NASCAR, the National Association for Auto Stock Car Racing, the world’s largest motor sports association, is trying to green its image. Under chairman and CEO, Brian France, NASCAR is seeking to become a true environmental leader. This may seem like a paradox for a sport where the goal is to drive the fastest and thus…

A new system for desalination has been designed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The system uses solar power to push ocean water through a permeable membrane which is capable of removing salt and other minerals. Such a portable system would be ideal for disaster-torn regions of the world which have lost…

A federal jury in Utica, New York has found Syracuse-based Certified Environmental Services, Inc (CES), two of its managers, and one of its employees guilty of conspiracy and fraud relating to violations of the Clean Air Act. The Clean Air Act was put in place by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect citizens from…

People become overweight in different ways. Some will develop a beer gut (apple-shaped) while some will have the fat go to their rear and thighs (pear-shaped). Two new major studies have identified a set of genes that determine where the fat goes in obese people. The team of international researchers also identified genes that determine…

A recent study from researchers at the University of California (UC) Irvine has found that since 1994, the overall amount of fresh water flowing into the world’s oceans has increased significantly. They found that 18 percent more fresh water has reached the oceans between 1994 and 2006, an average annual rise of 1.5 percent.

Coinciding with its push for more renewable energy development, the executive branch of the US federal government has decided to install solar panels on the White House. This is a quarter century after President Reagan took down the previous solar panels installed by his predecessor, President Carter. The Obama Administration will install new solar panels…

Yesterday, the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar approved the nation’s first-ever large-scale solar energy plants to be built on public lands. Both plants, located in California, are first in a series of clean energy projects under final review by the Department of Interior (DOI) that are to be built on public lands. The California…

America is certainly the land of plenty. This country has been blessed with an overabundance of natural resources and some of the world’s most fertile agricultural land. However, every year millions of tons of food is wasted. According to a new study published in the journal, Environmental Science & Technology, the amount of food wasted…

Due to above-average water temperatures in the Caribbean Sea, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts that coral bleaching will be very likely this year. It may even be as severe as 2005 when 80 percent of corals were bleached and 40 percent died. There have been reports from several sites already in the…

One of the most painful things in life is a kidney stone. That hard jagged chunk of calcium, if it grows to a sufficient size, can completely clog up the works, leaving blood in the urine and intense pain. But for those with chronic kidney stone pain, there is new reason to hope. A recent…