All Environment
- Evaporation: the overlooked alternative energy source?
So-called evaporation engines could add another stream of renewable power to a diversified energy strategy, researchers say. But the technology has a way to go – and some questions to answer – before it can be deployed.
- Quicker than expected, auto industry revs up for an electric-car future
Some experts project electric vehicles could make up more than half of car sales by 2040, projections that GM, Ford, Volkswagen, Chinese automakers, and others are taking seriously all of a sudden.
- First LookConservationists say indigenous perspectives could aid global climate policies
A Swedish funded initiative hopes to include indigenous voices in the worldwide environmental discussion. The goal is to use the intimate environmental knowledge held by indigenous groups to create more effective climate policy worldwide.
- Progress WatchConservation success: Buoyed hopes for sea turtles
After half a century of conservation efforts, scientists are seeing long-term growth in some populations of the globe’s seven species of sea turtles.
- DIY do-gooders direct Caribbean disaster relief efforts
Want to help Puerto Rico recover? Amateur analysts of satellite imagery around the world are pointing relief workers to where they are needed most. Anyone can do it!
- EPA's big shift: Will Scott Pruitt fundamentally change environmental protection?
The EPA administrator appears to be initiating a more dramatic overhaul of the agency than the typical course correction seen with changes in presidential administrations, historians say.
- First LookUS solar companies ask for protection from foreign imports
The US International Trade Commission is hearing proposals from US based solar companies that would like tariffs imposed on foreign panel makers. While the cheaper foreign panels have benefited customers, the low prices have hit domestic solar manufacturers hard.
- Using outer space to help cool buildings on Earth
Using a phenomenon known as radiative sky cooling, a team of Stanford researchers has developed rooftop panels that could be used to passively cool buildings.
- Where Romulus suckled, wolves roam again
Rome's founder was suckled by a she-wolf, but Canis lupus has not been spotted there for a century. Now a small pack has made its home near the airport.
- First LookChina sets ambitious goals for new energy vehicle sales
China takes another step toward reducing pollution and reaching its goal of a total ban on traditional fuel cars. China hopes that the new energy cars will make up 10 percent of all car sales by 2019, a goal that has been met with some support by automakers.
- Sowing common ground: Botanical gardens tell the story of climate change
Botanical gardens aim to empower visitors to see climate change in their own backyards.
- In the West, communities pioneer cooperative approach to fighting wildfires
Instead of having understaffed towns try to do their own research in the middle of an emergency, the FAC Network offers a cooperative model where communities can share best practices and get help quickly.
- First LookUN solution for a pollution free planet: polluters should pick up the bill
Finding paths of progress toward a greener planet shouldn't be left to governments alone, businesses play a key role in developing new technologies, says executive director of UN Environment.
- Conservatives and conservationists find common ground on Chesapeake shores
To many Americans, conservatism and environmentalism are mutually exclusive ideologies. But to residents of Virginia's Middle Peninsula, the two go hand-in-hand.
- Can resilience planning be disentangled from climate politics?
While discussion of climate change remains highly polarized, another topic is getting not just traction, but meaningful action across the political spectrum: resilience planning.
- It's a small world after all, say scientists warning of sand scarcity
Out of the complexity of the global sand trade has emerged something of a butterfly effect, in which an economic decision in one place can wreak social and environmental havoc on the other side of the world.
- First LookLegally sourced chocolate could help end deforestation in West Africa
The spread of illegal cocoa plantations, which supply beans to popular candy brands, have caused widespread deforestation across much of the Ivory Coast's protected land reserves. The solution lies in the hands of consumers: buy fair-trade chocolate.
- FocusInside Morocco's renewable revolution
In taking on the role of a green leader among developing nations, Morocco struggles to balance its investment in the future with the needs of today.
- Beyond Harvey: Does the US need to rethink flood management?
Many of the residents bailing out their homes in the wake of hurricane Harvey live in areas with no history of flooding. That's because our ideas about flood risk are based on 'an obsolete assumption,' experts say.
- As skies clear over Houston, a nation takes stock
While the full extent of the devastation has yet to be determined, the resilience of those affected – and those helping – is abundantly evident.