Any great journey starts out with a little trepidation, think back to your first day of school, walking out into the big wide world (or playground) and then looking back to see your guardian eagerly watching and willing you to keep going. These first steps are always the hardest, and as one of the the…

China’s fight against chronic pollution is faltering in the face of urbanization and rapid growth, though the last five years have seen some progress, the country’s environment ministry said on Saturday. China was still producing more “traditional pollutants” than it could bear, but new industries were also creating torrents of dangerous chemicals and mountains of…

The mysterious collapse of honey-bee colonies is becoming a global phenomenon. Declines in managed bee colonies, seen increasingly in Europe and the US in the past decade, are also now being observed in China and Japan and there are the first signs of African collapses from Egypt, according to the report from the United Nations.…

TOKYO—The most surprising thing about the magnitude-8.9 earthquake that hit Japan today is that it was a surprise. Despite what may be the world’s most intensive effort to map faults and assess risks by a notoriously earthquake-prone and earthquake-conscious nation, such a strong quake was not anticipated for the region, says University of Tokyo geophysicist…

(Reuters) – The biggest earthquake on record to hit Japan struck the northeast coast on Friday, triggering a 10-meter tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses, ships, cars and farm buildings. The Red Cross in Geneva said the wall of water was higher than some Pacific islands and a tsunami warning was…

You may have already heard, but there’s a lawsuit pending against the USGBC. The plaintiffs claim that they are “losing customers because USGBC’s false advertisements mislead the consumer into believing that obtaining LEED certification incorporates construction techniques that achieve energy-efficiency.” If you’re looking for an article that jumps on that train, you’re in the wrong…

The decline of coral reefs over the last few decades is often squarely blamed on human activity. But a recent study suggests the picture is in fact a little more complex. Researchers have found that our actions aren’t always responsible for the decline of coral reefs; some reefs stop growing simply because they’ve reached the…

The BP oil spill that sent 4 million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico last year also created air pollution, and studying this pollution gave scientists clues into how these contaminants get into the atmosphere. BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, 2010, killing 11 people and spewing oil from the underwater…

How old can a bird live in the wild? And how long can they breed successfully. Records are sparse of course. A Laysan albatross named Wisdom, is at least 60 years old and was spotted in February 2011 raising a chick at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Islands. The bird has…

The news just seems to be getting worse and worse coming out of the Arctic and Antarctic. The melting of ice is not appearing to let up, and is in fact, getting faster. A new NASA-funded satellite study shows that the two biggest ice sheets on Earth – Greenland and Antarctica – are losing mass…