Planetary Ruin

BEIJING (Reuters) - A spill on the Hanjiang River, in central China’s Hubei Province, has affected water supply for 200,000 people living along three tributaries since Sunday, the Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday, citing local media.

The water became “red with large amounts of bubbles,” Xinhua said, citing Gao Qijin, head of Xingou Township Tap Water Company in Jianli County, which is along the Dongjing River, one of the affected tributaries.

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A new coating for solar panels could lead to more efficient solar collection.

The energy from sunlight falling on only 9 percent of California’s Mojave Desert could power all of the United States’ electricity needs if the energy could be efficiently harvested, according to some estimates. Unfortunately, current-generation solar cell technologies are too expensive and inefficient for wide-scale commercial applications.

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BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing has launched a “green securities” scheme aimed at making it harder for polluters to raise capital and requiring listed firms to disclose more information about their environmental record.

The initiative is part of a drive by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) to enlist other government agencies to give financial and economic policies a green hue.

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A new coating for solar panels could lead to more efficient solar collection.

The energy from sunlight falling on only 9 percent of California’s Mojave Desert could power all of the United States’ electricity needs if the energy could be efficiently harvested, according to some estimates. Unfortunately, current-generation solar cell technologies are too expensive and inefficient for wide-scale commercial applications.

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Professor Mike Rowe’s long term research interest at the Cardiff School of Engineering has been in thermoelectric generation - employing thermocouples to convert heat into electricity. The conversion technology is used in everyday applications such as controlling the central heating system or refrigerator temperature.

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