Take inspiration from these 20 tough and determined desert plants surviving alone in harsh environments where the earth is parched and water is seldom seen. This is just a brief summary, please visit Environmental Graffiti to see the full, formatted version of the article
New Jersey's barrier islands typify environmental change under the forces of nature, but responding to such change may be more feasible than trying to challenge it. This is just a brief summary, please visit Environmental Graffiti to see the full, formatted version of the article
Ten abandoned World War II fortifications captured in such evocative and oddly serene photographs that they look like the surviving ruins of some ancient civilization. This is just a brief summary, please visit Environmental Graffiti to see the full, formatted version of the article
New road-legal flying cars may well ease long-distance commutes. Just how high-flying will the worker of tomorrow be? This is just a brief summary, please visit Environmental Graffiti to see the full, formatted version of the article
Two video reports of a Northern Snakehead fish in Burnaby, British Columbia in May 2012 raised concerns that Canada will be the next victim of this "Frankenfish". This is just a brief summary, please visit Environmental Graffiti to see the full, formatted version of the article
Africa represents roughly 3% of projects worldwide under the UN's Clean Development Mechanism. A combination of better investments to be found elsewhere (particularly in China and India), regional risks such as corruption and political unrest, and overall investor uncertainty towards the continent has kept Africa an also-ran in global carbon markets. Ye […]
For most Europeans, it would be hard to find the Federated States of Micronesia on a map. But the small Pacific island nation is trying to punch above its weight. The country -- with a population of 110,000 spread across more than 600 islands -- is challenging the refit of a coal-fired power plant in the Czech report, according to Reuters. Micronesia says th […]
Global leaders woke up in Copenhagen on Dec. 17 to find a blanket of snow covering the ground. But it was inside the Bella Center—the conference hall where delegates from 192 countries are trying to hammer out a climate change deal—where things were really frozen. With less than 48 hours before the summit closes, policymakers were still at logger […]
This entry is cross-posted from Europe Insight. With protestors staking out the climate talks and politicians continuing to point fingers at each other, one issue isn't getting much play in Copenhagen—yet it could make or break a deal to tackle global warming. Simply put, trade is becoming a central sticking point at the Copenhagen talks. That may […]
This entry is cross-posted from Europe Insight. Snow was thick on the ground in Copenhagen on Dec. 16, but that didn't put off thousands of protestors who tried to force their way in the climate change negotiations. With colorful posters and anti-global warming chants, they had started off early from the Danish capital's city center. But near the B […]
After a year of modeling and simulation, 15 university teams will spend the next 24 months retrofitting 2013 Chevrolet Malibu cars into electric vehicles.
The company hopes to do away with conflict-tainted tantalum by the end of 2012, with validation for gold, tin and tungsten targeted for late next year.
When the first generation Prius was launched over a decade ago, it was a niche product. Most people didn't know what a 'hybrid' car was supposed to be, and potential buyers were very suspicious of the car's reliability and safety.
The tuatara, an iconic New Zealand reptile, chews its food in a way unlike any other animal on the planet -- challenging the widespread perception that complex chewing ability is closely linked to high metabolism.
A novel technique using stable hydrogen isotopes —- a chemical fingerprint found in tissues such as hair —- has enabled researchers to determine where hibernating bats originated. Knowing that could help predict and ultimately manage the spread of white-nose syndrome.
Loss through melting and iceberg calving during the last 10 years is unusually high compared to the last 50 years. The Greenland ice sheet continues to lose mass and thus contributes at about 0.7 millimeters per year to the currently observed sea level change of about 3 mm per year. This trend increases each year by a further 0.07 millimeters per year. The p […]
Children exposed to high levels of the common air pollutant naphthalene are at increased risk for chromosomal aberrations (CAs), which have been previously associated with cancer. These include chromosomal translocations, a potentially more harmful and long-lasting subtype of CAs.
Folditure‘s Leaf chair is the world’s thinnest luxury folding chair combining high-tech components with age-old artisanal craftsmanship. With the release of a button, the elegant streamlined form of the Leaf transforms into a super-slim design made for easy storing, with the ability to hang in closets. At less than ¾ of an inch when folded, [...]
Read the rest of Ross Lovegrove Unveils Spectacular Solar Tree in London For Clerkenwell Design Week Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: artemide, clerkenwell design week, eco design, eco-art, green art, green design, Ross Lovegrove, solar art, solar panels, solar tree, sustainable artwork, sustainable design
Bluefin Tuna photo from Shutterstock Low levels of radiation from last year’s Fukushima Diaichii disaster in Japan have been discovered in bluefin tuna swimming of the California coast. Scientists say the trace amounts are not necessarily harmful to people if consumed, and were far less than safety limits the Japanese government has established. But th […]
Read the rest of Nissan Recycles 40 Gas Pumps Into Guitar Amps, Juke Boxes, PacMan Games and More! Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: A World Without Petrol, eco design, electric vehicles, green design, James Dive, Nissan Leaf, Recycled Materials, sustainable design, Upcycled gas pumps
The increasing power of employees in corporate social responsibility programs and initiatives is evident in employee commitment and engagement, as well as retention and hiring.
a Chicago-based environmental group sent out a tweet over the rumor of a pay-to-protest ad that was posted on Craigslist by an alleged “astroturf group" offering cash and a t-shirt to attend an EPA hearing.
Triple Pundit teamed up with The Can Van to better understand the connection between two of our favorite topics: sustainability and beer! With each new industry professional we met, and every brew we enjoyed, it came as no surprise that our appreciation for beer deepened.
The access economy, also known as collaborative consumption, is characterized by the sharing of goods, space, services and expertise, in innovative ways; typically through an online platform. This idea of sharing instead of owning represents a disruptive shift in the consumer conscious, one that could transform the economy as we know it.
Guest post by Kelly Levin, WRI; Paul Higgins, AMS; Brian Helmuth, University of South Carolina; and Andy Dessler, Texas A&M Scientists have made massive progress in understanding the climate system and how human activities are altering it. Despite that progress, decision makers continue to struggle with climate change risk management. RealClimate and oth […]
In the Northern Hemisphere, the late 20th / early 21st century has been the hottest time period in the last 400 years at very high confidence, and likely in the last 1000 – 2000 years (or more). It has been unclear whether this is also true in the Southern Hemisphere. Three studies out this week [...]
This is just a brief note to point out that a few graphs that I have put together showing Ocean Heat Content changes in recent decades had an incorrect scaling for the GISS model data. My error was in assuming that the model output (which were in units W yr/m2) were scaled for the ocean [...]
When my kids were younger, they asked me why the ocean was blue. I would answer that the ocean mirrors the blue sky. However, I would not think much more about it, even though it is well-known that the oceans represent the most important source for atmospheric moisture. They also play an important role for [...]
Guest commentary by Beate Liepert, NWRA Clouds and water vapor accounts for only a tiny fraction of all water on Earth, but in spite of it, this moisture in the atmosphere is crucially important to replenishing drinking water reservoirs, crop yields, distribution of vegetation zones, and so on. This is the case because in the [...]
Civil engineers from MIT have completed a study in which they have determined that vehicle fuel consumption could be reduced by as much as 3 percent by having stiffer roads. Looking at the way forces interact between the tire and the road, the researchers conclude that, "This has the effect of making the tires on the vehicle drive continuously up a slig […]
Geoengineering is the term used to describe large-scale engineering projects meant to manipulate the planetary environment (usually in order to address climate change). Two items related to this topic are covered in this week's SciShow. The first story notes that scientists in Italy are preparing to examine the supervolcano in the Campi Flegrei Caldera […]
The 'fuel' used to generate power from the sun or the wind is, of course, emissions free. But we realize that it is necessary to look at more than just the fuel input in evaluating the total impacts of various technologies. Life-cycle analysis (LCA) goes beyond the operational comparison and also looks at the impacts of creating the equipment to ha […]
A significant regulatory hurdle has been cleared in the development of wind power along the eastern shore of the United States. The Department of the Interior announced a finding of no competitive interest for the proposed Mid-Atlantic offshore wind energy transmission line. The Atlantic Wind Connection has been under development for a couple of years with c […]
Morocco is a country that is bursting with solar power potential -- it gets 3,000 hours a year of sunshine -- but it relies heavily on the import of fossil fuels. That may be turning around with plans for a 500 MW solar complex to include solar PV and concentrating solar installations and a larger goal to reach 2,000 MW of installed solar power capacity by 2 […]
Want to be a force for positive change – and look good doing it? A company called Wear Your Intention, which creates organic apparel printed with messages of peace, hope, faith and love, is donating 100% of the profits of their Changing the World Limited Edition T-Shirt to Haiti earthquake relief efforts. The American Red Cross [...]
Walk into store full of gadgets and home goods, and you’re generally hard-pressed to find things like clocks, radios, calculators and lighting made with something other than plastic or unsustainably produced metal. If you do manage to score something made of wood, it’s probably a holdover from the paneling-obsessed 70s – not exactly stylish. A company [...] […]
In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan's brought the world the Geigergram, the open source Geiger counter gadget, and now the world's first radiation-sensing cell phone, according to local media reports.
Dell showed off a box that contains 48 ARM-based servers, joining others making boxes with processors that uses the same architecture as the chips inside your cell phone. The server consumes less power and could find a home in web servers and Hadoop clusters.
Kurion, a startup that has developed technology that cleans up nuclear waste and is one of the most successful cleantech firms you haven't heard of, has been acquiring more cleanup tech.
Can the startup accelerator model work for battery companies? The folks behind CalCharge, the brainchild of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF) that hopes to attract some 30 battery companies in the San Francisco Bay Area, think so.
From the editors at PCMag.com we're proud to introduce the AntiSpyware Center! This new Web resource serves up-to-the minute news on spyware threats alongside the information you need to protect yourself against them. Product reviews, feature articles, how-tos and tips will help you prepare for and prevent catastrophe. Visit today!
Ever wonder how the people in contaminated regions of Eastern Europe cope today with the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of a quarter century ago? I spent the last week of April in contaminated areas of Ukraine, as part of a group of parliamentarians and journalists commemorating the April 26, 1986 nuclear catastrophe. And I talked with many everyday citizens who […]
LOS ANGELES — The troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant operated for three decades with equipment that might have temporarily cut off the plant's emergency power supply in the event of an earthquake, government filings revealed Tuesday. The disclosure by Southern California Edison about a possible backup power problem comes amid a probe into exc […]
May 5 marked the shutdown of the last of Japan's 50 viable nuclear reactors, with poor prospects for any restarts before the summer. The central government, the nuclear industry, most big business associations, and many international observers seem convinced that this will invite chaos through escalating fossil fuel costs and the risk of blackouts. […]
On the first day of Hurricane Season, June 1, a certain unease creeps into the city of New Orleans. Residents begin checking the weather forecasts for low depression spots, the harbingers of monster storms. And they start thinking about levees partly because shortly after the devastating flood during Katrina, the New Orleans Times Picayune reported that annu […]
In the big hard region known as Appalachia, routinely maligned or mythologized as some single vision backwater in the American Dream, a long line of acclaimed poets has regularly astonished a national readership by drawing on the rich cultural treasury and diverse bevy of voices that transcend any map or media images. Nonetheless, it takes a dazzling new cha […]
Imagine if Mitt Romney's sons burned through their entire family fortune in less time than it takes to watch Titanic in 3D. That would be crazy, right? But that's exactly what we're doing when it comes to energy: we're burning our inheritance instead of collecting our income. We don’t normally see it expressed in these terms. Yet a […]
When it comes to negatively impacting the environment, airlines have been doing perhaps more their fair share for many years now. In recent years, there has been more pressure put on the airline industry from legislators trying to protect the environment, and the carbon emissions tax in Europe is adding real pressure to their need to do something real.Some h […]
The smoke rising from a cookstove fills the air with the tantalizing aroma of dinner and a cloud of pollutants and particles that threaten both health and the environment. How families in developing countries use their cookstoves has a big effect on emissions from those stoves, and laboratory emission tests don't accurately reflect real-world ope […]
Researchers at four of the country's leading universities are embarking on a low carbon engineering project that could transform the way cities are built, as well as the way we live in them, by taking a novel 'back-casting' approach to their study.
A majority of California's coastal planners and resource managers now view the threats from climate change as sufficiently likely that practical steps on the ground need to be taken to protect against growing threats, according to results from a new survey published by Stanford University's Center for Ocean Solutions (COS) and the California Sea Gr […]
Emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide reached an all-time high last year, further reducing the chances that the world could avoid a dangerous rise in global average temperature by 2020, according to the International Energy Agency, the energy analysis group for the world's most industrialized states.
(Phys.org) -- As Alberta faces increasing pressure to make the oil industry more sustainable, one University of Alberta researcher may have found a natural solution to a problem that has been plaguing oil companies for years.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Monday revealed the details of her line-item veto to proposed changes to the country's Forest Code, which governs how much forest landowners are required to preserve. Rousseff vetoed a dozen clauses of the revised Forest Code and modified several others. The bill now goes back to the Chamber of Deputies, followed by […]
Fifteen conservation groups have banded together to save around 2,400 hectares (6,000 acres) of primary rainforest in Guatemala, home to a dozen imperiled amphibians as well as the recently discovered Merendon palm pit viper (Bothriechis thalassinus). The new park, dubbed the Sierra Caral Amphibian Reserve, lies in the Guatemalan mountains on the border with […]
A researcher in Malaysia has captured footage of Oriental pied hornbills (Anthracoceros albirostris) raising chicks in an earthen jar in the Kenyir rainforest of Malaysia. The first video shows the father Oriental pied hornbill feeding the chicks, while the second shows a chick leaving its nest.
Last year global carbon dioxide emissions rose 3.2 percent to a new record of 31.6 gigatons, keeping the planet on track to suffer dangerous climate change, which could propel global crop failures, sea level rise, worsening extreme weather, and mass extinction. According to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), China's carbon emissions rose t […]
Economic growth alone may not raise happiness, according to a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy Science (PNAS). Despite a stunning economic growth rate of around 10 percent per year over the last two decades, China's people have not seem a big boost in their overall life satisfaction.