Two researchers have reprised in the journal Energy Policy their groundbreaking finding that improvements in lighting — from candles to gas lamps to electric bulbs — historically have led to increased light consumption rather than lower overall energy use by society.
The design firm Perkins+Will has released what it calls the first-ever report on asthmagens and asthma triggers in building materials and products.
NOAA and the Interior Department's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement have expanded the online mapping tool used by emergency responders during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response to include the Arctic, calling this step important for any response needed in the region.
Forests hammered by windstorms, avalanches and wildfires may appear blighted, but a Washington State University researcher says such disturbances can be key to maximizing an area's biological diversity.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded five grants totaling almost $2 million to academic institutions for research on innovative processes to further improve air quality in the U.S. and help track the effectiveness of pollution control measures.
Microbes, sponges, and worms -- the side effects of pollution and heavy fishing -- are adding insult to injury in Kenya's imperiled reef systems, according to a recent study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Azores.
Stony Brook University scientists have found that the disposal of contaminated wastewater from hydraulic fracturing – commonly known as “fracking” – wells producing natural gas in the Marcellus Shale region poses substantial potential risks of river and other water pollution that suggests additional regulation to reduce the potential of drinking water contamination.
A new statistical analysis by NASA scientists has found that Earth's land areas have become much more likely to experience an extreme summer heat wave than they were in the middle of the 20th century.
In some isolated clinics in parts of Africa, the electricity needed to power lights and medical devices is generated by expensive imported diesel fuel; the water supply can be so cold in winter that health workers can’t even wash their hands properly. But a startup company established by a team of MIT students and alumni aims to change that.
One of the most invasive species on the planet is able to source food from the land as well as its usual food sources in the water, research from Queen Mary, University of London has found.
A new study of North American songbirds reveals that birds that live with fluctuating weather are more flexible singers.
William Morgan, the former supervisor of Royal Oak Township, a suburb of Detroit, was sentenced in federal court to three years in prison. Mr. Morgan had previously entered a guilty plea to charges that he conspired to defraud the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), violate the Clean Air Act’s asbestos requirements, and commit bribery.
The popularity of fluorescent lamps and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) is steadily growing in the industrial, commercial and residential markets. However, they can also be potentially dangerous because of their mercury content.
An international team of scientists involving researchers from the University of Adelaide has used ancient DNA from bones of giant extinct New Zealand birds to show that significant climate and environmental changes did not have a large impact on their populations.
U.S. proved crude oil and natural gas reserves achieved record annual volumetric increases in 2010 according to U.S. Crude Oil, Natural Gas, and Natural Gas Liquids Proved Reserves, 2010, released today by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Cass Sunstein and the office he heads, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the White House Office of Management and Budget, have more to do with the enactment of federal regulations than any other participant in the process.
A team of international scientists, including a researcher from The University of Western Australia, has found that soil erosion, land degradation and climate change pose a mounting threat to coastal reefs and their ecosystems in the western Indian Ocean.
Researchers have taken a new look at an old, but seldom-used technique developed by the petroleum industry to recover oil, and learned more about why it works, how it could be improved, and how it might be able to make a comeback not only in oil recovery but also environmental cleanup.
Many simple models of plant response to warming climates predict vegetation to find cooler and/or wetter locations, generally moving upslope from their current positions. However, the mechanisms explaining species-specific responses to changes in temperature and water availability are most likely much more complex, according to researchers at Texas Tech University and the United States Geological Survey.
A study published in the journal Nature shows that tropical vegetation, including palms and relatives of today’s tropical Baobab trees, was growing on the coast of Antarctica 52 million years ago.