From 2010 onwards, the climate debate occupies more and more space in our everyday life. Flood disasters and heat waves seem to constantly fill our TV screens, and countless readers discuss in the online newspapers’ comment feeds whether global warming is a fact or not.
During the first decade of the 21st century, focus on climate change research turned towards aerosols – tiny, solid particles or liquid droplets suspended in air or gas, that can remain suspended over long distances.
In the 90s, climate research became more and more international due to the rise of the internet. Climate researchers could exchange information all around the world in the blink of an eye, and data could be stored and shared through joint databases.
In the mid-80s, we wore big shoulder pads, parachute pants and had enormous hair – thanks to hairspray. Most spray containers at that time contained chlorofluorocarbons, AKA CFCs, substances that were used in many products and industries all over the world.
Pollutants from British industrial pipes were raining down over Norway in the 70s and 80s and resulted in lakes filled with dead fish, fierce political debates and passionate nature conservatists. But how was this all linked together?
At Chittagong in Bangladesh, obsolete ships from around the world are run ashore on tidal beaches and scrapped on site.A study from NILU show that airborne concentrations of “old” environmental pollutants such as PCBs are higher there compared to other sites in Asia and Europe.
Ozone, methane and aerosols (tiny pollutant particles) remain in the atmosphere for a shorter time than CO2, but can affect both the climate and air quality. Yet environmental policies tend to separate the two issues, with measures that fight air pollution not always bringing climate benefits and vice-versa.
From time to time, beautiful clouds show up in the sky. They are called nacreous clouds (from nacre, mother of pearl), due to their beautiful iridescent colour, and are located high up in the atmosphere. But did you know that these pearly clouds often further the depletion of the ozone layer?
The human body contains many contaminants. A new research project shows that data models can replicate measurements of PCB concentrations in individuals, and thus help scientists understand what happens with these contaminants in our bodies.
Developing and using socially responsible ICT-based crowdsourcing tools, NILU and partners want to engage citizens all over Norway in environmental research and decision-making processes on issues regarding water drainage, wood burning and urban planning.
For the last decade, Norwegian scientists have had their eyes on the chemicals that make our hair shiny and our skin soft. Siloxanes have greased our daily life for many years, while slowly seeping out into our environment. Now the politicians are going to decide whether we can continue to use them – or not.
NILU is proud to announce that Senior Scientist Dr. Andreas Stohl has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant, the most prestigious research funding award given by the European Research Council (ERC), for the project COMTESSA – Camera Observation and Modelling of 4D Tracer Dispersion in the Atmosphere.
In the near future, smart technology will give each and every one of us the possibility to monitor air quality where we live, say scientists at NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research. However, the future is already here…
Brussels / Leipzig, 3. June 2015: The European Commission will fund the research infrastructure ACTRIS-2 with a total of 9.5 million euros until 2019. Thus, the existing network of ground-based long-term observatories for aerosols, clouds and trace gases can be further expanded.
From the NILU annual report: Could emission abatement of short-lived climate pollutants help mitigate climate change?
From NILU’s annual report 2014: Reducing CO2 emissions to the atmosphere is one way of combating the effects of global warming on the atmosphere, and thus limiting the consequences of climate change on ecosystems and human health
From NILU’s annual report 2014: Aerosols are one of the factors influencing climate change. Thus, NILU scientists wanted to find out more about aerosols, in order to make more precise predictions about climate change.
From NILU’s annual report 2014: Nanomaterials are everywhere around us. You find nanomaterials in a broad range of materials from sport clothes, cosmetics, toothpaste, painting, building materials and electronics to pharmaceuticals. Moreover, as rapid progress within nanotechnology continues, more products enter the market.
From NILU’s annual report: NILU and MET Norway collaborate on a national project for the development of open source tools for mapping local air quality in Norway. The first phase runs from 2014 to 2016, and by the end of 2016 new tools and information on air quality throughout Norway will be available.
Buildings destroyed by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake released thousands of tons of climate-warming and ozone-depleting chemicals into the atmosphere, according to a new study.
– All my life is work, says nanoscientist Maria eagerly, while she in English, and with the ease born of long practice, throws around words like cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, oxidative stress and nanomaterials. She has not been easy to “catch” for this meeting. She is head of the Health Effects Laboratory at NILU, and even more than usually engaged in her projects.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) released the new «Air Quality in Europe 2014 report» yesterday. According to the report, air pollution in Europe comes with a high price tag, and while policies have improved air quality overall, air pollution is still the main environmental health hazard.
We surround ourselves with more and more new chemicals, and are exposed daily to a vast amount of substances and mixtures of chemicals we do not really understand the effect of on an individual. We get in contact with these chemicals through food, clothes, cosmetics, furniture, air, water and other media.
In the near future it will be possible to simplify monitoring of urban air quality through citizens by using sensor technologies and mobile applications. The EU projects CITI-SENSE and Citi-Sense-MOB aim at empowering citizens to monitor the air quality in their immediate environment and implementing measures to influence politicians and decision makers.