News and Press Releases from Inderscience Publishers

$The trouble with fracking$

The trouble with fracking

The UK may be sitting on vast reserves of shale gas accessible with today’s technology to the petrochemicals industry only through the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing, better known as “fracking”. Unfortunately for the ...

Jun. 12, 2015

Chemical security

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, ...

Apr. 15, 2015

Burying the climate change problem: greenhouse gas carbon dioxide

Burying the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, a byproduct of burning fossil fuels, has been mooted as one geoengineering approach to ameliorating climate change. To be effective, trapping the gas in geological deposits would be the for the very long ...

Apr. 13, 2015

Emission Control - Geoengineering to remove Carbon Dioxide from the Air

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 ...

Mar. 23, 2015

Better protection against floods

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 ...

Dec. 15, 2014

Urban liveability – international cities ranked

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 ...

Nov. 5, 2014

An electric drive in the country

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 ...

Oct. 9, 2014

The bottom line on sustainability

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 ...

Sep. 24, 2014

Cutting the cloud computing carbon cost

Cloud computing involves displacing data storage and processing from the user’s computer on to remote servers. It can provide users with more storage space and computing power that they can then access from anywhere in the world rather than ...

Sep. 12, 2014

Demystifying the dis-domestication of consumer products

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 ...

Aug. 18, 2014

Tapping the shale

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 ...

Aug. 1, 2014

50 Shades of Green – Corporate Greenwashing

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 ...

Jun. 25, 2014

Climate Change at The Movies

Research published in the International Journal of Sustainable Development suggests that purportedly entertaining films that feature global warming and climate change can affect public understanding. But films are often bound up in problematic and ...

Jun. 3, 2014

Developing Computer Waste

As the developing world continues to develop, standards of living and access to technology increases. Unfortunately, as personal computers, laptops and mobile phones become increasingly common so the problem of recycling and disposal of such devices ...

Jun. 3, 2014

Green Clouds on the IT Horizon

Small businesses could save up to 62% of energy costs by switching to a cloud computing system for their invoicing, according to research published in the International Journal of Business Process Integration and Management. The approach of ...

Apr. 29, 2014

Making a mess of dog walking

There are 8 million dogs in the UK, which adds up to a lot of daily walks and potential for a lot of dog faeces to be left behind. Most dog walkers are happy and even proud to bag and bin their dog’s waste, some might leave waste if they are ...

Apr. 3, 2014

Reversible logic for reverse logistics

There are several good reasons why a company might practice reverse logistics – the process of retrieving broken, worn out or obsolete items for recycling or refurbishment. These include improved public image wherein customers recognize the ...

Feb. 28, 2014

Smart phone helper for COPD patients

A smart phone and a connection to the “internet of things” could allow people with chronic lung disease to avoid risky areas where environmental conditions, pollution and weather might exacerbate their symptoms. Details of a framework ...

Feb. 4, 2014

Put a plastic bag in your tank

Researchers in India have developed a relatively low-temperature process to convert certain kinds of plastic waste into liquid fuel as a way to re-use discarded plastic bags and other products. They report full details next month in the ...

Jan. 27, 2014

Heavy metal resource warfare; the importance of supply chain management

High on the international agenda are terrorism and so-called cyber warfare and rightly so. However, there are more insidious threats to national security. For instance, communications, transport, food and water supply, healthcare and other aspects ...

Jan. 24, 2014