Microsoft is helping to protect one of Madagascar's most pristine rainforests, after buying a block of carbon credits from the government.
The IT giant confirmed last week that it has invested an undisclosed sum in the Makira REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation 'plus...
Bottlenose dolphins with missing teeth, lung disease, and abnormal hormone levels were found swimming in the Gulf of Mexico a year after the BP oil spill, US researchers say.
Pneumonia, liver disease and a pregnant female carrying a dead foetus were also reported in the first major study of dolphin...
No place on Earth is heating up faster than the Arctic, but just how fast has remained an open question due to large gaps in temperature data across the vast region. Now, a recent study in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society finds that not only is the Arctic warming e...
High on the icy, windswept plateau of East Antarctica an international team of scientists is about to assemble a time machine. First stop: back to the era when Christ was born.
If all goes well, the Australian-led team hopes to eventually retrace one-million years of atmospheric history by drilling...
Was it a case of crossed wires, or a Freudian slip? That’s the question at the heart of McDonald’s latest PR dilemma. Last week, the fast-food chain took down its employee resource website after it discovered that the information its page designers were using was actually telling employees it wasn’t...
NOAA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announce the opening of a 90-day public comment period on the agencies’ proposal to disapprove the State of Oregon’s coastal nonpoint pollution control program. The two agencies have found that Oregon’s program falls short in three key areas. U...
When the rain stopped falling in Texas, the prairie grass yellowed, the soil cracked and oil drillers were confronted with a crisis. After years of easy access to cheap, plentiful water, the land they prized for its vast petroleum wealth was starting to dry up.
At first, the drought that took hold ...
Is typhoon Haiyan linked to climate change?
As the devastating storm has only just happened, it is too soon for any research to have been done on whether global warming influenced typhoon Haiyan. But there are good reasons for expecting that it has (see below). Furthermore, the tools...
Once a rare delicacy served to honored guests, shark fin soup had become so popular among China's fast-growing elite in recent years that it was pushing some shark species close to extinction.
Now, there is fresh hope for sharks around the world. The demand for shark fins has plunged, providing a r...
Portland has been factoring bicycling into integrated urban, suburban, and even rural transportation, development and sustainability plans. In 2003, city leaders and transit authorities launched a public campaign to encourage residents to bike, walk and make greater use of public transportation. The...
Climate change may push canopy-dwelling plants and animals out of the tree-tops due to rising temperatures and drier conditions, argues a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The development may be akin to "flattening" the tiered vegetation structure that characterizes the rain...
Massive flooding has made the streets of Boulder impassable and destroyed multiple homes in Boulder County, according to Officer of Emergency Management officials.
One person was killed in Jamestown when a structure collapsed because of the flooding, the OEM said.
The National Weather Service has ...
Clean water and soap may help improve growth in young children, according to a new report by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and WaterAid.
Researchers observed how water, sanitation, and hygiene impacted the physical growth of 9,469 children under the age of five in Bangladesh,...
How to Shop Smart and Buy Healthy
Now that organic produce and healthier food options are more readily available than ever before, it has made grocery shopping that much more confusing in the process. With the availability to buy everything from out of season fruit to fair trade chocolate to T-shir...
Despite occupying just 0.03% of the planet’s surface, the region’s lush forests are home to an incredible 500 thousand unique organisms — representing over 4% of all the known species on Earth. For the hundreds of animals held captive in the country’s zoos, however, that hotbed of life had been repl...
A rise in sea levels threatens the viability of more than 1,400 cities and towns, including Miami, Virginia Beach and Jacksonville, unless there are deep cuts in heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, says an analysis out Monday.
Prior emissions have already locked in 4 feet of future sea-...
Yesterday at a press event in London, two food writers took a bite into the world's most unusual hamburger. Grown meticulously from cow stem cells, the hamburger patty represents the dream (or pipedream) of many animal rights activists and environmentalists. The burger was developed by Physiologist ...
When we flip on a light, we rarely think about water. But electricity generation is the biggest user of water in the United States. Thermoelectric power plants alone use more than 200 billion gallons of water a day – about 49 percent of the nation’s total water withdrawals.
La...
Last month I had the opportunity to visit Dillingham, Alaska — a town with no traffic lights, no movie theatres, and a population that could fit comfortably in a single New York City high-rise. I had to fly there, because no roads lead to Dillingham. Although the town isn’t quite the western edge of...
