Scientists say pollution may be helpful

NF Reporter · 11-17-2006, 02:09 AM

AP - If the sun warms the Earth too dangerously, the time may come to draw the shade.

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waltky · 11-14-2007, 07:50 PM

Pollution causing solar dimming...

Pollution Dimming India's Sunshine
Nov. 14, 2007 - A blanket of smog hanging over India means the country is getting less and less sunlight, warn researchers. But this phenomenon, known as "solar dimming" may also protect against global warning.

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India is getting about 5% less sunlight than it did 20 years ago, according to a study by Padma Kumari and colleagues at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune. They studied data from the India Meteorological Department, measuring differences in solar radiation at 12 stations across India between 1981 and 2004.

They found that the amount of solar radiation reaching India's land mass dropped on average by 0.86 watts per square metre each year. The decrease was greater during the 1990s than the 1980s, and on average corresponded to a 5% drop in sunshine over the two decades.

India is losing out on sunshine because a cloud of tiny air-borne particles released by the nation's industries hovers above the subcontinent, blocking light from reaching the Earth.

Masked warming

waltky · 11-23-2007, 12:00 AM

Using bacteria as methane scrubbers...

Methane-eating bacteria could halt warming
November 23, 2007 - NEW Zealand scientists hope a newly discovered bacterium that eats methane could ultimately help counter a key global warming gas.

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The bacterium was discovered living about 30cm below the ground in the hot, acidic environment at Hells Gate in Rotorua, a geothermal area. Microbiologist Dr Matthew Stott, who was part of the team that made the discovery, said they had been puzzled as to why methane produced geothermally at Hells Gate did not reach the surface. The answer was a tough methane-consuming bacterium tentatively named Methylokorus infernorum.

Dr Stott said he hoped the organism could ultimately be used to help landfills and methane-producing factories reduce their emissions. "Potentially it could be used to combat methane emissions," Dr Stott said. He estimated that a cubic metre of liquid containing the bacterium would consume about 11kg of methane each year. Methane is a major contributor to the greenhouse effect.

But Dr Stott cautioned that such an application was probably some years into the future. He said it was unlikely the micro-organism, which prefers acidic conditions of about 60C, could ever be added to sheep or cows' food to stop the animals releasing methane.

Methane-eating bacteria could halt warming | NEWS.com.au

waltky · 02-04-2008, 02:56 AM

Maybe they could break down the plastic back to petroleum...

Floating rubbish dump 'bigger than US'
February 04, 2008 - IT has been described as the world's largest rubbish dump, or the Pacific plastic soup, and it is starting to alarm scientists.

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It is a vast area of plastic debris and other flotsam drifting in the northern Pacific Ocean, held there by swirling ocean currents. Discovered in 1997 by American sailor Charles Moore, what is also called the great Pacific garbage patch is now alarming some with its ever-growing size and possible impact on human health. The "patch" is in fact two massive, linked areas of circulating rubbish, says Dr Marcus Eriksen, research director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, founded by Moore.

Although the boundaries change, it stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the coast of California, across the northern Pacific to near the coast of Japan. The islands of Hawaii are placed almost in the middle, so piles of plastic regularly wash up on some beaches there. "The original idea that people had was that it was an island of plastic garbage that you could almost walk on. It is not quite like that. It is almost like a plastic soup," Dr Eriksen says.

"It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as continental United States," he says. The concentration of floating plastic debris just beneath the ocean's surface is the product of underwater currents, which conspire to bring together all the junk that accumulates in the Pacific Ocean.

More Floating rubbish dump 'bigger than US' | NEWS.com.au

waltky · 09-22-2008, 12:28 AM

How about recycling plastics?...

Plastic-Munching Bugs Turn Waste Bottles Into Cash
Sept. 21, 2008 : New Bacteria-Driven Process Could Make Recycling Plastic Bottles More Attractive

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Newly discovered bacterial alchemists could help save billions of plastic bottles from landfill. The Pseudomonas strains can convert the low-grade PET plastic used in drinks bottles into a more valuable and biodegradable plastic called PHA. PHA is already used in medical applications, from artery-supporting tubes called stents to wound dressings. The plastic can be processed to have a range of physical properties. However, one of the barriers to PHA reaching wider use is the absence of a way to make it in large quantities. The new bacteria-driven process – termed upcycling – could address that, and make recycling PET bottles more economically attractive.

PET bugs. Although billions of plastic bottles are made each year, few are ultimately recycled. Just 23.5% of US bottles were recycled in 2006. This is because the recycling process simply converts the low value PET bottles into more PET, says Kevin O'Connor at University College Dublin, Ireland. "We wanted to see if we could turn the plastic into something of higher value in an environmentally friendly way," he says. O'Connor and colleagues knew that heating PET in the absence of oxygen – a process called pyrolysis – breaks it down into terephthalic acid (TA) and a small amount of oil and gas. They also knew that some bacteria can grow and thrive on TA, and that other bacteria produce a high-value plastic PHA when stressed. So they wondered whether any bacteria could both feed on TA and convert it into PHA.

Bacteria hunt. "It was a long shot to be honest," says O'Connor. His team studied cultures from around the world known to grow on TA, but none produced PHA. So they decided to look for undiscovered strains, in environments that naturally contain TA. Analysing soil bacteria from a PET bottle processing plant, which are likely to be exposed to small quantities of TA, yielded 32 colonies that could survive in the lab using TA as their only energy source.

More ABC News: Plastic-Munching Bugs Turn Waste Bottles Into Cash