A very interesting and controversial study emerged recently, comparing nuclear and solar costs no less. The study focused on the costs of electricity in North Carolina (US), describes the solar photovoltaic (PV) business, summarizing its history of sharply declining prices, along with the very different path taken in recent years by nuclear power, whose costs…

When we think of companies that stand out as role models of exceptionally responsible behavior in the realm of sustainability, Halliburton is hardly one of the first to spring to mind. Which is why I was a little surprised to learn that “the company we love to hate” was just named to the Dow Jones…

Florida’s orange groves are still shrinking as the state battles the tree-killing citrus greening disease and farmers sell their land, the annual Department of Agriculture census showed on Thursday. The number of commercial orange trees and total acreage devoted to orange groves have steadily shrunk over the last five years in Florida, which accounts for…

NOAA’s Fisheries Service announced today that recreational red snapper fishing in the Gulf of Mexico will reopen for an added season to allow fishermen to catch the quota they did not reach because a portion of the Gulf was closed due to the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill. Recreational fishing will be allowed on Fridays through…

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on a sweeping overhaul of the federal food safety law – S. 510. The House food safety bill passed last year (HR 2749) included several measures that threaten small-scale organic producers, including a registration fee of $500 and blanket application of complicated monitoring and traceability standards – regardless…

The US has delayed its decision to approve a new breed of fast-growing genetically modified (GM) salmon for human consumption. The salmon, owned by biotech company AquaBounty Technologies, has been genetically altered to grow faster than conventionally farmed salmon and would be the first GM animal allowed to be sold to and eaten by consumers.…

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…

This Saturday, Sept 25, the National Park Service is offering free access to 392 national parks to commemorate National Public Lands Day, reports the America’s Great Outdoors Campaign, a community-based conservation awareness effort.

A cold snap in northern oceans around 1970 may have caused a dip in world temperatures that briefly interrupted a trend of global warming, scientists said on Wednesday. Many experts had previously explained a slight global cooling around 1970 as a side-effect of a slow build-up of sun-dimming air pollution from factories, power plants and…

Snow melt in the Colorado River basin is occurring earlier, reducing runoff and the amount of crucial water available downstream. A new study by NASA/UCLA shows this is due to increased dust caused by human activities in the typically arid American southwest region during the past 150 years.