In this short communication, we estimate that California's wildfire carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) emissions from 2020 are approximately two times higher than California's total greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions since 2003. Without considering future vegetation regrowth, CO₂e emissions from the 2020 wildfires could be the second most important source in the state above either industry or electrical power generation. Regrowth may partly of fully occur over a long period, but due to exigencies of the climate crisis most of the regrowth will not occur quickly enough to avert greater than 1.5 degrees of warming. Global monetized damages caused by CO₂e from in 2020 wildfire emissions amount to some $7.1 billion USD. Our analysis suggests that significant societal benefits could accrue from larger investments in improved forest management and stricter controls on new development in fire-prone areas at the wildland-urban interface.

Antibiotics are emerging contaminants in aquatic environments which pose serious risks to the ecological environment and human health. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) based on ultraviolet (UV) light have good application prospects for antibiotic degradation. As new and developing UV-AOPs, UV/chlorine and derived UV/chloramine processes have attracted increasing attention due to the production of highly reactive radicals (e.g., hydroxyl radical, reactive chlorine species, and reactive nitrogen species) and also because they can provide long-lasting disinfection. In this review, the main reaction pathways of radicals formed during the UV/chlor (am)ine process are proposed. The degradation efficiency, influencing factors, generation of disinfection by-products (DBPs), and changes in toxicity that occur during antibiotic degradation by UV/chlor (am)ine are reviewed. Based on the statistics and analysis of published results, the effects caused by energy consumption, defined as electrical energy per order (EE/O), increase in the following order: UV/chlorine < UV/peroxydisulfate (PDS)< UV/H₂O₂ < UV/persulfate (PS) < 265 nm and 285 nm UV-LED/chlorine (EE/O). Some inherent problems that affect the UV/chlor (am)ine processes and prospects for future research are proposed. The use of UV/chlor (am)ine AOPs is a rich field of research and has promising future applications, and this review provides a theoretical basis for that.

Legionella species are the etiological agent of Legionnaires' disease, a pathology easily contracted from water circuits and by the inhalation of aerosol droplets. This bacterium mainly proliferates in water: Legionella pneumophila is the most commonly isolated specie in water environments and consequently in water system, although further Legionella species have frequently been isolated, including Legionella dumoffii. The simultaneous presence of the two species in the water system can therefore lead to the simultaneous infection of several people, giving rise to harmful outbreaks. Ultraviolet inactivation of waterborne microorganisms offers a rapid and effective treatment technique and recently is getting more attention mostly to eliminate unsafe level of contamination. To tackle the issue, the inactivation of the two species of Legionella spp., namely L. pneumophila and L. dumoffii, by means of UV-A light emitting diodes (UV-A LED) system is explored. We used a commercially available UV-A LED at 365 nm wavelength, and the UV-A dose is given incrementally to the Legionellae with a concentration of 10⁶ CFU/mL in 0.9% NaCl (aq) solution. In this study, with a UV-A-dose of 1700 mJ/cm², the log-reduction of 3-log (99.9% inactivation) for L. pneumophila and 2.1-log (99.1% inactivation) for L. dumoffii of the contaminated water are achieved. The Electrical Energy per Order (EEO) is evaluated and showed this system is more economic and efficient in comparison with UV-C and UV-B LEDs. Following the support of this preliminary study with additional tests, aiming to validate the technology, we expect this device may be installed in water plants such as cooling systems or any water purification station in either industrial or home scales to reduce the risk of this infectious disease, preventing consumers' health.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) have been listed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and by the European Community as priority environmental pollutants. The removal of PAHs from soils, sediments and waste water has attracted attention of scientists and engineers for several decades. Electrochemical oxidation of PAH compounds in water, is receiving increasing attention, due to its convenience and simplicity. In this study we performed electrochemical oxidation of 16 EPA PAHs mixture in 10% NaCl aqueous solution in potentiostatic conditions, at voltage 1 V. Decrease of concentration of some individual PAHs, up to 70% referred to their starting concentration, after 60 min of electrolysis, was confirmed by UPLC/PDA analysis. In further work investigation was extrapolated to in situ removal of PAHs from concrete, as the medium where, to our knowledge, such way of PAH removal has not been investigated before.High concentrations of PAH contamination occurred in the concrete structure of the residential buildings in Belgrade in 2014. Application of DC voltage of 50 V between nickel and stainless steel electrodes packed in the concrete wall, moisturized with the 10% NaCl solution, led to considerable removal of the pollutants by oxidation process throughout the concrete.

In order to evaluate the ability of granulated coal ash (GCA), a byproduct of coal thermal electric power stations, to remove hydrogen sulfide from organically enriched sediments, a pilot study was carried out at oyster farming sites, where sediments were enriched with oyster feces and dead oysters. Concentration of hydrogen sulfide in the interstitial water of the sediment decreased to nearly zero in both experimental sites, whereas it remained over 0.2mg/l in the control site. Concentration of acid volatile sulfide (AVS) in the sediment also decreased significantly in both experimental sites, while remained over 0.4mg/g in the control site. Increases were observed in both the number of benthic microalgae species and the individual number of benthic animals in the surface sediments. This may have been due to the decrease in hydrogen sulfide.

Granulated coal ash (GCA), which is a by-product of coal thermal electric power stations, effectively decreases phosphate and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) concentrations in the pore water of coastal marine sediments. In this study, we developed a pelagic–benthic coupled ecosystem model to evaluate the effectiveness of GCA for diminishing the oxygen-deficient water mass formed in coastal bottom water of Hiroshima Bay in Japan. Numerical experiments revealed the application of GCA was effective for reducing the oxygen-deficient water masses, showing alleviation of the DO depletion in summer increased by 0.4–3mgl−1. The effect of H2S adsorption onto the GCA lasted for 5.25years in the case in which GCA was mixed with the sediment in a volume ratio of 1:1. The application of this new GCA-based environmental restoration technique could also make a substantial contribution to form a recycling-oriented society.

Hydrogen sulfide generated in eutrophic marine sediment is harmful for living organisms. It is therefore necessary to remove hydrogen sulfide from the sediment to restore benthic ecosystems. Previous studies revealed that granulated coal ash, which is a by-product of coal thermal electric power stations, could remove and oxidize hydrogen sulfide. In this study, we propose a simplified simulation model to estimate the hydrogen sulfide removal efficiency of granulated coal ash. Hydrogen sulfide concentrations in eutrophic marine sediment pore water with and without the application of granulated coal ash were calculated by the proposed model, and the outputs were compared with semi-field or field observation data. The model outputs reproduced the observed data well. Using the proposed model outputs, we suggest an optimum application dosage of granulated coal ash for remediating eutrophic marine sediment.

The current work represents the study on morphology and reproductive biology of two indigenous torrential fishes, Balitora brucei and Psilorhynchus balitora, for the first time. The Gray’s stone loach Balitora brucei and balitora minnow Psilorhynchus balitora abound in the torrential water bodies of South East Asia. The current paper redescribes morphology based on the fresh collection. Specific parameters of reproductive biology on both the fishes have been studied for the first time. Both the species were adapted to the same ecological conditions of the river Ranganadi. Fish specimens were collected at a fortnightly interval from the river in the Lakhimpur district of Assam, India. The detailed study includes morphological data analyzed with Mann–Whitney U-test and specific reproductive parameters such as condition factor (K), gonado-somatic index (GSI), modified gonado-somatic index (MGSI), and Dobriyal index (DI). Progressive development of the gonads was confirmed with dissection and histological study. Both the species are multiple breeders with prolonged reproductive seasons ranging from 4 to 5 months. Both the fishes are found to be migrants from upstream, and a good number of individuals were recorded during the monsoon season, reflecting the sampling site as a breeding ground. During winter, the local people use various chemicals, piscicidal plants, and electric instruments for fishing resulting in a steep decline in the number of individuals for both the species. Moreover, the effect of the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO) dam is evident on the decline of the ichthyofaunal diversity of the river. The results of present study will provide the baseline information on these two species of fishes for planning conservation measures in future.

A massive bird dropping (BD) deposition on the common rectangular flat plate (RFP) of photovoltaic (PV) module is a matter of great concern in Western Rajasthan (WR) that diminish the overall energy production capacity of the system remarkably. In this research article, a prototype novel flat plate (NFP) design of a front glass cover of PV module is proposed to prevent the impact of BD settlement by the restriction of bird’s sitting/movement on the front glass cover. In this regard, the performance analysis of PV module with common RFP and newly designed NFP glass covers has been assessed at the different inclination β° (0–90). The BD accumulation onto the both glass covers was explored by the optical transmittance profiles at the different tilt angles, i.e., explained by bird movement on each flat glass surfaces. Consequently, a significant amount of output electric energy has been gained in NFP design rather than RFP corresponding to particular tilt regions TR I (0° ≤ β ≤ 25°), TR II (25° ≤ β ≤ 60°), and TR III (60° ≤ β ≤ 90°). According to the results achieved, an excellent level of improvement in average power loss, ~ 97.85%, corresponding to optimal TR (III) has been detected by employing NFP glass collector.

The primary goal of this study was to examine the relationship between fossil fuel energy, electricity production from nuclear sources, renewable energy, CO₂ emissions, and economic growth in Pakistan. Data ranging from 1975 to 2019 were utilized, and the stationarity of this data was verified through the unit root testing. The dynamic connections between variables were investigated by utilizing the linear autoregressive distributed lag technique. Long-run analysis results uncover that fossil fuel energy, renewable energy use, CO₂ emissions, and GDP per capita have a productive relationship with economic progress in Pakistan, whereas electric power consumption, electricity produced from nuclear sources, and energy utilization have an adverse effect on economic growth. Furthermore, the consequences revealed that fossil fuel energy, renewable energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, and GDP per capita have a significant linkage to Pakistan’s economic growth via short run, whereas we revealed that the variables electric power consumption, electricity produced from nuclear sources, and energy usage have an adversative linkage to Pakistan’s economic growth. Feasible progressive policies are required from the Pakistani government to pay more attention for tackling the energy and power sectors’ issues in terms of fulfilling the country’s energy requirements.