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According to a new study released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), tiny solid and liquid particles in the atmosphere, resulting from human and natural pollution, have kept the Earth from warming at the estimated level. The reduction of global warming effects by stratospheric aerosols has been significant for the past dozen years, […]
Recently, researchers from the Texas A&M University have returned from a trip which had the purpose of estimating the extend of this year’s “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. They have currently measured it to about 3,300 square miles, which is roughly the size of “Rhose Island and Delaware combined”. However, researchers estimate it […]
The northern white-cheeked crested gibbon is running out of places to live in – literally. Perhaps the only habitat they can still find in the whole world is located deep in the wilderness of Vietnam, according to Conservation International. The organization conducted a census, and found that the biggest population by far is located there, […]
Of all the despicable things I thought possible going on around the Amazonian Rainforrest, using an extremely powerful chemical agent on the forest would’ve never crossed not even the darkest region of my conscious. It’s indeed petrifying what the human mind can conjure up for profit. Agent Orange is the chemical in question, and is […]
In the past decade, it seems that greenhouse has emissions have remained constant each year, despite no important improvements were made – on the contrary CO2 levels have increased dramatically. The reason, reports a team of academicians who sought to explain the bafflement, after tweaking a statistical model to include sulfur emissions, is that coal […]
There isn’t any news for anyone, I hope, that the Earth is on the heater right now, and as time passes and gas emissions in the atmosphere rise, you should be thinking about ordering that air conditioning faster. Yes, glaciers are melting, and like I mentioned before scientists have projected an increase in sea levels […]
Climate change and over-fishing are held responsible for the swift collapse of coral reefs and the propagation of mass extinction among marine life. According to the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), which presented the study this Tuesday to the U.N., the Earth is faced with its biggest spate of mass extinctions […]
The river Ganges has literally been at the center of Indian life for thousands of years, both socially and spiritually. Millions of people have been fed, bathed and enlightened by it. It’s a sacred river, regarded as the most important stream in Hindu mythology – it’s also very dirty. The Ganges is considered to be […]
Acording to a report released by the UN on Sunday, a transition to a low carbon, green and ressource efficient economy requires an annual investment of $40 billion anually, which amounts for only 0.034 per cent of global GDP. If the measures included in the report are adopted, the investment would “halve deforestation rates by […]
More and more countries are seeking to ban or at least limit the use of plastic bags or have already done so, and the latest government to go for this smart, eco-friendly move is the Republic of Congo. The African nation has just recently passed a bill in which the production, import, sale and use […]
It’s a black period for Brazil’s environment, and things will get even worse in days to follow; the government just applied a reform of the forestry code which will make it extremely easy to cut down massively on the rainforests in Brazil. Money money money After several delays and a desperate, but outnumbered resistance, the […]
Due to weeks of continuous heavy rain, coupled with a runoff from an unusually snowy winter, thousands of homes and over 3 million acres of farmland in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas have been flooded. In a desperate attempt to save neighboring large cities from the floods, U.S, Army Corps of Engineers are working day and […]
Various animals and plants faced with the danger of extinction may be one step closer to making the official endangered species list, which according to the Endangered Species Act puts them under government protection, as part of a legal settlement plan announced on Tuesday by the government and environmentalists. Under the agreement, species that the […]
It is no longer a question if multi-meter sea level rises will happen, but only of when. According to the latest estimate from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme it seems the accelerated climate change in the Arctic including a thaw of Greenland’s ice could raise world sea levels by up to 1.6 meters by […]
When Biosphere 2 was launched in 1991, the idea seemed to be absurd. A few years after that, it suddenly seemed to be a great idea, and the results were eagerly awaited; but the results didn’t came… Biosphere 2: the making The point was to make a terrarium, connect it with some other enclosures, and […]
An international research team is in the land of snow and ice, in search of soot or black carbon, in an effort to judge whether or not it is responsible for the alarming rapid warming in the area lately. The research team includes scientists from Norway, Russia, Germany, Italy, and China, whose members are working […]
The continuous expansion of human cities are forcing habitats, as well as plants and animals, to retreat more and more; however, more and more often there is nowhere else to retreat. As a consequence, plants and animals alike face extinction, and cannot escape this grim fate. Out of the 1,357 plant species that once thrived […]
It’s incredible what some people manage to build simply by turning something that’s overpassed its use into something useful again. A perfect example of this is this incredible studio built entirely out of former cargo containers located deep in the Mojave Desert. The home designed by architect Walter Scott Perry of ecotechdesign out of was […]
In light of recent catastrophic events that plagued Japan, and the consequent nuclear crisis recently raised to level 7 on par with Chernobyl, the talk of the day in every scientific and political circle seems to be that of nuclear safety. Armenia’s 31-year old only nuclear power plant located in Metsamor is one of the […]
In an attempt to combat commuter and residential pollution, architect and product designer Wyatt Little came up with a very interesting concept called the U-Boat which tries to capitalize on urban body waters (rivers, lakes etc.) and utilize them as ‘off the grid’ marina style living spaces. It’s basically a boat-house-thingy, but with tremendous green […]
The ozone layer in the arctic regions has suffered unprecedented damage this winter due to cold weather in the upper atmosphere. By the end of March 40% of the ozone in the stratosphere had been destroyed, compared to the previous record of 30%. The European Space Agency, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as well […]
By means of a new mathematical model, scientists have been able to calculate the displacement of ice in glaciers along the years. This was achieved by using the spread of glacier debris and the lines where vegetation starts on the mountainsides to create a series of calculations determining the amount of ice that has melted […]
You might think that this isn’t quite the best time in the world to announce a nation wide nuclear plan, with the Japan double tsunami/earthquake incident which lead to the consequent Fukushima nuclear crisis and all, but South African officials don’t seem to let nature intimate them. As such, South Africa’s cabinet ratified a controversial […]
It gives me great pleasure to see some points of view the governor of California has; here’s what he had to say about solar panels, simple and short: “Asking whether large solar power plants are appropriate in the Mojave desert is like wondering whether subways make sense in New York City.” This is hands down […]
A Monash University grad student has managed to create a simple, sustainable and affordable water purification device with the potential to save an incredible number of lives and eradicate diseases. The Solarball, as it is called, was developed by Mr Jonathan Liow as his final year project in his Bachelor of Industrial Design can produce […]
Even though it will cost a whooping $845.000, I for one welcome the appearance of this kind of Porsche; why ? Because it will definitely change the mind of many who believe that hybrids are all about economy and the environment, and nothing about performance. Because if Porsche can do one thing, they do fast […]
With all the big fuss regarding the nuclear power plant problems in Japan, everybody seems to be throwing rocks at atomic energy, without taking a look at long term benefits and problems. I stumbled across this chart, published over at Next Big Future that takes a look at how many deaths came as a result […]
Oh, it’s this topic again ! It seems for some reason, which eludes me, more and more people are buying and drinking bottled water, even if the tap water is usually perfectly fine – and 1900 (!) times cheaper. About 2.7 million tons of petroleum-derived plastic is used for making bottles every single year only […]
Numerous oil fields that could become an extremely valuable resource in the US and in the world have been out of reach ever since they were discovered; but that is all about to change thanks to a new drilling method that is currently being developed. The new drilling could help reduce oil imports for the […]
Pollution can take numerous and unexpected shapes; one of the not-so-deadly, but still extremely unpleasant types is noise pollution. You probably don’t notice it because it’s so common, but it’s a really noisy world out there; if for a few days you were to go somewhere far away from all the fuss and noise that […]
A week before the UN Copenhagen climate summit, a disheartening new study conducted by scientists from University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, along with the University of East Anglia, shows that the world greenhouse gas emissions could reach record high in 2010, outranking the previous 2008 high. The data supports the idea that as […]
When Al Gore’s famous documentary film “An Inconvenient Truth” was released it was intended to sensify the public towards the impeding danger of global warming. What it did in turn was to sprout panic and institute panic worldwide by stating that only an immediate, draconian response will save our planet from almost certain doom. Of […]
The problem of a water shortage has been on the table for quite a while now, and as time passes, it is becoming more and more of a probability. Especially the United States and other heavily populated and industrailized countries are threatened by this issue. A detailed analysis conducted by National Center for Atmospheric Research […]
The San Andreas fault is notorious for its unstable seismic nature, being the center stage for America’s most devastating earthquakes as well as the object of imagination for different artists. We’ve all marveled and even laughed at movies, magazines or comic books depicting scenes like a earthquake ravaged L.A. or a newly formed island state […]
The race for oil drilling is tougher than ever, and the effects are quite often extremely damaging for the environment (I’m sure pretty much everybody knows about the BP oil spill already). However, the UN has come up with an initiative, the first of its kind, that promises to protect at least a handful of […]
I’m not sure if most of you are aware of this, but consider this: there are only 3,200 tigers left in the world! Almost three times fewer than there were 10 years ago and more than 30 times fewer than 100 years ago (back then 100.000 tigers roamed freely through Asian jungles. This includes the […]
To be quite honest, I was never really fond of the man, but ever since he quit his executive positions at Microsoft, I’m starting to like him more and more. The reason is not that he’s giving money away, but the causes he’s giving the money for. I’m not really sure how practical this idea […]
I had some serious thought on whether to write this or not. It’s not a paid post or anything, and quite frankly, I’ve never owned anything from Puma. But I was absolutely thrilled to find out about their initiative to replace the shoe boxes with reusable bags. It’s exactly this kind of small thing, but […]
Well I have to say, I’m really thrilled about the Winter Olympics that have just started, and even though they don’t get as much hype as the Summer Olympics, they still attract tens of millions viewers (or even more). It’s also really great to see they’re being held in a city like Vancouver. Why am […]
Just a short while ago, I was telling you about the extremely worrying decline of the Siberian tigers (and not just them). It’s obvious that if nothing changes, the odds are they’ll be going extinct, perhaps even during our lifetime (which is the case for numerous mammals, actually. Russia and a dozen other Asian countries […]
Mankind is screwing up. I’m sorry, that’s just the way it is. Not taking care of our natural resources, polluting and destroying habitats, it’s obvious that we, as a species, made some pretty big mistakes, the combined effects of which will come back to haunt us (and already are). But that’s not to say that […]
I was writing a while ago that major biofuel production is not really that far away and the good news is things seem to be moving in that direction. The importance of biofuels has been underlined as a possible solution to fight the crisis, but the big problem was that creating such alternative fuels required […]
Most of the talk about global warming revolves around carbon dioxide, sometimes giving the false impression that it alone is responsible for global warming and all its implications. However, numerous studies have revealed a new enemy, one almost as dangerous as carbon dioxide: soot. The black powdery pollutant is responsible for numerous climatic shifts, especially […]
A new bacteria that has been named Herminiimonas glaciei, found in the heart of Greenland, trapped under more than 3 km beneath the ice, probably holds significant clues regarding what life forms may exist on other planets, according to Dr Jennifer Loveland-Curtze and a team of scientists from Pennsylvania State University. They published this finding […]
A previously unknown volcanic eruption was uncovered by scientists at the University of Leeds. It’s believed that this massive eruption took place 260 million years ago in South West China and released half a million cubic kilometers of lava covering a land mass the size of Great Britain and destroying marine life everywhere throughout the […]
Once the first transplant was conducted the entire history stated to change and since then science has broken a lot of barriers. Now scientists are preparing to create synthetic life forms (don’t think about badass creatures half robots half reptiles, it’s all about bacteria) in order to stop our dependence on fuels (so in a […]
In case you didn’t know, today is Earth Day and this year we are celebrating it for the 39th time. If you gladly supported Earth Hour this is a great new opportunity to show that you do care about the environment and that you believe in a sustainable future ( see here how). If you […]
Earth Hour is an initiative started by the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature/World Wildlife Fund) that asks people everywhere in the world to turn off the light and other unnecessary household appliances for one hour, to raise awareness towards the need to tackle global warming and other environmental problems. The “grandfather” was an idea […]
Whenever we hear something about the Dead Sea, we immediately think about the deepest point on Earth and, of course, about salt…a whole lot of salt. However, all these may soon become part of the history as the sea is shrinking at an alarming level and according to researchers from the University of Technology in […]
It’s obvious that one of the biggest challenges the president elect has to face is rejuvenating the infrastructure; let’s talk about traffic jams for a bit. Everybody hates them, we all want to avoid them, but they exist. They are an unintended consequence of personal driving. Some transportation planners often speak about the fact that […]
