Source: OPG website
Many energy conservation programs are driven by the goal of reducing carbon emissions. But air quality is also an important factor to be considered when implementing energy conservation programs. Dr. Andrew Knox, who works with CLEAResult, spoke at the SOCAAR Seminar on February 7th about the value energy conservation can provide to reducing air quality externalities. Continue reading
Photo source: CANUE
Canada is an urbanized country with over 80 per cent of Canadians living in urban areas and growing numbers of new immigrants that tend to settle in urban areas. To meet the need to learn how to design and modify cities to improve population health, the Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE) was established in June 2016. Continue reading
Source: Toronto Star
Black carbon (BC) particles are generated through incomplete combustion processes including combustion of fossil fuels and biomass. These two sources are most commonly from vehicles and residential wood burning for heating. BC has an overall warming effect on the global climate and long-term exposure to it has been associated with cardiopulmonary mortality.
Dr. Robert Healy, Senior Environmental Officer at The Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, spoke about the Ministry’s work on assessing the sources of fossil fuel and biomass burning black carbon in Ontario at the SOCAAR Seminar on November 30th, 2016. Continue reading
Source: CBS
Source: Slices of light/Flickr
The flow of carbon between the atmosphere, oceans, and land is known as the Carbon Cycle. The cycle is influenced by changes in carbon sources and sinks: fossil fuel burning; land use changes; plant respiration and photosynthesis; ocean uptake and release. Carbon sources and sinks can be quantified and monitored for long term trends from atmospheric measurements of carbon dioxide.
Dr. Debra Wunch, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto’s School of the Environment & Department of Physics, presented the global and urban measurements of greenhouse gases at the October 5th SOCAAR Seminar.
Continue reading
Photo source: Wikipedia
The Athabasca deposit in Alberta is the largest oil sand in the world and is a powerful source of Canadian energy. Over the last decade a lot attention has been paid to the environmental impacts of oil sands production. Primary emissions associated with oil sands activities have been the focus of past research but less is known about the reaction products of these emissions to the atmosphere. In the SOCCAR Seminar held on September 14, Dr. Liggio, a research scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Air Quality Research Division, presented his research on the formation of organic acidity and secondary organic aerosol from oil sands activities. Continue reading
The adoption of fuel efficient engines like the spark ignition gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine has gained popularity recently because of increasing regulations on CO2 emissions from fuel combustion. In 2011, the United States Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards tightened to reduce CO2 emissions. Between 2009 and 2015 sales of new vehicles with GDI engines have increased from five to 46 per cent in the United States, as an alternative to the traditional port fuel injection (PFI). It’s projected that by 2020 over 50 per cent of vehicles will be equipped with GDI engines.
New research from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering show how GDI engines may emit lower levels of CO2 but more black carbon, a climate-warming pollutant. Continue reading
Photo source: Conventional to Conscious blog
Air pollution is the leading global environmental health risk factor according to the World Health Organization. Implementing policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions can also reduce the outdoor levels of air pollutants that harm human health by targeting the same emission sources. Dr. Rebecca Saari, an Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo, presented the relationship between climate policies and health co-benefits at the SOCAAR seminar held on March 2, 2016. Continue reading
Photo credit: Julia Burkart
It’s well known that the Arctic climate is influenced by anthropogenic contributions like heating during the winter and regional sources in the summer. But the chemistry of the aerosol environment and its influence on the cloud formation over the Arctic is less understood. Dr. Julia Burkart and Megan Willis, a postdoctoral fellow and Ph.D. student respectively, at the University of Toronto’s Department of Chemistry presented findings from their NETCARE summer aircraft campaign in Resolute Bay, Nunavut at the SOCAAR Seminar held on November 5. Continue reading
Dr. Roberto Guardani, a professor at Brazil’s University of São Paulo, gave a special SOCAAR Seminar on October 16, 2015 on the air quality monitoring studies of the São Paulo Metropolitan Area.
The unstable meteorological conditions due to São Paulo’s proximity to the sea makes it difficult to predict the pollutant levels in the area. But Guardani and his research team have worked closely with São Paulo’s Environmental Authority to develop various statistic models to predict ground-level air pollutants from industrial emissions. In his talk, Guardani identified ozone to be the main pollutant in São Paulo, which behaves independently from other pollutants like SO2. He also presented the usage of a neural network-based statistical model, consisting of meteorological variables, to predict the ozone levels and maximum ozone concentrations across the city. Continue reading
