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…

New Jersey has always tried to be in the lead of the cleantech race in the United States. To reach its renewable energy goals in 2020, it has become the number two country in solar power, behind California, and has invested into the research and development of further clean technologies. Through the use of incentives,…

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (“NYCDEP”) has issued new asbestos regulations, which became effective February 3, 2011.

The 2010 Russian heat wave that killed thousands and cut into that country’s grain harvest was primarily due to natural variability, not human-spurred climate change, U.S. scientists said on Wednesday. There was plenty of circumstantial evidence pointing to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and the resulting rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but close investigation…

Which is faster? A small moth or a songbird? The answer does surprise. A study published in March 2011 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B by researchers at Rothamsted Research, and the universities of Lund (Sweden), Greenwich and York, reports the surprising finding that night-flying moths are able to match their songbird counterparts for…

03/08/2011 – Armstrong World Industries has now diverted more than 100 million square feet of old ceiling tiles from landfills through its Ceiling Recycling Program. The recycling program, which is the nation’s first and longest running program of its kind, enables building owners to ship ceilings from renovation projects to the nearest Armstrong ceiling plant…

A new study proves that elephants understand how sometimes two is better than one. Working with Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center, researchers reconstructed a classic cooperation test that was originally developed for chimpanzees. Subjects must pull on a rope to receive a reward, such as food, however—and here’s the crux—the…