News and Articles


U.S. Cities with the Greenest and Least Green Car Shoppers

Cars.com, an online resource for buying and selling new and used vehicles, compiled a list of U.S. cities with the most and least eco-friendly car shoppers. The site looked at search data from its millions of site visitors and determined that, based on their searches for vehicles that get more than 40 mpg, California shoppers are the greenest in the U.S., and Southern states are the least green.

Mobile Lab Takes Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technology on the Road

Take some galvanized nails, vinegar, soda pop and copper wire, piece them together just right, and what do you get? A battery.

Mild Winters Are Detrimental to Butterflies

The recent mild winter throughout much of the United States was a cause for celebration for many. However, butterfly aficionados shouldn't be joining in the celebration.

Sunlight, Lime Juice Make Drinking Water Safer, Study Says

Researchers found that adding lime juice to water that is treated with a solar disinfection method removed detectable levels of harmful bacteria.

Lead Dust is Linked to Violence

Childhood exposure to lead dust has been linked to lasting physical and behavioral effects, and now lead dust from vehicles using leaded gasoline has been linked to instances of aggravated assault two decades after exposure, says Tulane toxicologist Howard W. Mielke.

EPA's List of Top 50 Green-Powered Organizations

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released an updated list of the Top 50 Green Power Partnership organizations voluntarily using clean, renewable electricity from resources such as solar, wind, and low-impact hydropower. Intel Corporation tops the list as the largest single user of green power, followed by Kohl’s Department Stores and Microsoft Corporation. Combined, the Top 50 partners are using more than 15 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually.

$20 Million Available for Clean Diesel Projects

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced the availability of up to $20 million in FY 2012 grant funding to establish clean diesel projects aimed at reducing harmful pollution from the nation's existing fleet of diesel engines and improving air quality and Americans’ health.

New Poll Finds Americans Want Less Population Growth 40 years After Government Called for Stabilization

Forty years after a multi-year bi-partisan government commission recommended slowing U.S. population growth and eventually stabilizing, Americans still would like to see it happen, according to poll results to be released this weekend at the 2012 Earth Day Dallas festival.

Save Big on Heating, Cooling Costs with Efficiency Controls

U.S. commercial building owners could save an average of 38 percent on their heating and cooling bills if they installed a handful of energy efficiency controls that make their heating, ventilation and air conditioning, also known as HVAC, systems more energy efficient, according to a recent report from the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Researchers Waste-to-Energy Technology Moves from the Lab to the Marketplace

Technology invented by a University of California, Davis, researcher that converts solid waste into renewable energy recently debuted as the first commercially available, high-solid anaerobic digestion system in the United States.

Mount Hope Bay Seek "No Discharge" Designation to Stem Boat Pollution

EPA is evaluating a proposal from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to designate the state waters of Mount Hope Bay as a “No Discharge Area.”

Up to $20 Million Available From EPA for 2012 Great Lakes Restoration Projects

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that it is requesting applications from states, municipalities, tribes, universities and nonprofit organizations for new projects to restore and protect the Great Lakes. EPA will distribute approximately $20 million through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant program during Fiscal Year 2012.

New Research Suggests Metal Oxides Hold the Key to Cheap, Green Energy

Harnessing the energy of sunlight can be as simple as tuning the optical and electronic properties of metal oxides at the atomic level by making an artificial crystal or super-lattice ‘sandwich,’ says a Binghamton University researcher in a new study published in the journal Physical Review B.

Can Sound Science Guide Dispersant Use During Subsea Oil Spills?

Two years ago this week, oil began streaming from the seafloor into the Gulf of Mexico following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon platform. All told, the disaster cost 11 lives, released 4.9 million barrels of crude oil, and caused still unspecified impacts to marine life and the Gulf economy.

Shark-Dive Tourism in Fiji Worth U.S. $42.2 Million a Year

A new analysis by the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the University of Western Australia concluded that in 2010, shark-related diving contributed $42.2 million ($73 million Fijian) to the economy of Fiji. Shark-diving operations generated $4 million that year for Fijian communities through salaries and local levies.

New Study Links Air Pollution and Early Death in the U.K.

In a study appearing this month in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, MIT researchers report that emissions from cars, trucks, planes and powerplants cause 13,000 premature deaths in the United Kingdom each year.

Deadly Jellyfish Weapons Unraveled

Heidelberg researchers have succeeded in unravelling the defense mechanisms of jellyfish. Scientists working with Prof. Dr. Thomas Holstein and Dr. Suat Özbek from the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) of Heidelberg University, together with collaborators from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), analyzed the proteome, or full set of proteins, of the stinging cells in the freshwater polyp Hydra.

Planned Dams in Amazon May Have Largely Negative Ecosystem Impact

The Andean Amazon is becoming a major frontier for new hydroelectric dams, but an analysis of the potential impacts of these planned projects suggests that there may be serious ecological concerns to take into account. The full report is published in the open access journal PloS ONE.

EPA Orders AVX Corp. to Clean Up New Bedford Harbor

EPA has issued an enforcement order to AVX Corp. to implement the ongoing cleanup work at New Bedford Harbor, including dredging PCB-contaminated sediment from the Harbor and disposing the dredged sediment to an appropriately licensed off-site facility, into a confined aquatic disposal cell in the Harbor, and into confined disposal facilities to be built along the shoreline.

Natural Clothing with Solar Power Chargers In the Works at Colorado State University

Colorado State University apparel design and production researchers and students are working to develop natural-fiber outdoor clothing that can charge MP3 devices, tablets, computers, GPS units and cell phones with built-in -- but comfortable to wear -- solar panels. The project is so impressive that it was recently selected to compete in a sustainability design competition in Washington, D.C., from April 21-23.