In a move to strengthen its position in water treatment, chemical giant BASF recently announced that it will acquire German water filtration membrane developer inge watertechnologies (inge).

Inge makes ultrafiltration systems used to treat drinking water, wastewater, and seawater (more…)

For years the natural gas drilling industry has decried the lack of data that could prove—or disprove—that drilling can cause drinking water contamination. Only baseline data, they said, could show without a doubt that water was clean before drilling began.

The absence of baseline data was one of the most (more…)

Carbon emission reductions achieved since 1990 by the world’s developed nations were canceled out many times over by the increase of imported goods from nations without binding emissions targets, including China, according to a new report.

While climate policies, including the Kyoto Protocol, (more…)

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will shut down 18 of its dirtiest coal-burning units over the next six years as part of a legal settlement with four U.S. states and three environmental groups that claimed the utility’s air emissions violated the Clean Air Act.

The agreement, announced by the U.S. (more…)

Natural gas extracted from shale deposits by a process known as hydraulic fracturing generates more greenhouse gas emissions over a 20-year period than conventional gas, oil, and coal, according to a Cornell University study.

Researchers said that during the lifespan of the average shale-gas drilling operation — (more…)

About 5 percent of the world’s natural gas production is squandered each year through gas flaring, a process in which unused gas is burned while drilling for oil, a new analysis by General Electric has found.

In addition to wasting a potentially valuable energy resource — roughly 30 percent of the current consumption in the European (more…)

Last week, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted a petition by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to limit sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from a Pennsylvania power plant. Emissions from the coal-fired power plant, Portland Generating Station in Northampton County, have adversely impacted air quality in four northwest NJ (more…)

According to a new NASA-funded study, Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are losing mass at a much faster rate than previous model forecasts have predicted. The study, the longest of its kind—almost 20 years—used satellites to measure changes in polar ice sheet mass. Results suggest that the ice sheets, found only in Antarctica and Greenland, are melting (more…)

A new search engine was launched last week and it was designed to help internet users be kind to the environment.

Envirosearch.org is a new online search service by Carbonfund.org. Powered by Bing and with revenues generated by Yahoo! Ads, it supports international conservation projects such as reforestation efforts and wildlife preservation. (more…)

China’s top environmental official has pledged to curb heavy metal pollutants in the wake of numerous major poisoning incidents, including cases of lead poisoning in children, that have sparked public protest in recent years.

In a speech, Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian described a (more…)