In the first nationwide investigation of chemical fire retardants in children and their parents, Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that toddlers and pre-schoolers typically had 3 times more of the neurotoxic compounds in their blood as their mothers. The study suggests that U.S. children 1 to 4 years of age bear the heaviest burden of [...]
Arctic sea ice coverage appears to have reached its lowest extent for the year and is the second-lowest amount recorded since the dawn of the satellite era, according to observations from the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder. While slightly above the record-low minimum set Sept. 16, [...]
Noting that Brazilian authorities have significantly reduced deforestation over the last years, Norway will contribute US$1 Billion to Brazil’s Amazon Fund over the next seven years starting with US$20 Million this year. This makes Norway the first international contributor to the Amazon Fund, a major Brazilian effort to sharply curb deforestation of the world’s largest rainforest [...]
We may very well not be alone in our galaxy. While most people concieve that there is life elsewhere in the universe, it is almost surreal to know that not only is it true but that life may not be that far from Earth, astronmically speaking.
A little more than 20.5 light years away exists a planet that [...]
Crops in Space? Absolutely… especially if people are to travel for months and years to other worlds and systems. It would be impossible, for instance, to send along enough food and water for a team of space explorers on a mission to Mars. The reality is food and water production over a full life cycle [...]
It seems logical that coal would be used as the predominant non-renewable fuel of the future until other non-petroleum-based substitutes are fully developed. Coal burns cleaner, despite the false image that associates coal with the dingy, smog-choked air of the old coal-burning cities and towns, particularly during the Industrial Revolution. Furthermore, according to The World [...]
Just how limited are our fossil fuel reserves? Some estimates say our fossil fuel reserves will be depleted within 50 years, while others say it will be 100-120 years. The fact is that neither one of these projections is very appealing for a global community that is so heavily dependent on fossil fuels to meet [...]
We never really think about Earth as having weight because in space, it is actually weightless. Objects on Earth have weight and even mountains and oceans have weight.
So what does Earth weigh? Earth’s weight is 5.972 sextillion (1,000 trillion) metric tons, and it is actually gaining weight. That’s 5,972,000,000,000,000, 000,000 tons and gaining! Scientists refer [...]
According to the recently published book, “Green to Gold,” by Daniel C. Esty and Andrew Winston, the top ten environmental issues facing the world today are:
1. Climate Change
2. Energy
3. Water
4. Biodiversity and Land Use
5. Chemicals, Toxics and Heavy Metals
6. Air Pollution
7. Waste Management
8. Ozone Layer Depletion
9. Oceans and Fisheries
10. Deforestation
These issues clearly cut across and [...]
World energy consumption is expected to increase by 50 percent over the next 20 years, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Total world energy consumption will increase to 721.6 quadrillion British Thermal Units (Btu) by 2030 according to the EIA, up about 240 quadrillion Btu over today’s current consumption rate.
Fossil fuels, led by petroleum and [...]
Compared to previous years, hurricane activity in the Atlantic has been relatively quiet, although the Gulf of Mexico has had a busy hurricane and tropical storm season so far. We are just now entering the most active part of the hurricane season, a period which officially ends on November 30.
Global warming, which has accounted for [...]
So how do you think our home planet would appear to someone from another world? It was not until this century, on May 8, 2003, that we had our first glimpse of what that would look like when the Mars Global Surveyor snapped a photo of Earth with our Moon from its orbit around [...]
