September 9, 2016 Background Since 1847, when Costa Rica declared sovereignty from the United Provinces of Central America, it has remained among the most stable, prosperous, and progressive nations in Latin America. In 1949 it became (and remains) one of sixteen sovereign nations without a standing army. Achievements It has … Continue reading
Category Archives: Environment
Solar Cell Triggered by Sun and Rain
April 11,2016 A study published in Angewandte Chemie has found that when combined with an electron-enriched graphene electrode, a dye-sensitized solar cell can be excited by incident light on sunny days and raindrops on rainy days. Its optimal solar-to-electric conversion efficiency is 6.53%.
Regulations Could Preserve Assets in the $Trillions
April 5, 2016 A 2016 study from the London School of Economics and Political Science argues that regulations to limit carbon emissions could actually help to preserve $trillions in assets.
Impact Of Climate Change On Portfolios
April 5, 2016 A 2015 report from Blackrock Investment Institute analyzing the impact of global warming on portfolios.
Cost of Climate Change
April 5, 2016 This 2010 report from Yale University is widely used by agencies and others to calculate the potential economic damages from climate change.
Saving New York & Low-Lying Cities From Sinking
April 4, 2016 There are two main components to the global water crisis exacerbated by climate change: drought and flooding. While temporary phenomena like El Niño mask the long-term nature of the former, doing nothing will not save cities like New York, Miami, New Orleans or Dacca from the ocean’s … Continue reading
Low-lying Cities Sinking Twice As Fast
April 4, 2016 A new study from climate scientists Robert DeConto at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and David Pollard at Pennsylvania State University suggests that the most recent estimates by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for future sea-level rise over the next 100 years could be too low … Continue reading
Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health
April 4, 2016 A 332-page report developed and issued today under the President’s Climate Action Plan details how climate change threatens human health and well-being in the United States. Water will become more contaminated, food more tainted, and the air dirtier. Already it affects more people in more ways than … Continue reading
High Risk of Severe Water Stress in Asia
March 30, 2016 A study published in the peer-reviewed online journal PLOS (Public Library of Science) finds that in the absence of autonomous adaptation or societal response, there is a high risk of severe water stress in some densely populated Asian watersheds by 2050. Abstract The sustainability of future water … Continue reading
Carbon Emissions 10 Times Faster Than Ever
March 28, 2016 A study in Nature Geoscience compared the ongoing anthropogenic increase in carbon emissions with previous similar episodes. The only known analogous event –the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM- happened 56 million years ago during the Cenozoic era, when the Earth’s average temperature shot up by about 5 … Continue reading