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Denmark's wind turbines set a spectacular world record as they alone generated over 42 percent of domestic electricity use in 2015 - the most ever done by any country.
The city of London is sued for polluting too much – about 40 times more than it should under EU (European Union) regulation. At 7AM local time last Friday, London officially breached the pollution limits set by the European Union for the entirety of 2016. It’s the fifth year in a row London has grossly surpassed […]
The slump in oil prices coincides with the highest investment in renewables ever: $329.3 billion just in 2015.
Price is one of the main road blocks in the way of getting an electric car - changing your gas guzzler for a cleaner car can come at quite a cost.
Indiana University scientists have built a highly efficient bio-material that can serve as a catalyst for hydrogen production. This material takes us halfway towards the long sought-after "holy grail" of splitting water to make hydrogen and oxygen for fueling cheap and efficient cars that run on water.
Agriculture is a very risky line of work since its inevitable once in a while extreme weather will take a huge toll on the crop yields. This is common knowledge, but the quantitative impact of droughts and heat waves has only recently been investigated in great detail. A paper published in Nature by researchers at University of British Columbia found droughts cut a country’s total crop yield by 10 percent, and heat waves by 9 percent. Floods and cold spells oddly did not affect crop production in a significant way. These effects vary from country to country and another surprising finding is that crops in developed countries suffer up to twice as many losses than those in developing countries.
According to the United Nations, 20 to 40 percent of fresh food is thrown away by farmers because they don't look as appetizing as they should to sell. Besides looking a bit crooked, twisted or shrugged, these fruits and vegetables are perfectly edible and taste no different than the perfectly shaped ones you're always on the lookout for in the supermarket.
The very hot winter of 2015 is having some unexpected consequences: squirrels are getting fat. The winter season for overindulgence has come and passed, but for these little critters in North America and Europe, it left behind a big mark. The mild climate of this winter meant that trees had lots of seeds and nuts, […]
Where do we find the space for trees in our cities with all the buildings already vying for the limited space available? Dutch collective Mothership's answer is waterways. The group plans to install the "Dobberend Bos" (Bobbing Forest) in Rotterdam's Rijnhaven harbor next spring.
The government has declared a state of emergency in the most affected areas while scientists are trying to figure out why so many babies are born with this often lethal condition.
The indispensable chemical mixture that allows the industry to fracture rock and release the gas trapped inside looks almost like a black box. More than 1,000 chemicals are used in the fracking fluid, but a paper published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology found toxicity information was lacking for 76% of them. In other words, these could be harmless or dangerous. There's no way to know at this point. Concerning the rest -- about 240 substances -- the researchers found evidence that suggests reproductive toxicity for 103 (43%), developmental toxicity for 95 (40%), and both for 41 (17%).
Archaeologists working at NOAA made a surprising discovery - they found the remains of a century-and-a-half old whaling ship
A new study from Stanford University found that the world could realistically go 100% renewable in a few decades, using only wind, water, and sunlight (WWS). Right now, we’re still a long way to go. Less than 5% of the planet’s energy demands are satisfied with renewables, but things are improving fast. “As of the end of […]
It's official - humanity has changed the Earth so much that we've basically created a new geological era, one that scientists call the Anthropocene.
As we mentioned before, the largest gas leak in history is unfolding in California, but oddly enough, few people seem to care enough or understand the magnitude of what's happening.
Columbia University researchers have successfully identified the cellular network that allows mice to remember which environments are safe and which are dangerous. The study also looks into what happens when these neurons are tampered with, offering insight into how conditions such as PTDS, panic attacks and anxiety disorders can be treated.
Throughout our hunter-forager days, humans have developed a subconscious urge to over-eat and became less and less psychologically equipped to avoid obesity, especially during the winter months, a University of Exeter study recently found.
The Chinese capital is notoriously polluted and frequently plagued by smog, a noxious gas mixture made of nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, ozone, smoke or particulates. While 2015 saw cleaner air in Beijing than the year before, the current state of affairs lack in resolution, as echoed by concerned Beijing residents. With a lot of planning, hard work and a bit of luck, this situation might change for the far better as the Beijing Environmental Monitoring Center announced it plans to cut airborne pollution by more than 200% by 2030.
Winter's here with all its holiday cheer and if you're like me, way too much food. Also something that winter's very good at is making the great outdoors cold and the small indoors even colder. But worry not because Marco Zagaria, a student at Rome's Academy of Fine Arts, promises he can make your home warm and comfortable for a measly 10 cents a room each day, without using any electricity.
A GreenTechMedia analysis forecasts that energy storage systems, like large density batteries, will become a lot cheaper in the coming years. According to the report, the cost of installing an energy storage system will drop by some 41% by 2020. Energy storage is tightly linked with renewable energy generation, driving a lower cost overall for clean energy.
These aren't Christmas lights, but the actual neural activity of Caenorhabditis Elegans, a parasitic nematode. The brain imaging was done by researchers at Princeton University, and no worm had to be cut open. Instead, the researchers used a special protein which fluoresces in response to calcium.
Everybody has to eat, but for all their efforts farmers can easily lose a year's worth of crops due to a dry season or some other freak weather event.
Scientists are pushing the non-publication of geographical data of new species in order to protect them from poachers.
The British government has announced that they will create a marine reserve almost as big as the UK in the waters of Ascension Island in the South Atlantic between Brazil and Africa. It’s good news, but it’s still a far cry from what scientists and conservationists asked for to preserve species and expand fish stocks. The […]
Research has confirmed that Henry Mountains of southern Utah are home to a rare, genetically pure bison herd. This is the only genetically pure bison herd we know of, after all other surviving members of the species were crossbred with cattle. The team that confirmed their genetic heritage included Utah State University scientists. Dr. Johan du Toit, […]
In what is likely the most underrated disaster of the year, a massive natural gas leak is taking place in Aliso Canyon, California, about 25 miles north of Los Angeles. The leak has been spewing about 62 million standard cubic feet of methane per day into the atmosphere after a well was mysteriously damaged on October 23 […]
The two largest cities in Italy have taken drastic measures as pollution levels continue to rise and smog builds up.
Ski slopes (runs) are an environmental bane, as more and more studies are beginning to show. Even after 40 years of abandonment, the environment still fails to recover on the graded slopes.
There’s almost no need to say it again – it’s been an exceptionally warm December, and an exceptionally warm year. In fact, it’s been the hottest year on record, with 7 of 11 months so far breaking the record. Things aren’t very different in the capital of the US, where temperatures have exceeded 50 degrees […]
A month ago, millions of gallons of toxic mining waste burst into the environment following a dam break in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Since then, the sludge has left behind a 500 mile (800 km) trail of polluted rivers and banks, ultimately reaching the Atlantic Ocean and marking Brazil’s worst environmental disaster in […]
In a world class display of hypocrisy, after opening up the world’s largest marine sanctuary and vowing to reduce fossil fuel subsidies, the New Zealand government has opened up a marine reserve of the world’s rarest dolphin for oil exploration – most significantly, seismic surveys. The Maui dolphin is the world’s rarest, with under 60 […]
Lions are listed under the Endangered Species Act, five months after a famous lion was lured away from a protected national park in Zimbabwe and killed by an American dentist. The decision announced by the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is aimed to help with lion conversation as it will make it increasingly difficult for hunters to bring back trophies from Africa. While it doesn't ban the import of trophies (which would've been ideal), the new ruling has been met with great enthusiasm by environmental groups around the world.
It's the bigger or charismatic of animals that get targeted by human hunters. These give off more meat, more pelt and make for better trophies. The effects of over-hunting and poaching are well documented. Most markedly, this results in extinction and ecosystem destabilization. A new study, however, adds a new frighting dimension to hunting: climate change acceleration through loss of carbon storage.
Elephant social structure is deeply matriarchal, meaning their groups look to older females for leadership. A new study looks into how, even with poaching picking their matriarchs off one by one, elephant social structures unexpectedly managed to survive.
Almost all of Costa Rica’s energy came from renewable sources in 2015, making it one of the few countries to achieve virtual independence from fossil fuels. The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) announced that the country achieved “99 percent renewable electricity generation” this year, running 100% renewable in 285 days so far. The bulk of the […]
New imaging techniques might revolutionize the technologies currently used to capture uranium from seawater, as researchers gain a better understanding of the way the compounds that bind the atoms interact with them.
Sharing and other voluntary acts of kindness are what we regard as part of our humanity – but this type of behavior exists in other creatures as well. Now, scientists working in Austria have shown for the first time that dogs exhibit prosocial behavior, if they know the other dogs. Different types of personality have […]
It's finally happening - they're selling air, and the Chinese are buying it.
2015 is set to be the hottest year on record as November smashed previous records, being 1.75 degrees Fahrenheit (0.97 degrees Celsius) above the 20th century average. As if that wasn’t enough, 7 of the first 11 months of the year broke the record, according to reports by both NOAA and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. […]
Somewhere in the Arctic, in the interior of the Greenland ice sheets, there lies a glacier like no other. This glacier quakes once every minute, more frequently than ever observed. Geologists now believe that studying these ice quakes could help them better understand how ice melts and reacts to rising temperatures and better model ice flow. […]
Blue-banded bees employ a head on approach to pollination, a group of researchers at Adelaide University showed. While other bees use their mandibles and wings to shake the pollen, this Australian native insect is all "no-hands" and bangs its head against the flowers 350 times per second -- considerably faster than any bee noticed so far.
If we want to transition to a carbon free economy, renewable energy has to be pivotal – but no matter how you look at the problem, the bottom line is always the same: efficiency. Solar only generates energy when the sun is up, the same goes for wind… there’s a big reliability issue. With this […]
Northwestern University neuroscientists have developed a method that allows them to pinpoint communicating neurons in a living fly's brain -- effectively paving the way for mind-reading. Their mapping of specific neural connection patterns could provide insight into the computational processes that underlie the workings of the human brain.
Developing countries need an astonishing amount of cash to respect the commitments made at COP21, Paris. This money needs to come from developed nations.
Citizens were against installing a solar farm because it would suck all the energy from the sun -- so plants will die.
In 2001 a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in the United Kingdom was traced back to a farmer that illegally fed uncooked waste to his pigs. It left the country's agricultural industry in tatters -- over 10 million sheep and cattle were killed in an effort to contain the disease. Later that year EU legislators banned the use of human food waste (or swill) as pig feed, a decision that is now coming under a lot of fire from disgruntled livestock farmers and the scientific community.
A crucial date, or another point in a long line of failures? History will certainly judge the Paris Climate Agreement, but until then, reactions to it have generally been positive. It’s a monumental achievement, if only for being unanimously supported. I found remarks by US Secretary of State John Kerry to be highly relevant: “For […]
The agreement in Paris is not a cure for the world’s environmental problems, but it’s definitely more than a band-aid. It provides a framework on which to build future global and national efforts, but one word came close to ruining everything. Visibly exhausted, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius cracked a smile – probably the first […]
After two weeks of marathon negotiations, hundreds of presentations and dozens of press conferences, 195 countries unanimously approved an acord that will ultimately eliminate our dependency on fossil fuels, limiting global warming to 2ºC, with an incremental goal of 1.5ºC. For better or for worse, it’s the first global climate accord after two decades of […]
With only hours remaining on the COP21 negotiations, there’s a good chance the draft we got to see yesterday will be final – with some small tweaks perhaps. Opinions have been mixed, but mostly negative about this particular draft; sure, it’s important that we get a final draft on which all parties agree, but it’s […]
