This year saw the Arctic sea ice extent fall to a new and shocking low, while the U.S. experienced it warmest month ever on record (July), beating even Dust Bowl temperatures. Meanwhile, a flood of new research has convincingly connected a rise in extreme weather events, especially droughts and heatwaves, to global climate change, and…

A salt marsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open salt water or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated by dense stands of salt-tolerant plants such as herbs, grasses, or low…

Abu Dhabi’s stellar efforts to raise green performance across industry sectors position that Gulf state as regional leader in both conceiving sustainable solutions, and more critically, setting them in action. There are some more famous projects like the multi-million dollar zero-energy city Masdar. But this is just the tip of the bucket.

Producing biofuels from algae is a concept dating back to the oil shocks of the 1970s. At the time, the US Government created an algae research program which analyzed the thousands of strains of algae in hope of offsetting the shortage of fossil fuels. In 1996, the Department of Energy shut down the program, concluding…

Australian carbon trading took another step forward last month when the first carbon credits under the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme were issued. The national carbon trading program has been in the works for six years, politically supported by a Labor-Green coalition government; the first three to five years of the program will see a government-fixed…

The solar wind is a stream of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. It mostly consists of electrons and protons with energies usually between 1.5 and 10 keV. The stream of particles varies in temperature and speed over time. These particles can escape the Sun’s gravity because of their high kinetic…

As Fall turns leaves to colorful displays, starting in northern New England, and moving ever southward as Fall progresses, we think of the approaching Winter. We might also think of all the carbon that the once green leaves contain that will be released to the atmosphere as they decay. In the springtime, leaves soak up…

Our world orbits one star. There are many multiple star systems and some binary stars have been found with planets. Now how about a star system with four suns and some planets? For the first time a planet has been found that orbits one pair of stars and has a second pair of stars revolving…

It is the bane of all college students and workers who are struggling to finish a report or a project. Sometimes, one simply cannot help their mind from wandering from the task at hand to often trivial and pointless things. Example: It is clear that I need to finish this essay by tomorrow, but the…

When you think of the words “garbage dump,” the first thoughts or images that spring forth from your mind probably aren’t related to art. But if you were to visit the Recology collection center in San Francisco, you would be seeing—and thinking about—trash in a whole new way. What you would witness is not only…