The Environmental Engineering Hub

If you watched Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s top-billed speech at the United Nations Climate Action Summit on September 23, you might be inclined to say the South Asian leader is very serious about climate change.  I mean, we'll keep him to the sidelines! A recent Worldwatch Institute study showed that climate change is the most serious threat India faces. As if that isn't enough, a recent  Worldwatch Institute‏ study showed that climate change remains "the biggest threat India faces today." According to a recent Worldwatch Institute‏ report, in 2015, 2.3 billion people, or 15 percent of the world's population, will live in regions where climate change affects their land and their economy. So, in fact, you might think that the Worldwatch Institute and India's Department of Atomic Energy are actually on the same page when it comes to making sure India is prepared for climate change.  You're wrong. The Indian government seems determined

In the midst of the presidential race, historically, we have followed guidelines linked to environmental conservation placed in the background. The result of this stance are inoperative mandates regarding the gradual and uninterrupted degradation of our forests and natural resources. We need the elected candidates, both in the Executive and in the Legislative, to make real commitments to the preservation of our biodiversity, even though promises related to the environment do not attract so many votes. In view of the election of the National Electoral Council last month, the people's choices cannot depend on environmental issues alone, but also on the protection of our natural resources, the health of our environment and its environment, of our environment with respect to the people. Our objective is to create a culture of conservation, of environmental awareness, and of respecting the environment. Environmental awareness is a cornerstone of our campaign and is linked to envi

In addition to the tracks of destruction in the forest, the fires in the Amazon leave traces in the Amazon River and its tributaries. Incomplete burning of tree wood results in the production of a type of carbon - known as black carbon - that reaches Amazonian waters in the forms of charcoal and soot and is transported to the Atlantic Ocean as dissolved organic carbon. An international group of researchers quantified and characterized, for the first time, the black carbon that flows through the Amazon River. The results of the study, published in Nature Communications magazine, showed that most of the material transferred to the ocean is "young," suggesting that it was produced by recent forest fires. "We found through radiometric dating analysis [a method that uses the radioisotope of natural carbon-14 occurrence to determine the age of carbonaceous materials up to about 60,000 years] and molecular composition that the largest proportion of the black carbon we found

"An active system of professional regulation is able to influence the protection and the sustainable use of resources found in the environment." This statement is made by Joel Krüger, President of the Federal Council for Engineering and Agronomy (Confea, in Portuguese). And who wins with all this, points out the leader, is the rural sector, which can reap the results of expansion verified each year in Brazilian agribusiness. The inspection, says Krüger, is one of the strategic tools to have a return of quality in the work performed by agronomy professionals, which are about 120 thousand professionals in Brazil. "In reality, we need to balance agronomy with the environment. The agronomist engineer works hard on this issue. We need to overcome some debates that lead nowhere on this issue. The current need is a well regulated agronomy. We defend our system of professional regulation," says the president of Confea. "Krüger says that this defense is necessary,

Acid mine drainage, acid and metalliferous drainage (AMD), or acid rock drainage (ARD) is the outflow of acidic water from metal mines or coal mines. Acid rock drainage occurs naturally within some environments as part of the rock weathering process but is exacerbated by large-scale earth disturbances characteristic of mining and other large construction activities, usually within rocks containing an abundance of sulfide minerals. Areas where the earth has been disturbed (e.g. construction sites, subdivisions, and transportation corridors) may create acid rock drainage. In many localities, the liquid that drains from coal stocks, coal handling facilities, coal washeries, and coal waste tips can be highly acidic, and in such cases it is treated as acid rock drainage. This liquid often contains toxic metals, such as copper or iron. These, combined with reduced pH, have a detrimental impact on the streams aquatic environments. The same type of chemical reactions and processes may o

Federal Congresswoman Chris Tonietto (PSL-RJ) says she believes the negative figures on the situation in the Amazon are being inflated "to demoralize the government" and that she trusts President Jair Bolsonaro and his chosen minister to look after the area, Ricardo Salles. The congresswoman criticizes the "politicization" of the issue and what she points out as an "inversion" in putting nature above man. "I am not being against the evidence, no. Even the people who live in the Amazon and who are now federal deputies say this, that they, in quotes, inflate the numbers, saying that deforestation is growing. I'm not saying that there isn't, but I don't think that's all they try to impute. Everything to demoralize the government," he says. "I take great care with these ultra-environmentalist agendas, because I think they have a very serious ideological burden and put the environment above the human being. This is absurd,"

    With 7% of the planet's total surface area, the Amazon is home to about 50% of the world's biodiversity. For many, it is considered the "lungs of the world". But can we consider this statement correct? According to Antonio Ocimar Manzi, coordinator of the National Institute of Amazonian Research (Inpa), the answer is no. According to him, the vegetation, which grows through photosynthesis, captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and releases oxygen, unlike the lung that transforms oxygen from the atmosphere into carbon dioxide. The Amazon presents a very high rate of photosynthesis and, because of this, was for some decades compared to a large "inverted" lung, the "lungs of the world". However, the professor explains that the forest also releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, by breathing of the plants, and in the process of decomposition of trunks, branches, dead leaves and animals. Divided among nine Brazilian states: Acre, A

In view of the growing deforestation in the country, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles (Novo-SP) says that the Amazon will only be preserved if "capitalist solutions" are found that give economic dynamism to the forest and generate income for the approximately 20 million Brazilians who inhabit the region. In an interview with BBC News Brasil, Salles criticized the way in which conservation units and indigenous lands have been created in the Amazon in past governments - a strategy that, according to experts, has had a major impact on reducing deforestation rates in the forest. According to the minister, the creation of these areas led to land conflicts and denied Brazilians access to a large portion of the national territory. Salles was appointed by physicist Ricardo Galvão as one of the pivots of his resignation from the board of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in early August. The minister had been criticizing data from the agency that have pointed to

The evolution of pasture stocking in Brazil is directly linked to the use of the most varied technologies. In 1940, for example, productivity in the country was 0.1 to 0.2 UA/ha (animal unit per hectare). It increased to 0.5 UA/ha with the use of African forage and is now at 1 UA/ha. With the ILP (Crop-Livestock Integration) as pasture reform, it is possible to reach 3 UA per hectare, a growth of 200%, according to research, and maximum limit for this technology. It is worth saying: one AU corresponds to 450 kilos of live weight. But now, according to Fernando Campos de Mendonça, professor of the department of biosystems engineering at Esalq/USP (Escola Superior de Agricultura Luis de Queiroz/ University of São Paulo), cattle ranching is experiencing a crucial moment of paradigm shift. "Cattle ranching for a long time has incorporated new areas and productivity remained low, with low occupancy, without increasing the number of animals per area. Agriculture came out ahead because

The British magazine The Economist, one of the most influential media outlets in the world, gave as its cover story the acceleration of deforestation in the Amazon, linked to the election of President Jair Bolsonaro. The magazine refers to the president of Brazil as "possibly the most dangerous head of state in the world in environmental terms". In an editorial, the publication states that "the world must make it clear to Mr. Bolsonaro that it will not tolerate his vandalism" and suggests boycotts, by food, soy and meat multinationals produced in illegally deforested areas of the Amazon, in addition to urging countries and blocs, including China, to put pressure on Brazil in its negotiations with the country. What the Bolsonaro government - as well as more retrograde sectors of agribusiness - seems not to have realized is that the environmental issue today does not oppose, on the one hand, capitalist businesses and companies and, on the other, dreamlike hippi

Do you remember when people said we had "12 years to save the planet"? Now, however, there is a growing consensus that the next 18 months will be paramount in dealing with the global warming and climate change crisis, among other environmental challenges. Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that to keep global average temperatures below 1.5°C by the end of this century, carbon dioxide emissions would have to be reduced by 45% by 2030. But today, scientists recognize that the decisive political steps to allow carbon cuts to actually occur will have to be taken before the end of next year. The idea that 2020 is an important deadline was addressed by one of the world's leading climate scientists in 2017. "Climate mathematics is brutally clear: although the world cannot be cured in the coming years, it could be fatally injured by negligence by 2020," said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, founder and current director emeritus of the

Surprisingly, even the videos we watch on the Internet have an impact on the environment. A new report indicates that the internet is one of the top "villains" in the digital sector's carbon footprint, which now accounts for 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This share could double by 2025, leaving the digital sector on a par with road transport, as energy consumption in this sector is increasing at the rate of 9% per year. Published by the French research website The Shift Project, the report "Climate Crisis: The Unsustainable Use of Online Video" quantifies the impact of Internet video (VoD, "tubes", pornography, social networks and others) on the environment and the global climate. The study shows that, within all Internet data, online videos account for about 60 percent of the stream, or the largest volume of greenhouse gas emissions in the industry, with about 300 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e). Of this total emission,

In a short space of time, the Amazon Fund became a turning point in the Bolsonaro government. Announced by Brazil during the COP-13 (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) on the Indonesian island of Bali, in 2007, and created the following year under the Lula administration, the program emerged as a pioneering initiative in the world to collect financial resources from developed countries to keep the world's largest rainforest standing - and thus help in combating climate change. The Fund has already received more than R$ 3.4 billion in donations and has become the main national instrument for funding actions to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation, in addition to promoting the conservation and sustainable use of the Amazon biome. Its resources currently support 103 projects by state governments and civil society to protect the forest, including the Amazon Protected Areas program (Arpa). Aimed at the creation and management of Conservation Units (UCs),

In recent years, plastic straw has entered the target of environmental awareness campaigns around the world. Several establishments and cities have created alternatives to the use of the utensil as a solution to encourage the population to reduce the number of plastics in the oceans. Teresina joined the attempt and established, in law, the prohibition of the use of the item in establishments. But there are those who do, daily, also common attitudes, even more to reduce the impact of their actions on the environment. The reuse of food, choice of non-polluting transportation and selective garbage collection are among the decisions of Teresinos to contribute to a healthier world. Iara Gomes is one of those who is fully aware that much of what is considered garbage can be reused in a very positive way. The backyard of her house is the concrete proof of what she thinks: fruits, medicinal plants, flowers and ornamental plants spread through the ecosystem cared for and nourished from t

Up until now we have only described the properties of a system in equilibrium. However, it is important to introduce what happens to a semiconductor when it is illuminated with light.The process of interest is known as photogeneration of charge carriers. Here electron-hole pairs are generated as light is absorbed in a semiconductor. During the course introduction we have already mentioned that mobile electrons and holes are formed in a semiconductor as a result of light absorption. Now, I will explain how this process happens. Here we see a photon incident on a semiconductor. At some point this photon can be absorbed by the material. Absorption is a process, in which the electromagnetic radiation interacts with atoms of a semiconductor, in particular with the valence electrons.This interaction can lead to a liberation of an electron from a covalent bond. If this happens, a valence electron is excited from an energy state in the valence band to an available energy state i