Plants absorb carbon dioxide and exhale Oxygen. They are a major part of the global cycle. The global uptake of carbon by land plants may be up to 45 per cent more than previously thought. This is the conclusion of an international team of scientists, based on the variability of heavy oxygen atoms in... 

Mineral deposits can create jobs, industry, wealth and potentially pollution. It could help stabilize a war torn country such as Afghanistan. Working with the Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO), members of the USGS Minerals Project assessed fuel- and non-fuel... 

New Zealand is looking to exclude the use of U.N. offsets from industrial gas projects in its emissions trading scheme from as soon as 2012, as these offsets threaten to distort the market, the government said on Friday. Climate change minister Nick Smith said he wanted to maintain the integrity of the... 

Oil pollution doesn’t have to kill fish to have a long-term impact, according to a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Researchers found that Gulf killifish (Fundulus grandis) that had been exposed to very low to non-detectable levels of oil contamination... 

With climate change, the world is generally getting warmer –- but not in a slow and straight line. Instead, many models show that weather is simply becoming more unpredictable and possibly more volatile, with more severe storms, more severe droughts and more peaks in all kinds of weather extremes.... 

The biggest polluters in the world are known to be the United States of America and China. In 2007, China overtook the United States for the dubious role of world’s greatest carbon emitter. However, because the United States is so much wealthier per capita than the People’s Republic, individual... 

As the world , much less the climate, changes, species must change and move too. A species ability to overcome adversity goes beyond Darwin’s survival of the fittest. In a new study based on simulations examining species and their projected range, researchers at Brown University argue that whether... 

by Jess Zimmerman. Oh man, you're probably wishing you hadn't spent that $4,500 on a Rick Perry head planter yesterday. If you'd saved it, you could have put it towards … well, a bag of onions, but also they'll throw in some dirt! The Pawelski family farm, located in New York's... 

by Jess Zimmerman. Trees, man! They produce oxygen, they cool the planet , they  Read More →

by Jess Zimmerman. If you have ever thought to yourself “self, I wonder what are the 50 most hipsterish bike tricks,” wonder no more. Not sure how I feel about “the Hitler” — guys, that one is historically not really funny? — but you gotta love the “Def Leppard... 

by Jess Zimmerman. This Japanese site sells ice cube molds depicting penguins and polar bears sitting on ice floes. As the ice melts, both the floes and the critters are destroyed, making this a pretty good simulation of the effects of global warming. Finally, a product that combines climate education... 

by Christopher Mims. Existing geothermal power plants are powered by a hot brine from deep within the earth's crust, which is just lousy with dissolved minerals — literally “half the periodic table,” reports Scientific American . One of those elements is lithium, which can be extracted... 

by Christopher Mims. Like all urban parks, Central Park cools New York City through evaporation. That is, its plant life and ponds give off moisture, which takes heat energy with it. It's as if the park sweats. Until recently, though, we didn’t know whether green spaces cool the planet as... 

by Jess Zimmerman. This bike, designed by custom bike maker Tony Pereira, took top prize in an Oregon Manifest competition to design the perfect urban utility cycle . Pereira's bike is intended as a transitional vehicle for people trying to make the switch from cars. It includes a stereo, a front-mounted... 

by Sarah Laskow. If you thought you were melting over the summer, just be glad you're not an ice sheet that's been chilling out since before Europeans settled in Canada. Over the summer, two huge Canadian ice shelves in the Arctic shrunk down precipitously, report scientists from the University... 

by Sarah Laskow. MIT created an ” artificial leaf ” that recreates photosynthesis. In Germany, they've got so much wind-generated electricity, they’re giving it away . Driving 75 mph isn't fuel efficient , ahem, Maine. Austin's going to be the largest local government using... 

There are many worlds out there and NASA has a lot of data that it has not reviewed in the depth that is needed to search every star for its worlds and the evidence there of. A project in which volunteers hunt online for new planets NASA may have missed is publishing its first results which show some... 

The ’503 Application is entitled Alkaline Earth Metal Ion Battery and is directed to an alkaline earth metal ion energy storage cell (10) which contains three liquid constituents: two liquid electrodes and a liquid electrolyte. More particularly, the cell (10) houses a molten metal body (14) that serves... 

In many cities air pollution is reaching levels that threaten people’s health according to an unprecedented compilation of air quality data released today by WHO (World Health Organization). The information includes data from nearly 1100 cities across 91 countries, including capital cities and... 

Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reached an all-time high in 2010, rising 45% in the past 20 years. Rising rapidly between 1990 and 2010, global atmospheric CO2 levels totaled 33 billion metric tons last year, according to a report published by the European Commission’s Joint Research Center and...