Scientists say the retreat of west Antarctica's ice sheet is unstoppable
This story is not about the opening scene from the movie "The Day After Tomorrow," when a giant chunk of Antarctica suddenly slides into the ocean, triggering a global climate catastrophe.But the fact...
View ArticleYour cheap shrimp dinner is hurting the environment — and upscale rice could...
Remember when shrimp was a luxury item? These days, it can seem as ubiquitous as chicken. One of the reasons is an explosion in shrimp farming in coastal areas around the world, especially in India and...
View ArticleWhat makes people overturn police cars in authoritarian China?
When people in the city of Hangzhou got wind of plans to build a new trash incinerator, their response was swift. They drew up a petition to halt the project. Then they hit the streets, in violent...
View ArticleResearchers may have found the fountain of youth — for mice
The fountain of youth may be within your reach — if you are a mouse, that is.Researchers at Stanford, the University of California (San Francisco) and Harvard have all recently released studies...
View ArticleThe worst flooding in a century in the Balkans is uncovering another menace —...
It's being called one of the worst floods in a century. After nearly a week of heavy rain, the Sava River has flooded the Balkans — from Serbia and Croatia to Bosnia-Herzegovina.At least 35 people have...
View ArticleFracking went on trial and a Texas family beat the industry
Hydraulic fracturing has created a boom in natural gas production and a chorus of critics. One family in Texas finally had its day in court against the industry. And it won.The Parr family lives on a...
View ArticleThe Balkans' flooding is linked to climate change. And here's how
The worst flooding in southeastern Europe in more than a century has killed at least 35 people, destroyed as many as 100,000 homes and left entire towns and villages underwater in Serbia and...
View ArticleWhile the rain has stopped in the Balkans, rescue workers still have a lot to do
The rain over the Balkans may have stopped, but the flood waters have yet to recede.With more than 35 people dead, many missing, and thousands more people displaced, the region is in a state of shock,...
View ArticleA new report confirms that Antarctica is melting--still slowly, but twice as...
There's more news today on the Antarctic ice cap, and once again, it's not good. A new report from the European Space Agency's CryoSat program says Antarctica is losing ice twice as fast as it was just...
View ArticleCanada moves to put tougher limits on dangerous oil trains
In Lynchburg, Virginia, on April 30, a train carrying crude oil derailed, and some of the rail cars exploded into a ball of fire, and then fell into the James River.This was not an isolated incident.A...
View ArticleWe are all dead stars
Every atom in our bodies was processed inside the body of an ancient star. In fact, the iron in our blood connects us to one of the most violent acts in the universe — the death of a star in a...
View ArticleYour favorite produce probably comes with a side of pesticide
My wife constantly reminds me to wash our fruits and vegetables. My response is usually, “What the hell difference does it make?”It turns out, unfortunately, I am mostly right.The Environmental Working...
View ArticleOops! Major miscalculations and brilliant blunders aren't unheard of in science
The French railway company recently received the first of 2000 new train cars it ordered. Great news for the travelling public, right?Turns out, not so much. The railway found out the cars they've...
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What deteriorating air quality looks like around the world
China is taking five million cars off its roads in 2014, an effort to catch up to its pollution targets. The country has already failed to meet their standards for air quality from 2011 to 2013.In a...
View ArticleHow climate change is altering environments as small as your backyard garden
Jim Barilla says he can see and feel the effects of climate change in his urban garden in South Carolina.Barilla is an associate professor of creative writing at the University of South Carolina and...
View ArticleThese university students have found a way to make prosthetic limbs...
The price of a new prosthetic leg can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000, and an upper extremity device — an arm, a hand, etc. — can range from $3,000 to $30,000. The high cost keeps a lot of people...
View ArticleMexicans are dealing with the same drought as their northern neighbors, but...
Ruth Valenzuela lifts a plastic sheet off the top of a small water barrel on her tiny back patio. She fills it up — along with the washing machine when possible — on the rare days that her taps...
View ArticleShould the last samples of smallpox virus be saved?
At one time, smallpox was one of the most dangerous diseases on Earth. Worldwide, an estimated 300 million people died of smallpox in the 20th century.But after global vaccination efforts in 1979, the...
View ArticlePakistani health officials are having a tough time getting parents to...
In a narrow alleyway in the working-class neighborhood of Hijrat Colony in Karachi, a team of government health workers has set up a makeshift vaccination clinic, consisting of little more than a chair...
View ArticlePablo Escobar may be long gone, but his hippos are still a big problem for...
Pablo Escobar, the former Colombian drug lord who was killed in 1993, had an affinity for exotic animals. In the early 1980s, he created a zoo alongside his swimming pools, race track and small airport...
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