The oceans may be acidifying faster today than they did in the last 300 million years, according to scientists who published a paper in the March 2, 2012 issue of the journal Science. "These scientists have synthesized and evaluated evidence far back in Earth's history," said Candace Major, program officer in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research. "The ocean acidification we're seeing today is unprecedented…a result of the very fast rates at which we're changing the chemistry of the atmosphere and oceans."
Solar-powered electricity prices could soon approach those of power from coal or natural gas thanks to collaborative research with solar start-up Ampulse Corporation at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) ) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
The World Food Program’s (WPG’s) video game Food Force invites children, and people of all ages, to complete six virtual missions that reflect real-life obstacles faced by WFP in its emergency responses both to the tsunami and other hunger crises around the world.
Denmark is a leader in implementing well-designed policies for renewable energy, energy efficiency and global climate change, according to a review of Danish energy policies published on 21 February 2012 by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Lower energy consumption for the first nine months of 2011 was reported on 16 February 2012 by the Danish Energy Agency.
Results of study on prairie grasslands show differences across the months. Does it matter whether long periods of hot weather, such as last year's heat wave that gripped the U.S. Midwest, happen in June or July, August or September? Scientists studying the subtle effects of heat waves and droughts say that when such weather events happen makes a big difference.
Scientists Dennis Bazylinski and colleagues at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) sluice through every water body they can find in Nevada looking for new forms of microbial magnetism.
Historic ‘mercury and air toxics standards’ meet 20-year old requirement to cut dangerous smokestack emissions: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, the first national standards to protect American families from power plant emissions of mercury and toxic air pollution like arsenic, acid gas, nickel, sele nium, and cyanide. The standards will slash emissions of these dangerous pollutants by relying on widely available, proven pollution controls that are already in use at more than half of the nation’s coal-fired power plants.
The drought and famine once again blighting the Horn of Africa brings with it an unwelcome reminder that for all of mankind’s achievements we are yet to eradicate the scourge of poverty or to provide clean water, sanitation or basic health care for the world’s most desperate people.
In the results of a new study, scientists explain how they used DNA to identify microbes present in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the particular microbes responsible for consuming natural gas immediately after the spill.