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Biofuels: An Advisable Strategy?
Daniela Russi, Ph.D. Candidate of the UAB's Department of Economics and Economic History, has made a thesis to study the environmental consequences of the production and use of biofuels. She concludes that using public funding to support a large scale biofuel production is not an advisable strategy.
One of the globalization side effects is the arrival of new species from abroad. UAB researchers have studied the effect of two invasive species that reached the archipelago of Madeira. Against what was widely believed, and published, these intruders have not affected significantly the species of indigenous ants.
In last years, forest fires have devastated wide zones of Catalonia, with serious effects on the environment and economy of involved areas. Some data to know: In 2005 there were 892 fires in all Catalonia, and this year already there have been 618, according to the Environment Department of Generalitat. The study on fire behaviour and the...
The economic value of a plant does not always overlap with its cultural value. In fact, they can be quite different. A group of researchers has developed a new method that allows to measure the cultural, practical, and economic value of plants. They have used that method to a research to an indigenous group in the Bolivian Amazon.
Increasing the performance of wastewater treatment plants
Wastewater treatment plants are currently one of the most important systems at hand to minimise the dumping of pollutants into the environment. One of the processes, which are used in these facilities, is what is known as EBPR (Enhanced Biological Phosphorus...
The construction of an industrial composting unit often leads to conflict due to the social rejection it causes among local residents because of the contamination to the atmosphere and bad smells it creates. Researchers of the Organic Waste Compost Group of the Department of Chemical Engineering have now managed to minimise contaminant gases...
Mercury is one of the most dangerous chemical elements for the environment and humans. This makes it important to analyse how much mercury there is and what happens when it reaches the ground from industrials emissions. UAB researchers have studied the land closest to a chlorine-alkali plant located in the Netherlands.
Was the Little Ice Age caused by a minimum in the solar cycle?
The Little Ice Age (LIA), a significate climatic cooling of the Northern Hemisphere between the end of Middle Ages and the 18th century, also ocurred in the tropics, and the more likely cause was a minimum in the solar cycles. This has been confirmed after...
