I heard a really good talk about lifecycle analysis (LCA) yesterday that took wind energy as an example, and examined the overall ecological footprint associated with an individual large turbine. On average, about 7.8 megawatt-hours of energy goes into extracting the materials, forging the pieces, transporting, assembling (more…)

From reducing mobile source emissions, to connecting households to drinking water and wastewater services, to clean-up efforts of streams and canals, the United States and Mexico have made a joint effort to protect both human health and the environment in their shared 2,000 mile border region. (more…)

A new study finds that nearly one-quarter of the world’s population lives in regions where water is being used faster than it can be replenished. Using computer models of global groundwater resources and water use data, scientists from Canada and the Netherlands calculated that the planet’s “groundwater footprint” — the area above ground that relies on (more…)

Aging and diseased trees emit significant amounts of methane into the atmosphere, a phenomenon that may be contributing to global climate change, a new study says.

In samples collected from a forest in northeastern Connecticut, researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies found that some (more…)

Climatologist James Hansen released a report today that suggests that the probability that this summer’s extreme weather events are caused by anything other than human-caused climate change is extremely low. It comes on the heels of Bill McKibben’s recent article pointing out that mean global temperature have exceeded the 20th Century average for 327 (more…)

Last time I talked about why energy matters (obviously for the internet). Today I’ll look at one half of the energy efficiency incentive package… or why we should care about saving energy (as if preserving talking cat videos was not enough of a reason).

Electricity is the cheapest form of power in most (more…)

A new NASA study calculates that nearly 64 million tons of dust, pollution, and other tiny particles enter the atmosphere above North America from other continents each year, nearly as much as the 69 million tons of aerosols produced domestically through natural processes and human activities. (more…)

The earth’s oceans and lands continue to absorb more than half of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity, suggesting that the planet has not yet reached its carbon storage capacity even as emissions continue to rise, a new study says.

Writing in the journal Nature, U.S. scientists calculate that the world’s natural systems — including seas, (more…)

U.S. meat, poultry, and dairy producers are urging the Obama administration to suspend a quota for corn-based ethanol production, warning that the renewable fuels standard could trigger a food crisis as a prolonged drought pushes corn and soybean prices to record levels. (more…)

A team of British and Australian scientists has discovered an important carbon sink from water drawn down from the surface of the Southern Ocean to the deep waters beneath. The Southern Ocean is an important carbon sink in the world — around 40% of the annual global CO2 emissions absorbed by the world’s oceans enter through this region. Reporting this week (more…)