A new analysis calculates that vegetation in the world’s tropical regions stores about 229 billion tons of carbon, which is about 21 percent more carbon than previously believed.

Using remote sensing satellite data — including cloud-penetrating LiDAR — and field observations (more…)

More than half of the states in the nation have created programs to increase the energy efficiency of homes through a comprehensive approach that looks at all opportunities to save energy, from insulation to upgrading heating and cooling systems. When taxpayer and ratepayer dollars are used, it is (more…)

While deforestation is considered a critical factor in global warming since it causes the release of carbon, scientists say that in northern latitudes tree loss may actually have a net cooling effect.

In an analysis of temperature data collected from Florida to Manitoba, researchers from 20 institutions (more…)

A family trip recently brought me back to China for a few weeks. I was in a small provincial capital — quieter than Beijing or Shanghai and the kind of place that has seen explosive population growth in the past ten years.

I spent some time this trip trying to understand the (more…)

Students at Fundação Educacional Inaciana (FEI) in Brazil have developed two car prototypes whose goal is to be light and economical. One of them is made of aluminium, but the one that really caught our attention is a vehicle that can run 300 miles on one liter of gasoline.

The model is called X-16. It is made with (more…)

The conversion of the planet’s ecosystems into cropland — particularly in tropical rainforests — is stretching the Earth’s ability to store carbon, according to a new study. The demand for new agricultural land is growing most rapidly in the tropics, due to growing populations, (more…)

Putting the word green and carbon together may sound like an oxymoron to most people. But researchers at Rice University in Houston, Texas, working at the new Green Carbon Center, think that instead of being a “villain in the global warming debate”, carbon could be a (more…)

Developing genetically modified trees and plants could capture billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere annually and reduce the impacts of global warming, a new U.S. study says. In the study, researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory explore methods of enhancing the processes by which plants sequester (more…)

(Reuters) – About 45 nations met on Thursday to seek ways to raise billions of dollars in aid to help the poor combat climate change as the United Nations warned them of a long haul to slow global warming.

Environment ministers and senior officials in Geneva were reviewing whether rich (more…)

Scientists have compiled the first map detailing the height of forests worldwide, an inventory they hope will provide new insights into global carbon storage. The map — compiled from data collected over seven years using NASA satellite laser technology that can measure vertical “slices” of different tree heights in forests — (more…)