World Nature Conservation Day observed

In 1997, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared July 28th as World Nature Conservation Day. The purpose was to emphasize the significance of nature conservation and sustainable practices for the well-being of the planet.

Bangladesh observed the day aims to raises awareness about protecting nature and conserving natural resources to save the earth from the dangers of adverse impacts of climate change.

Climate uncertainty a biggest challenges for agriculture
Climate uncertainty is one of the biggest challenges in agriculture today. The Green Revolution of the 1960s focused on improving yields under normal conditions. Now the focus is shifting to risk management: maintaining reliable harvests despite erratic weather. For farmers, avoiding catastrophic losses during bad years can mean a difference between surviving or losing their business.

Bid to turn mixed plastics into hydrogen fuel
Researchers co-led by the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and Ewha Womans University in South Korea have demonstrated a chemical process that converts a mixture of three widely used plastics into high-purity hydrogen fuel. The method operates at substantially lower temperatures than conventional gasification and stores the carbon as a solid mineral instead of releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said that the center on alkaline thermal treatment (ATT), in which heated sodium hydroxide reacts with organic material produces hydrogen. 

The researchers adapted that method for plastic waste and used it in laboratory tests on PET, PE, and PP. It generated considerably more hydrogen from PET while running at temperatures 300-400 degrees Celsius below those required for traditional steam gasification.

Climate-resilient roads in the offing
Every year from June to September, South Asian countries experience the monsoon season, while the visible heavy rainfall often takes the blame for many roads requiring repairs much sooner than expected, a far less visible yet critical force is at play long before the first raindrop falls on the road.

As an effort to tackle this issue, researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) have used machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence, to develop a framework that can support the development of tailored rigid pavements in a climate-resilient and region-specific manner.