The Environment Chronicle

Notable environmental events between 2009 and 2009 Deselect

  1. Globally, commercial ships emit almost half as much particulate pollution into the air as the total amount released by cars, according to a new study of the US-Agency NOAA. Ship pollutants affect both the Earth's climate and the health of people living along coastlines. The study is the first to provide a global estimate of maritime shipping's total contribution to air particle pollution based on direct measurements of emissions. The authors estimate that worldwide, ships emit 0.9 teragrams, or about 2.2 million pounds, of particulate pollution each year. Shipping also contributes almost 30 percent of smog-forming nitrogen oxide gases. The findings appeared online 25 February in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, a publication of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Lack, D. A., et al. (2009), Particulate emissions from commercial shipping: Chemical, physical, and optical properties, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D00F04, doi:10.1029/2008JD011300.

  2. The BMU Brochure was made avaible on the Internet (in German only).

  3. The risks of severe climate impacts increase drastically with only small increases in global mean temperature. An international team of researchers has reinvestigated the five “reasons for concern” described first in the Third Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2001, and revised a graphic depiction of their sensitivities to increases in global mean temperature. The diagram shows clearly how the borderline to dangerous climate change could be crossed much earlier than previously thought but also that ambitioned climate policy could minimize the associated risks.

  4. The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA) have published the first “Umweltwirtschaftsbericht” (environmental economic report). The new joint report demonstrates the close connection between ecology and economy as well as the new importance of environmental policy.