Global warming

Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
Due to technological advancement, energy consumption and demand have been increasing significantly, primarily satisfied by fossil fuel consumption. This reliance on fossil fuels results in substantial greenhouse gas emissions, with CO₂ being the most prominent contributor to global warming. To mitigate this issue and prevent CO₂ emissions, Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) technologies are employed. Among these, the amine scrubbing method is widely used due to its high CO2 capture efficiency and regenerative ability. However, this method has drawbacks, including high toxicity, corrosion, and substantial freshwater consumption.
To develop an environmentally sustainable carbon capture solution, researchers are exploring alternatives such as the use of seawater and enhanced CO2 capture with catalysts. In this study, we analyze the catalytic performance of nickel nanoparticles (NiNPs) in seawater with carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) polymers. Using flow-focusing geometry-based microfluidic channels, we investigated CO₂ dissolution at various concentrations of nanoparticles and CMC polymers. The objective is to optimize the concentration of nanoparticles and CMC polymers for effective CO₂ dissolution. We utilized NiNPs with diameters of 100 nm and 300 nm in CMC concentrations of 100 ml/L, 200 ml/L, and 300 ml/L. Additionally, NiNP concentrations ranging from 6 mg/L to 150 mg/L were tested for CO₂ dissolution in seawater. The results indicated that a concentration of 10 mg/L NiNPs in 100 mg/L CMC provided a CO₂ dissolution of 57%, the highest for this specific CMC concentration. At CMC concentrations of 200 ml/L and 300 ml/L, NiNP concentrations of 70 mg/L and 90 mg/L achieved CO₂ dissolution rates of 58.8% and 67.2%, respectively.
Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
Corporations such as Exxon Mobil and environmentalist groups such as Greenpeace realize the potential of the Internet from a public relations standpoint. They have taken their industrial and oppositional discourse about global warming online through campaigns meant to appear motivated by grassroots impulses but which, as in the case of Exxon Mobil, are often motivated by profit. This study combines rhetorical and media studies approaches in performing semiotic analysis of online texts related to global warming. It concludes that corporations and environmentalists are making innovative use of this new medium in communicating their respective ideologies, but that corporate texts reflect signs and strategies that obscure their sources' primary locus on profit and are, consequently, less transparent.
Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
This qualitative study examines whether microblogging illustrates or contradicts the longstanding notion that the Internet allows for greater public participation in important issues, thus potentially expanding public sphere. The study analyzes 5 years of tweets about climate change between ExxonMobil and Greenpeace USA using a new hybrid, or blended methodology that combines Kenneth Burke's rhetorical analysis of cluster-agons with eight physical attributes of the Internet that Marshall Poe identified as influential in pushing societies and ideas in new directions. Clusters are also examined using Grace Poh Lyn's reflexive analysis. Additionally, the analysis also considers the use of agitative and control strategies, discursive tensions between freedom and domination, and the rhetorical use of public vernaculars. Analysis of the tweets reveals that business organizations that at first glance or in theory seem to be at odds actually share common discursive practices. They communicate about the same issues at the same or similar times using the same language for the same primary purpose-survival of the organization-while giving the impression that they are working for the good of their respective publics for environmental causes or the bottom line, or even both. The researcher concludes that although there are specific cases of microblogging in which the public benefits to some extent, those gains are either very short-lived or are more likely to exist in theory rather than practice due to the fluid nature of microblogging as well as continued organizational missteps which I call "corporate ejacking."