Most literary representations of climate change focus upon its tangible effects: destructive storms and floods; melting glaciers rising sea levels; wildfires, droughts species extinctions. It is much less common, however, for writers to confront the primary causes global warming: mining burning fossil fuels over course more than two centuries, from dawn industrial capitalism present. This essay...

Western Research Institute is developing a new pyrolysis process called ROPE© (Recycle Oil Pyrolysis and Extraction) for recovering products from tar sands that require a minimum of upgrading to produce finished, marketable fuels or that can be used as a diluent to decrease the pour point of bitumen for transportation. The concept consists of two pyrolysis steps: (1) retorting tar sand at a low...

Tailings produced during bitumen extraction from surface-mined oil sands ores (tar sands) comprise an aqueous suspension of clay particles that remain dispersed for decades in tailings ponds. Slow consolidation of the clays hinders water recovery for reuse and retards volume reduction, thereby increasing the environmental footprint of tailings ponds. We investigated mechanisms of tailings conso...

PROVIDENCE – Brown’s Public Health Research Day in April took on a sense of urgency as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse delivered a sobering lecture on climate change and its effects on public health “in a time of unprecedented carbon release in the air and oceans.” Introduced by Brown President Christina Paxson, Senator Whitehouse delivered the annual Dr. and Mrs. Frederick W. Barnes Jr. Lecture on the...