Environment

Alaska Delays Decision for Tribe to Hunt Young Wolves, Bears

As a vegetarian, pet-owning urbanite who's never been hunting, I find it hard to stomach the idea of grown men with rifles killing fuzzy baby animals. So it was with mixed feelings I read today that Alaskan tribes will have to wait until November to see if they can legally cull wolf pups and bear cubs in their dens along the Kuskokwim River. The...

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| Tue Jan. 29, 2008 5:02 PM PST

Exercise - It Does a Cell Good

Here's yet another reason to keep your New Year's resolution to exercise this year: people who work out have younger-looking cells than those who don't. In the study, conducted at King's College in London, 1,200 pairs of British twins were tested. Just one hundred minutes of activity a week made cells of active twins look five to six years younger than their couch potato...

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| Mon Jan. 28, 2008 4:03 PM PST

Us to Earth: We Will Rock You

Geologically speaking, nature usually calls the shots. Historically it's been the case that major natural events—shifting tectonic plates, volcanoes, even asteroids—have shaped the trajectory of life on this planet. Not anymore. A team of researchers from the University of Leicester and the Geological Society of London is the latest group to make the case that the Holocene era is coming to an end, and...

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| Mon Jan. 28, 2008 3:00 PM PST

Insects Creep Out of Asia - And Into Your Backyard?

Invasive species like the Asian tiger mosquito are on the rise in Europe, French researchers recently reported. Nineteen new invasive species made Europe their home every year from 2000 to 2007. (From 1950 to 1975, only about 10 species per year established themselves.)...

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| Fri Jan. 25, 2008 12:42 PM PST

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Antarctica Is Melting, After All

A while back, I blogged about how global warming skeptics were all smug and glowy (and wrong) about how Antarctica's not melting. If the sea ice in the South Pole is actually increasing, the reasoning went, then how could the planet be warming? Huh? Huh? Well, for a number of reasons, that logic is false, but guess what? It may be moot point...

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| Fri Jan. 25, 2008 10:44 AM PST

Happy 2008! Your Prius' Fuel Efficiency Just Dropped 16%

Old-school Detroit must be smiling just a bit right now. After decades of providing unrealistic fuel-efficiency estimates?those big numbers...

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| Thu Jan. 24, 2008 12:00 PM PST

How High Gas Prices Are Making Us Safer. Seriously.

Gas prices, thanks to the Global War on Terror and Hurricane Katrina, are now the highest in the nation's history. Gas easily tops $3 per gallon in San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, and other cities across the nation, making driving an expensive way to get around. For reference, gas prices have increased roughly 100% since 9/11. What's the upside? That ridiculously expensive petroleum...

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| Wed Jan. 23, 2008 12:37 PM PST

Prince Charles (in Hologram) Lauds UAE's Green Cities Investment

Which is more bizarre? Prince Charles' hologram walking and twiddling his way across a stage, or a proposal for a no-waste, carbon-neutral city in a desert where searing temperatures make air conditioning a must? Both the hologram and the city plan made appearances at the World Future Energy Summit, in Abu Dhabi, which began yesterday and runs through tomorrow. It might seem strange to...

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| Tue Jan. 22, 2008 3:18 PM PST

Richard Branson's Friendly Skies of Pond Scum?

Next month, Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic airline plans to fly a Boeing 747 from London to Amsterdam, powered (in part) by an unspecified, but supposedly clean and sustainable biofuel. It will be the first bioful test flight of a commercial jet, and, if successful, could augur a new age of ecofriendly aviation. Among the fuels Branson might test, that green muck from your fish...

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| Tue Jan. 22, 2008 1:05 PM PST
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Virgin Airlines: Powered by Pond Scum?

Virgin founder Richard Branson has set out to create a viable biofuel. Will his ecofriendly venture take off?

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| Tue Jan. 22, 2008 1:00 AM PST

30 Million Years to Recover From Extinction?

Scientists have been saying for a while that by the end of this century, half of all species could be extinct. And a new study says that it could take an awfully long time for Earth to recover—30 million years, to be specific. Back in the Permian era, Earth lost more than 90 percent of all life. Scientists once thought that species rebounded...

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| Fri Jan. 18, 2008 1:02 PM PST
Smart Idea Of The Day

Brodner's Person of the Day: Smart Idea Of The Day

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| Thu Jan. 17, 2008 1:00 AM PST

FDA Approves Cloned Animals for Store Shelves

The FDA announced today that cloned animals (and offspring and milk produced by said clones) are safe to consume. The agency said that cloned cows and pigs and other farmed animals "are as safe to eat as food from conventionally bred animals." Which, as you may have read, isn't saying much. But with cloned animals costing tens of thousands of dollars each, it's unlikely...

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| Tue Jan. 15, 2008 5:50 PM PST

Toyota Tops Consumer Reports' Greenest Cars

Although "eco-friendliness" ranks well behind "safety" and "value" among qualities consumers consider when buying cars, Consumer Reports did due diligence finding out which brands of cars are perceived as the most green. To be clear, they only tested for brand's perception as an eco-friendly car-maker, not how friendly the actual car is to Mother Earth. It's probably no surprise that Toyota ranks the highest,...

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| Fri Jan. 11, 2008 12:50 PM PST

Antarctic Sea Ice Increase: Fodder for Global Warming Skeptics?

Hold onto your hats, kids, because climate change skeptics are sure to have a field day with this one: Researchers have found that for the past 20 years, while ice in the Arctic has been rapidly decreasing, Antarctic sea ice has actually been increasing. "See?" The skeptics will say. "If the world really were getting warmer, then it wouldn't be all cold and icy...

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| Thu Jan. 10, 2008 12:37 PM PST

Patagonia Deconstructs Your Clothes

Okay, I already covet their gear more than is morally good for me. Now Patagonia has launched a cool interactive website called The Footprint Chronicles. At the moment it's more evolving prototype than matured design. Still, it enables you to follow the environmental footprint of a handful of their products. "The impact of an unexamined life is far more serious than it once...

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| Tue Jan. 8, 2008 2:34 PM PST

Some Biofuels Worse Than Fossil Fuels

Burning biofuels emits less greenhouse gasses than burning fossil fuels. But producing some biofuels is far more environmentally costly, according to a new study commissioned by the Swiss government and reviewed by researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Science. In particular, sugarcane, US corn, Brazilian soy, and Malaysian palm oil may be worse overall than fossil fuels in environmental destruction, pollution,...

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| Tue Jan. 8, 2008 12:51 PM PST

Where the Candidates Stand on Science

A 10-page special report, "Science and the Next U.S. President" published in the journal Science profiles the nine leading candidates' stances on important scientific issues. "Science felt that it was important to find out what the presidential candidates think about issues that may not be part of their standard stump speeches but that are vital to the future of the country—from reducing greenhouse...

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| Mon Jan. 7, 2008 8:43 PM PST

How To Shrink a Fetus: Add Air Pollution

As if we need more compelling reasons to clean up the air? A new study finds that exposure to air pollution significantly reduces the size of human fetuses. Ten years of research by scientists from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia and the Environmental Protection Agency in the US compared 15,000 ultrasound scans, and correlated fetus size with air pollution levels. The study...

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| Mon Jan. 7, 2008 7:23 PM PST

CO2 Emissions Kill People

A Stanford scientist spells out for the first time direct links between increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and increases in human mortality. Mark Jacobson's findings come just after the Environmental Protection Agency's recent ruling against states setting specific emission standards based in part on a lack of data showing the link between CO2 and health effects. The new study details...

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| Thu Jan. 3, 2008 4:54 PM PST