Sarychev Peak Volcanic Eruption as Seen from the ISS
This stunning photograph was taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station on June 12 as the Sarychev Volcano in the Kuril Islands northeast of Japan began spewing steam and ash into the atmosphere. Within three days, ash from the volcano was detected 2,407 kilometers ESE and [...]
Chinese Ban on Plastic Bags Saves Oil
“Banning flimsy plastic bags has been dismissed as a drop in the ocean when it comes to dealing with the world’s environment problems, but multiplied on a China scale, it appears to have made a big difference.”
Recycling? Fuhgeddaboudit
Susan Burton takes an entertaining, sometimes disturbing but informative look at the [...]
Active development and deployment of businesses and technologies geared towards sustainable development and climate change practices are becoming more vital to the global economy and individual state of living.
Mobilizing and re-focusing the global economy towards investments in clean technologies and ‘natural’ infrastructure such as forests and soils is the best bet for real growth, combating [...]
Plant and forestry waste and dedicated energy crops could sustainably replace nearly a third of gasoline use by the year 2030, according to an in-depth study by Sandia National Laboratories and General Motors Corporation called “The 90 Billion Gallon Study.”
Researchers assessed the feasibility, implications, limitations, and enablers of annually producing 90 billion gallons of ethanol [...]
Judging by the sheer volume of news reporting, the worldwide story of the week has to be the emergence of the new H1N1 strain of influenza.
While health officials attempt to monitor the extent of the outbreak, governments struggle to prepare for a potential pandemic without causing unnecessary panic. Average citizens, exposed to a constant barrage [...]
Converting Ocean Waves, Tides and Currents to Electricity
“Today in San Francisco, we’re not just talking about ocean power, we are advancing its actual implementation. We have submitted an application to the federal government to develop an underwater wave project off San Francisco’s Ocean Beach that could generate between 30MW and 100MW of power. And we [...]
Many years ago, I had the privilege of visiting the 800 year-old cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park, in Southwest Colorado. Like so many of the world’s great archeological treasures, the site has a way of speaking to its visitors, informing us not only about what life was like when it was inhabited, but [...]
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 [...]
Efforts to harness the energy potential of Earth’s ocean winds could soon gain an important new tool: global satellite maps from NASA. Scientists have been creating maps using nearly a decade of data from NASA’s QuikSCAT satellite that reveal ocean areas where winds could produce wind energy.
Once confined to the laboratory, nanotechnology has quietly entered the lives of ordinary people through hundreds of innovative products such as liquid-wicking clothing, antibacterial stuffed toys, tennis rackets, sunscreens, toothpaste and more. By some estimates, the market for nano-manufactured goods could exceed $2 trillion by 2014.
Such rapid rise in the development and use of nanomaterials [...]
On April 1-2, the Hubble Space Telescope photographed the winning target in the Space Telescope Science Institute’s “You Decide” competition in celebration of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA).
The winner is a group of galaxies called Arp 274. The striking object received 67,021 votes out of the nearly 140,000 votes cast for the six candidate [...]
In a nationally televised address to the American public last month, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal ridiculed a $140 million line item in the US economic stimulus package for “something called ‘volcano monitoring.’ Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.,” said Jindal.
One could argue whether the [...]
