A fire-free farming method practiced by early inhabitants of the Amazonian savannahs could help inform efforts to conserve and rehabilitate these important ecosystems around the world, a study has found.

A new study analyzing data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft suggests that the lake, known as Ontario Lacus, behaves most similarly to what we call a salt pan on Earth. A salt pan is formed where liquid pools were. A salt pan would be a lake or a pond if it were located in a climate…

Methane can be released to the atmosphere from a variety of natural and and made sources. The fragile and rapidly changing Arctic region is home to large reservoirs of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. As Earth’s climate warms, the methane, frozen in reservoirs stored in Arctic tundra soils or marine sediments, is vulnerable to being…

Generating wind energy is more than twice as cheap as solar photovoltaic (PV) energy production, a study of alternative energy in six developing countries has found. The findings, published in Nature Climate Change last week (15 April), could help inform global debates on financing initiatives aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries.

Can McDonald’s and “Best of Green” be in the same sentence? At first it sounds like the mockumentary sequel to Best in Show. After all, those big golden arches are not only easy to see from the road, they are still to critics a figurative symbol of a dubious food supply, sprawl and our disposable…

Some of the most heavily marketed drinks around the world are sodas, ranging from your average cola to flavored colas to fruity colas. Their sweet sugary taste is irresistible for some, adding to their addictive quality. Unfortunately, sodas are perhaps the most unhealthy drink, besides alcohol. With the rise of obesity and diabetes around the…

A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. Semiconductor materials are the foundation of modern electronics, including radio, computers, telephones, and many other devices. Such devices include transistors and digital and analog integrated circuits. Transition metal oxides also fill this category of materials. But…

Occasionally it’s good to step back from the details of global warming science and offer non-technical visitors a “Global Warming 101” perspective, sort of like The Big Picture, but starting from the very beginning and touching on many aspects of this broad topic.

Emissions from cars, lorries, planes and power stations causes 13,000 premature deaths in the UK each year, according to a new study by MIT researchers. The research team analyzed data from 2005, the most recent year for which information is available. They found that among the various sources of emissions in the country, car and…

Straw bale is a low impact, low carbon building material making strides towards mainstream acceptance. So is it about time we took notice? As designers and homeowners look for imaginative ways to help reduce their carbon footprint in the campaign against climate change, straw bale could become a new tool in the building industry’s armoury.