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Murky waters – what counts as good water quality?
Flo Bullough discusses the meaning of good and bad water quality, what’s in our tap water and what policies control the content of drinking water. Pressure on water supply and quality has been high on...
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Melting, microbes and methane: Are we about to face a carbon apocalypse?
Marion Ferrat takes a look under the frozen layers of Arctic permafrost and discusses how these soils may come back to haunt us. The vast plains of Siberian or Canadian permafrost are a sight to...
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What’s Geology got to do with it? 1 – The Maya civilisation
Geology is not just about looking at rocks. From finding oil and gas and tackling climate change to manufacturing, archaeology or geopolitics, geoscientists appear in most spheres of today’s world and...
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What’s all the Phos about?
Phosphate use for fertilisers, essential in modern agriculture, is hitting an all time high while resources are being heavily depleted. Flo discusses the background, numbers, geopolitics and potential...
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Climate change: it’s just a matter of time!
Natural or man-made: what factors are responsible for the climate changes we are seeing today? Ahead of the release of the latest IPCC report next week, Marion Ferrat discusses the different factors...
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Momentous Discoveries in Geology – The World of Nano!
I first came across the intriguing world of nanoparticles when I saw an awe-inspiring talk by nano-extraordinaire Professor Michael Hochella from Virginia Tech at the Geological Society. He wove a...
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A momentous discovery deep below: Earth’s inner core
For the Accretionary Wedge blog festival with the theme of ‘Momentous Discoveries in Geology’, Marion Ferrat discusses how a pioneering lady discovered what lies deepest inside our planet. We know a...
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What’s Geology got to do with it? 2 – Coffee
We should start this post with a declaration of interest. We absolutely love coffee. Whether it’s latte, macchiato, flat white (or cafe au lait for Marion!) we drink it everyday! So for our second...
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Raising the Dead Sea
The Dead Sea is one of the planet’s truly otherworldly places: a peculiarity of water distribution, climate and altitude, it is even more extroadinary in that it is a site of religious, cultural and...
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Radioactive waters
As the decommissioning of the damaged Fukushima nuclear power station begins, Marion Ferrat takes a look at how radioactive elements make their way to the world’s oceans – and how scientists can use...
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Climate and Policy Roundup – November 2013
From London to Warsaw and Tokyo: Flo Bullough and Marion Ferrat discuss some of last month’s hot topics in the climate and policy world. Climate and Policy News UN Warsaw Climate Talks United Nations...
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Snacking on climate
ClimateSnack is a new initiative for early-career climate scientists around the world to improve their writing and communication skills. Snackers get to write tasty climate blogs and discuss them in a...
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What’s Geology got to do with it? 3 – Christmas! Part 1
Dear Readers! Christmas is almost upon us and so at Four Degrees we decided to devote our next post in the ‘What’s Geology got to do with it?’ series to Christmas! Marion and I have selected varying...
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What’s Geology got to do with it? 3 – Christmas! Part 2
Dear Readers, Welcome to the last Four Degrees post of 2013! I’m back home with family and here the Christmas festivities happen today, on Christmas eve. So before I focus my attention on wrapping my...
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Policy Focus: 1 – Creating value from Waste
Waste and recycling is a growing issue in a world where abundant resources are diminishing. This week Flo Bullough looks at recent policy activity in the area of ‘valuing waste streams’ and the...
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Has climate change changed in the media?
Whether in a concerned, neutral, alarmist or sceptical tone, climate change is often reported in the media. But has the press approached this subject differently over the years? Marion Ferrat takes a...
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Climate and Policy Roundup – January 2014
News EU announces climate and energy goals for 2030 The European commission has announced a target to reduce its emissions by 40% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. It also stated that 27% of total...
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The Water-Energy Nexus
Flo Bullough writes on the concept of the water-energy nexus; its implications for energy and water security and the impact of climate change and future planning and regulation. I first came across...
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Towards a greener energy world?
Marion reports on the latest Grantham Institute for Climate Change special lecture by International Energy Agency Chief Economist Dr Fatih Birol. On January 29th, I attended the Grantham Institute for...
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The wet with the dry: The geology of Siwa Oasis
Flo takes us on a photoblog-trip to Siwa Oasis in Egypt where epic sand seas meet freshwater springs, saline lakes and sulphurous hot pools! Siwa Oasis, adapted from Google Earth. The blog’s going on...
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