Inderscience Publishers news

Land, labour and capital resource-related requirements, as well as significant regulatory and financial barriers are preventing more farmers from adopting an important renewable energy technology – Anaerobic Digestion, or Biogas to give it its shorthand name – according to research published in the International Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain Modelling.

Animal manure, grass, maize and waste vegetable matter from farms can be converted into a methane-based

The slow implementation of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) in the USA as part of homeland security and anti-terrorism measures is leaving chemical plants vulnerable and putting at risk the safety of American citizens, according to research published in the International Journal of Critical Infrastructures.

Maria Rooijakkers and Abdul-Akeem Sadiq of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, at Indiana University-Purdue University, in Indianapolis, explain t

The notion of global warming was first mooted by French scientist and mathematician Joseph Fourier in 1824 and discovered by John Tyndall in 1860, he and later, Svante Arrhenius, pinned down the mechanisms. It is perhaps deceived wisdom that Arrhenius was the first to suggest that Sweden might once again be able to grow tropical fruit, such as bananas with a little geo-engineering, but Alexander Graham Bell in 1917 suggested that the unchecked burning of fossil fuels would force the ver

Hurricanes are devastating. Aside from the high, sustained wind speeds, they usually bring with them heavy rain, which can quickly lead to the breaching of flood defences in susceptible areas. Now, US and UK researchers have reviewed hurricane flood defence barriers and technologies with a view to helping engineers find improved designs.

Writing in the International Journal of Forensic Engineering, Haijian Shi of Pepco Holdings in Washington DC and Kong Fah Tee of the De

An international study has devised a new measure for the “livability” of major cities across the world. The Global Liveable Cities Index (GLCI) takes into account the sensibilities of ordinary working people from 64 cities, balancing work and play, environmental awareness, localism, globalism and many other factors. Details are published in the World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development.

According to Tan Khee Giap of the National University of Singapor

Electric vehicles in towns and cities are not the answer to pollution problems and climate change, but they might help country folk reduce their carbon bootprints. Researchers in the UK are questioning the received wisdom regarding the promotion of electric vehicles in towns and cities. Writing in the International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, they suggest that the evidence of benefits in terms of energy usage and emissions points to electric vehicle use in sub-urban and r

Climate change, pollution, dwindling natural resources, diminishing fresh water supplies…the list of problems we face as a species in the twenty-first century continues to grow. Many of the environmental problems are sadly our own doing and yet therein lies the solution. We must halt the devastation, reverse the problems. Now, sustainability associate Kaushik Sridhar of the Net Balance Management Group in Sydney, Australia, suggests that enough is enough. Writing in the International J

Prolonging the lifespan of products is vital in order to decouple economic success from environmental impact, according to Marie Hebrok of the National Institute for Consumer Research (SIFO) in Oslo, Norway. Writing in the Journal of Design Research she is developing a theory of dis-domestication of products that should help inform designers and manufacturers as to the social perspective on how consumers dispose of products as that product becomes obsolete.

Conspiracy theories often c

Growth in scientific knowledge seems to lead to an exacerbation in debate over politically sensitive issues rather than resolution? Nuclear power, global warming, vaccination, creationism, fracking…the list goes on.

There are at least two possible explanations. First, controversies arise because of the complexity of nature. Secondly, politics and power drive the debate. The result is that on any given issue there is not only the complexity

When governments, organizations or corporate entities have made a mistake, we often hear that the problems that arose were covered up; there was a whitewash. The term alludes to a relatively quick, easy and cheap way of painting over the cracks in a wall. Today, we also have “greenwashing”. Greenwashing is the environmental equivalent of sweeping problems under the carpet and papering over the cracks (to mix a metaphor or two). Worryingly, it is on the increase.