A hydrogen advocate whose time may have come. Advocating for hydrogen cars has been, at times, a lonely profession, because fuel-cell vehicles have long been just around the next bend. But several major automakers have committed in recent months to hydrogen car production by 2015. New York Times 2012-02-03T09:00-05:00
Innovations in light. Today, about 1.5 million people in Africa use solar lamps. That’s a huge number - but it’s less than 1 percent of the potential market. New York Times 2012-02-03T09:00-05:00
Green walls create new urban jungles. Vertical gardens are cropping up all over cities these days, transforming drab urban facades into vibrant jungles of color. A recent creation erected on the side of Edgware Road Underground station in central London is hoping to improve air quality. CNN 2012-01-31T09:00-05:00
Low-carbon cement paves a development path (or sidewalk). Carbon emissions from cement are set to grow explosively as developing countries such as India create a "first-world" infrastructure. Scientists and entrepreneurs are struggling to push alternative technologies out of the lab and onto the street. Daily Climate 2012-01-23T09:00-05:00
Revived photo collection shows America during EPA's infancy. "Documerica" is a project U.S. EPA commissioned 40 years ago to document the state of the environment when EPA was a fledgling agency. The project captured the country before most federal regulations, before widespread recycling and the controversy over "green energy." Greenwire 2012-01-19T09:00-05:00
Pushed to brink, swans rebound with help from global warming. Hunted to near extinction in the 19th century, the trumpeter swan is taking advantage of warmer, longer summers to expand its range and numbers - one of the few good news stories of global warming, at least for now. Daily Climate 2012-01-18T09:00-05:00
Goats being used, instead of pesticides in Eastham. Eastham, which took the lead opposing wind turbines and banning NStar from spraying, is making waves with another first: the use of goats to control vegetation, perhaps on NStar’s right of ways so that the utility won’t have to use toxic sprays. Cape Codder 2012-01-07T09:00-05:00
American eagle is soaring again thanks to Canadian wings. The bald eagle - the U.S. national bird and a species on the brink of extinction in the lower 48 states just a generation ago - is now thriving again in the heartland of the American Revolution thanks to a series of transplants from Canada. Montreal Gazette 2012-01-07T09:00-05:00
A youngster's bright idea is something new under the sun. A new way of collecting solar energy has polarized scientists around the world and ignited fierce debate on the Internet, where the innovator in question has been called everything from an alien to the agent of a global conspiracy. The scientist, Aidan Dwyer, is 13 years old. Wall Street Journal 2012-01-06T09:00-05:00
Building a ‘knowosphere,’ one cable and campus at a time. Whatever term you use, it’s clear that the world is quickly being knitted by new ways to share observations and shape ideas that are bound to have profound impacts on the quality of the human journey. New York Times 2012-01-05T09:00-05:00
Habitat goes green and saves new residents some green. Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organization tht built 4,800 homes in the United States and Canada last year, as undertaken a national effort to build low-energy homes that are both affordable and green. Habitat homeowners say it's paying off. USA Today 2012-01-04T09:00-05:00
Saving Amazonia: Winning the war on deforestation. For years, the story told about the Amazon has been one of destruction - the world's largest rainforest, a region of amazing biodiversity, key to the fight against climate change, being remorselessly felled. But that is no longer the whole truth. BBC 2012-01-02T09:00-05:00
Sharpening the focus on local climate change. "How will change affect me" is perhaps the most challenging question facing climate scientists. New "downscaled" climate models are providing ever-more-detailed glimpses of the future. But uncertainties will always remain, and making decisions despite the unknowns, scientists say, is the crux.
2011-12-30T09:00-05:00
In Philippine slums, capturing light in a bottle. Volunteers and local government workers have a plan to hang low-tech solar light bulbs in 1 million homes. The bulbs are actually discarded plastic soda bottles filled with water and wedged in a hole cut in the roof. The makeshift bulbs give off about 55 watts of light. There is no electricity involved. All Things Considered 2011-12-29T09:00-05:00
A farm lives high and clean off the hog. Duke University helped a North Carolina farm turn tons of manure into electricity and fertilizer in what it says is one of the the cleanest waste-to-energy systems in existence. The farmer saves money and gets a cleaner farm. Duke and Google, which helped fund the project, get carbon offsets. Los Angeles Times 2011-12-25T09:00-05:00
Popemobile goes green. Pope Benedict XVI’s popemobile may be getting an ecological upgrade. Young car designers participating in an annual auto style competition are being asked to design a low-emission popemobile that meets the Vatican’s high security standards. Associated Press 2011-12-25T09:00-05:00
The eagles have landed (in northern Kane). In counts in Illinois last year, 100 nesting pairs were spotted across the state, and as many as 1,000 bald eagles have been counted along the Mississippi near Alton during the winter. Elgin Courier News 2011-12-25T09:00-05:00
Trucking trout to their native streams. In an innovative conservation effort, biologists on the Clark Fork River in Idaho and Montana are using genetic testing to help get bull trout back to their natal streams to spawn. At Clark Fork, fewer than 200 of the native salmonids run each fall due to mineral mining, dewatering and the construction of dams. New York Times 2011-12-23T09:00-05:00
Treasury building earns a green honor. Folks at the Treasury Department deal with a lot of green — and now they officially work in a green building. Department officials announced that its 142-year-old headquarters, located next to the White House, has earned a LEED Gold certification, making it the oldest building in the world to earn the distinction. Washington Post 2011-12-23T09:00-05:00
Eagles making a return to North Jersey. A bald eagle couple that recently began nesting near Overpeck Creek helped set a milestone as 113 pairs of the iconic bird were found across the state this year, the most ever recorded. Bergen County Record 2011-12-23T09:00-05:00
Bat scientists see ray of hope in white nose fight. For unexplained reasons, scientists across the Northeast have been finding isolated colonies of little brown bats — once the most common bat species in the region and the hardest hit by white nose syndrome — surviving and healthy. Associated Press 2011-12-21T09:00-05:00
Planting wind energy on farms may help crops. America's corn belt overlaps with its central "wind belt," a wide swath of the midsection of the United States that is ideal for wind energy development – an intersection that could be good news for corn, new research suggests. National Geographic News 2011-12-20T09:00-05:00
Facing rising seas, islanders call on their music. The applause was raucous. The dancers breathless. But cloaked in the music was a message. Stymied in global climate negotiations, three tiny Pacific island nations used songs and dances to plead for action. Daily Climate 2011-12-19T09:00-05:00
EPA cleans up 10,000th yard in Nebraska. Twelve years into its cleanup of lead-contaminated soil in eastern Omaha, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday announced that it had passed a major milestone, cleaning up its 10,000th yard. Omaha World-Herald 2011-12-16T09:00-05:00