Referring to the surrounding ecosystem of the planet Earth, its natural mechanisms and balances, and study of the effects of human interaction with it.
Questions tagged [environment]
191 questions
4
votes
4 answers
Was the 2023 Ohio train derailment the 'worst environmental disaster in US history'?
According to Impact Nottingham:
East Palestine, Ohio: Exploring The Worst Environmental Disaster in
the History of the USA
On 3rd February 2023, a freight train carrying various potentially
hazardous chemicals derailed in the town of East Palestine…
JonathanReez
- 10,917
- 11
- 51
- 102
4
votes
2 answers
Feasibility of electric car production given current production levels of various elements and compounds
This infographic (source) shows the elements required for production of 20 million Tesla cars per year, and compares that with current production rates of those elements. Looks like this was in response to a Tweet by Musk stating a goal of…
Steven Gubkin
- 619
- 4
- 11
4
votes
0 answers
Do vegan diets have lower environmental impact?
The Guardian has a 2018 article, Avoiding meat and dairy is the single biggest way to reduce your impact on earth, which is commonly brought up by my vegan friends:
Avoiding meat and dairy products is the single biggest way to reduce your…
Dunno
- 141
- 2
4
votes
2 answers
Do colder temperatures increase our hunger?
I've heard this multiple times as an explanation to eating more in relation to being exposed to colder temperatures (restaurants that are colder, during the winter, etc.) but I have yet to be able to find any concrete scientific evidence to prove…
Jess K.
- 151
- 8
4
votes
1 answer
Is air pollution reaching a crisis point?
A recent report by the Lancet Commision on Pollution and Health led to some scary headlines in the news:
Pollution linked to one in six deaths
Global pollution kills 9m a year and threatens 'survival of human societies'
Pollution is killing…
matt_black
- 56,186
- 16
- 175
- 373
4
votes
1 answer
Do electric cars emit half the CO2 as diesel from a life-cycle perspective?
From The Guardian:
"On average, electric vehicles will emit half the CO2 emissions of a diesel car by 2030, including the manufacturing emissions,” said Yoann Le Petit, a spokesman for the T&E think tank, which commissioned the study.
-"Electric…
Kristoffer Nolgren
- 1,100
- 8
- 20
4
votes
2 answers
Is drinking collected rain water proven to be beneficial for your health?
Rain is liquid water in the form of droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then precipitated—that is, become heavy enough to fall under gravity.
After reading the article Drinking Rain Water, I was wondering about its…
SwiftPushkar
- 445
- 2
- 12
4
votes
2 answers
What if everyone in a city flushed their toilets at once?
"The applied theory of price", by Donald N McCloskey claims:
If all people flushed their toilets at once, the city water mains would burst.
How much damage (if at all) will a drainage system in a modern city incur if every household flushed their…
ghosts_in_the_code
- 179
- 4
4
votes
0 answers
Does the Kiri Tree reduce carbon dioxide emissions ten times more than the average tree?
The About section of the Kiri Tree website says:
The tree is known to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions ten times
more than the average tree and also in return produce ten times more
oxygen (O2). It loves toxic waste and can be used to…
Mauricio Arias Olave
- 275
- 2
- 13
4
votes
1 answer
Did the Standing Rock protestors potentially damage the environment and the local watershed through their own human waste and garbage?
Reuters has this to say about the mess left behind at Standing Rock and the effort to clean it:
Dump trucks and heavy machinery rolled into the protest camp near the site of the Dakota Access Pipeline on Monday, and crews began filling large…
user37696
4
votes
0 answers
Are we running out of drinking water so that we need to be frugal with it?
I’ve read in the news that a majority of earth’s population might run out of drinking water. As with many of these kind of predictions it’s difficult to judge the urgency and correctness of it without spending a huge amount of time on it.
From the…
Lenar Hoyt
- 149
- 4
4
votes
4 answers
Does physics give a climate sensitivity to carbon dioxide of about 3°C?
A letter to the editor of the Economist from Professor Anders Levermann of the
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research stated the following:
The IPCC’s range on sensitivity is supported by, but not merely based on, models. It is deeply rooted…
matt_black
- 56,186
- 16
- 175
- 373
3
votes
1 answer
Are there currently more large fires in Africa and South America than the rest of the world?
This has been doing the rounds on Twitter:
NASA fire map shows the absolute failure of mainstream media for not expressing how devasting fires in southern Africa and South America are.
Certainly to the untrained eye it looks like there are…
Crazymoomin
- 149
- 6
3
votes
1 answer
Does 1 acre of hemp produce more oxygen than an equivalent amount (let alone 25x) of forestland?
I have a friend who likes to promote hemp on Facebook, and one of the posts had this "factoid":
Looks highly doubtful to me but I can't find any real supporting/disputing info.
Is there anything that would support/refute this claim?
Best I can find…
Jason S
- 155
- 4
3
votes
5 answers
Did the 2018 drought in Europe result in 2019 worldwide grain crop not meeting demand?
An essay on T-Online.de makes the following claim:
Schon ein einziger Dürresommer in Europa 2018 führte dazu, dass die Getreideernte in diesem Jahr weltweit den Bedarf nicht mehr deckt (noch gibt es aber Reserven).
My translation:
Even a single…
DevSolar
- 19,034
- 8
- 77
- 74