The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced that it will provide $9.8 million in grants to 38 states, territories and tribes to help protect the health of swimmers at America’s beaches. The agency also launched an improved website for beach advisories and closings, which will allow the public to access the most current water quality and pollution testing information for more than 6,000 U.S. beaches.
In an effort to discern fracking fact from fracking sensationalism, oil and natural gas leaders must band together for the future of energy and apply environmentally friendly chemicals to the hydraulic fracturing process.
Two decades after the United Nations established the Framework Convention on Climate Change in order to "prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system", the Arctic shows the first signs of a dangerous climate change. A team of researchers led by CSIC assures so in an article published in the latest issue of the Nature Climate Change magazine.
EPA is now seeking input on two draft wastewater discharge permits for oil and gas exploration activities in Alaska’s Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.
WaterShed, the international-prize-winning solar house built by University of Maryland students, faculty and professional partners, has found a buyer and a permanent site. Electric service provider Pepco is purchasing the high-tech building, and plans to locate it at one of its facilities in Montgomery County, Md.
Tropical sea cucumbers could play a key role in saving coral reefs from the devastating effects of climate change, say scientists at One Tree Island, the University of Sydney's research station on the Great Barrier Reef.
No-fishing zones implemented to protect the Moreton Bay ecosystem have proven their worth in light of last year’s flooding however the coral reefs and seagrass habitats are still at risk.
An international team of researchers including Dr. Bertrand Boeken of the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev suggest in a new study that plant biodiversity preservation is crucial to buffer negative effects of climate change and desertification in drylands.
Offshore wind farms could generate more than enough energy to meet Maryland’s annual electricity consumption, according to a just-published study by researchers at the University of Delaware. The potential power output is nearly double current energy demands for the state, even when taking into account various limitations on where to place equipment in the Atlantic.
As the reality and the impact of climate warming have become clearer in the last decade, researchers have looked for possible engineering solutions -- such as removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or directing the sun's heat away from Earth -- to help offset rising temperatures.
Every night millions of people go to bed hungry. New genetic technology can help us feed the world by making inedible seeds more edible, researchers say.
Nova Southeastern University (NSU) and Florida International University (FIU) researchers have drafted a plan to best prepare South Florida for an oil spill off the coast of Cuba.
Leaner, greener flying machines for the year 2025 are on the drawing boards of three industry teams under contract to the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate's Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project.
A new study comparing the carbon-holding power of freshwater wetlands has produced measurements suggesting that wetlands in temperate regions are more valuable as carbon sinks than current policies imply, according to researchers.
Innovative financing and pricing flexibility are key to preparing the nation’s aging freshwater systems to handle growing demand and environmental challenges, according to a Charting New Waters report recently released by The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread, American Rivers and Ceres.
Solar flares are giant explosions on the sun that send energy, light and high speed particles into space. These flares are often associated with solar magnetic storms known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). While these are the most common solar events, the sun can also emit streams of very fast protons -- known as solar energetic particle (SEP) events -- and disturbances in the solar wind known as corotating interaction regions (CIRs).
Japan used seawater to cool nuclear fuel at the stricken Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant after the tsunami in March 2011 -- and that was probably the best action to take at the time, says Professor Alexandra Navrotsky of the University of California, Davis.
The effects of burning on rangelands have long been debated. Although it is desirable to remove woody plants and invasive species, fire may also eliminate the native grasses that are important for raising cattle. Studying the effects of burning over a span of years can inform land managers how rangelands will respond to this type of management.
Oregon Potato Company failed to report an anhydrous ammonia release at their facility in Warden, Wash., and will pay the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a $66,235 penalty.
Over dinner on R.V. Calypso while anchored on the lee side of Glover's Reef in Belize, Jacques Cousteau told Phil Dustan that he suspected humans were having a negative impact on coral reefs. Dustan—a young ocean ecologist who had worked in the lush coral reefs of the Caribbean and Sinai Peninsula—found this difficult to believe. It was December 1974.