Climate change presents us with a stark challenge: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero much faster than we have done so far, or to face the increasingly catastrophic consequences of an inexorably warming planet.
More and more scientists, policymakers and members of the public are recognizing nuclear as a critical part of decarbonized energy systems.
Climate change presents us with a stark challenge: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero much faster than we have done so far, or to face the increasingly catastrophic consequences of an inexorably warming planet.
More and more scientists, policymakers and members of the public are recognizing nuclear as a critical part of decarbonized energy systems.
...the Chornobyl accident
...the Chornobyl accident
...the Chornobyl accident
Climate change and our water
Seventy percent of our planet is covered by water, but most of that water is salty, frozen in glaciers or deep underground. Water scarcity affects every part of the globe.
In a world of around 8 billion people, 2 billion lack safe drinking water and 3 billion lack adequate sanitation. Climate change is exacerbating the situation, causing water shortages and extreme droughts in some areas, and floods and heavy rainfall in others.
As the global population grows, water scarcity is expected to worsen, leaving nearly half of us in water stressed areas as soon as 2025. Protecting our water supply is a major priority. To do that, it’s crucial to know how much water we have, how it is replenished, how vulnerable it is to pollution, how long its supplies last and how climate change affects those supplies.
How can atoms help answer these questions?
Water from different locations has a unique composition of isotopes — forms of an element that vary in atomic mass and physical properties. These ‘fingerprints’ reveal key information about the origin and age of water, as well as the path it has travelled through the different stages of the water cycle.
Atomic data can also identify any pollutants, such as heavy metals, chemical fertilisers and pharmaceuticals that contaminate water supplies.
