Solar Activity Predicted to Drop 60% in the 2030s – Could a ‘Mini Ice Age’ Be Coming?
“We predict that this will lead to the properties of a ‘Maunder minimum’.” – Prof Valentina Zharkova Scientists predict a 60% drop in solar activity by the 2030s, raising questions about a potential mini ice age. Learn about the solar minimum, the Sun’s double dynamo cycle, and how it could impact Earth’s climate. Is a […]
Cash, Carbon , Crude: How to make oil fields bury emissions
In February 2018, Donald Trump signed into law new tax credits that reward oil companies for capturing carbon dioxide and preventing it from entering the atmosphere — either by burying the gas underground or by pumping it into wells to boost production. These tax credits, which have bipartisan support, are encouraging for those who believe […]
Radioactivity from oil and gas wastewater persists in Pennsylvania stream sediments
More than seven years after Pennsylvania officials requested that the disposal of radium-laden fracking wastewater into surface waters be restricted, a new Duke University study finds that high levels of radioactivity persist in stream sediments at three disposal sites. The contamination is coming from the disposal of conventional, or non-fracked, oil and gas wastewater, which, […]
Large-scale US wind power would cause warming that would take roughly a century to offset
“Wind beats coal by any environmental measure, but that doesn’t mean that its impacts are negligible,” says senior author David Keith, an engineering and public policy professor at Harvard University. “We must quickly transition away from fossil fuels to stop carbon emissions. In doing so, we must make choices between various low-carbon technologies, all of […]
Largest continuous oil and gas resource potential ever
Today, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced the Wolfcamp Shale and overlying Bone Spring Formation in the Delaware Basin portion of Texas and New Mexico’s Permian Basin province contain an estimated mean of 46.3 billion barrels of oil, 281 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 20 billion barrels of natural gas liquids, according […]
Deep sea chemical dispersants ineffective in Deepwater Horizon oil spill, study finds
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, releasing 210 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico for a total of 87 days, making it the largest oil spill in U.S. history. A University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science-led research team analyzed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons […]
How to
Dr Raul Barreto, Senior Lecturer from the University’s School of Economics, has examined the short and long-term consequences of the relative productivity differential between fossil fuel and renewable energy. “The transition from fossil fuels to alternative energy is dependent on their relative productivity. Sustainable energy will increasingly replace fossil fuels as the former becomes a […]
