitly controlling for all other [...]

In recent experiments, the researchers demonstrated that under laboratory conditions nitrous oxide gas could be produced from wastewater using a low-oxygen technique. But there’s a downside to the process. Nitrous oxide is a significant greenhouse gas that’s more than 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide.That’s where Cantwell’s rocket thruster comes in. Designed for use [...]

Based on economic and policy considerations that appear to be unconstrained by geophysics, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) generated forty carbon production and emissions scenarios. In this paper, we develop a base-case scenario for global coal production based on the physical multi-cycle Hubbert analysis of historical production data. Areas with large resources but [...]

Owing to exceptional biomolecule preservation, fossil avian eggshell has been used extensively in geochronology and palaeodietary studies. Here, we show, to our knowledge, for the first time that fossil eggshell is a previously unrecognized source of ancient DNA (aDNA). We describe the successful isolation and amplification of DNA from fossil eggshell up to 19 ka [...]