Japan is likely to shelve a plan to introduce carbon emissions trading as the troubled ruling Democratic Party bows to powerful business groups still recovering from a costly downturn. If confirmed, it would be a massive reversal by the party, which has backed one of the toughest emissions reduction targets of any major economy and…

Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, is a chemical compound with the formula N2O. At room temperature, it is a colorless non-flammable gas, with a slightly sweet odor and taste. Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas, accounting for around 6% of the estimated heating effect of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. According to 2006…

Friday (Dec 17th) commemorated the Wright Brothers’ first successful flight in a “heavier-than-air”, mechanically propelled aircraft. So BBC Earth is celebrating by bringing together some of their favorite images and videos of nature’s greatest fliers! Shearwaters: These seabirds get their name from a special technique of flying known as ‘shearing’, in which they fly across…

The 2010 hurricane season in the north Atlantic has come and gone. Although, the US was hardly touched by this year’s storms, it turns out that 2010 was one of the busiest hurricane seasons on record. There were 19 named storms, tied for the third highest on record (1887 and 1995). Of these, 12 became…

Several thousand officials from 194 countries just gathered in Cancún, Mexico, for yet another global climate summit. Dissatisfied with the pace of climate diplomacy, many individuals are now wondering what they can do about climate change on their own. For years now, climate activists from Al Gore to Leonardo DiCaprio have argued that individual actions…

What do you get when you add public land in sunny Western states and a federal government that wants to develop renewable energy? The answer: an announcement by the Interior Department last week that it selected about two dozen potential sites for large-scale solar power installations on public lands. The sites are in six states:…

A Rhode Island company is planning to use a relatively new design for offshore wind platforms to build a large wind farm 18 to 27 miles off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Deepwater Wind’s proposed wind farm, which would use four-legged platforms to support large wind turbines, could be located in water up…

This morning at about 2:30 am in the eastern US, we were treated to a very rare event. A total lunar eclipse that coincides with the Winter Solstice. How often can you be a part of something that has not happened in more than 300 years ago and will not happen again until 2094! The…

During the last few decades, increased concern over the environmental impact of the petroleum-based transportation infrastructure has led to renewed interest in an electric transportation infrastructure. Electric vehicles differ from fossil fuel-powered vehicles in that the electricity they consume can be generated from a wide range of sources. A key advantage of electric or hybrid…

Every year brings new accounts of coral bleaching in the tropical oceans. Even the largest living structure on Earth, the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia, is under threat. According to marine scientist, J.E.N.Veron, in a couple generations coral reefs will no longer exist. Unless of course, humans find a different way to…