Imagine dropping fifty-seven cement caissons, each one the size of a four-story house, on miles of beach and soft coral reefs. It would destroy the marine ecosystem. Our imperfect knowledge already tells us that at least nine endangered species would be wiped out, and no one knows or perhaps can know the chain reaction.That's what is about to happen on the pristine coastline of Jeju Island, a culturally and ecologically unique land off the southern coast of the Korean peninsula. It seems motivated by the United...
It might not get as much attention as the Super Bowl, but there's a new competition in football: who can be the greenest team?
The electric-car industry has been shocked back to life in the United States. The question is whether it will thrive.
Human waste is running offshore in the Caribbean and infecting elkhorn coral -- critical habitat for other sea creatures -- with one bad bug.
After years of disagreement, NOAA's Fisheries Service has decided to list the Atlantic sturgeon as an endangered species. The listing will include five distinct populations of the fish -- four are endangered, and one will be listed as threatened.The action comes in response to an NRDC listing petition filed in 2009. Since 1998, the government has banned fishing for these ancient creatures -- they haven't changed much in 85 million years -- but recent studies have suggested the ban hasn't effectively protected them...
Whether you focus on slowing global warming or improving public health in the world's poorest countries, eliminating black carbon is a climate solution that makes even skeptics smile.
Obama’s speech touts clean energy alongside more drilling, offering something for everyone to love (and hate).
From our friends at NASA comes this amazing 26-second video, depicting how temperatures around the globe have warmed since 1880. That year is what scientists call the beginning of the “modern record.” You’ll note an acceleration of those temperatures in the late 1970s as greenhouse gas emissions from energy production increased worldwide. The data comes from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, which monitors global surface temperatures. As NASA notes, “in this animation, reds indicate...
Before winning an Oscar, Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" made its first splash at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. This year, five documentaries with green themes look to follow in its footsteps.
An Obama administration plan to cut costs by combining several government agencies may make good political sense, coming in the midst of the Republican presidential primary season, with its heated small-government rhetoric. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea from a policy perspective. In fact, the White House proposal that would move the country’s oceans and atmosphere agency -- the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) -- from its current home in the Commerce Department and fold it into the...
