Month: February 2011

  • New from BBC Earth: America’s National Parks

    Once hailed as ‘America’s best idea’, Yellowstone was the world’s first national park. Changing the way we interact with nature, the Pulitzer prize-winning author Wallace Stegner put it best when he said national parks “reflect us at our best, not our worst”. In the gigantic 3.5million square miles of land, Yellowstone is host to a…

  • Ice Cores Yield Rich History of Climate Change

    On Friday, Jan. 28 in Antarctica, a research team investigating the last 100,000 years of Earth’s climate history reached an important milestone completing the main ice core to a depth of 3,331 meters (10,928 feet) at West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS). The project will be completed over the next two years with some additional…

  • Energy efficiency incentives for commercial buildings announced

    President Barack Obama announced a new clean energy program in Pennsylvania on Thursday, seeking to show he remains focused on jobs in a state that may be essential to his 2012 re-election prospects. Obama outlined a plan in his State of the Union address last month to encourage clean energy technologies and to double by…

  • Gowanus Canal Superfund Site

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has completed its investigation of the Gowanus Canal Superfund site in Brooklyn, N.Y. The investigation confirmed the widespread presence of numerous contaminants in the canal and identified the sources of contamination. The investigation also identified characteristics of the canal that will influence future plans for a cleanup. A companion human…

  • Fit females have strong male-like traits, reveals study

    Combs on female red grouse are bigger during the breeding season and among fitter, more mature adults – just like they are in males – a new study led by scientists from the University of Aberdeen shows. This is the first experimental evidence that suggests these male-like traits in females are dependent on the individual’s…

  • All Aboard for High-Speed Rail

    The Obama administration has given passenger rail the strongest federal push since the days of Abraham Lincoln in hopes of spurring job growth and keeping pace with a rising China. In early 2010, Washington allotted $8 billion in stimulus cash to fund 13 high-speed rail systems spread across 31 states, including projects in Florida, the…

  • Deep Below Antarctic Ice, Lake May Soon See Light

    While a team of Russian scientists were drilling ice core samples from their Vostok base in Antarctica, new satellite imagery revealed the outline of a lake the size of New Jersey buried two miles underneath the ice. Scientists have been drilling through the ice and are now just 100 feet away from breaking into the…

  • Gulf recovering from BP oil spill quickly

    The Gulf of Mexico should recover from the massive BP oil spill by the end of 2012, the administrator of the $20 billion victims compensation fund said Wednesday. By that time, most of the harmful effect of the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history will have dissipated and the economy should have picked up,…

  • Brazil Approves Construction of the Belo Monte Dam Project

    The proposed Belo Monte Dam in northern Brazil would be the third largest hydro-electric dam in the world in terms of electrical output. The dam would be 3.75 miles long and generate over 11,000 megawatts, which could power up to 23 million homes. Government officials say that the dam is an essential step in supplying…

  • Arctic Mercury Mystery: Meterological Conditions in the Spring and Summer to Blame?

    More mercury is deposited in the Arctic than anywhere else on the planet. Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) think that one explanation for this may lie in the meteorological conditions in the Arctic spring and summer.