EarthScape

LAS VEGAS— The Bureau of Land Management today released its long-anticipated final environmental impact statement for the pipeline right-of-way for the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s “groundwater development project.” The project envisions unsustainably siphoning more than 37.1 billion gallons of groundwater per year from at least four valleys in central Nevada and pumping it 300 miles…

With all the advances in electronics and social media, it is no wonder that children are opting to stay in the comfort of the indoors rather than pursuing outdoor activities. It is at times like these that parents need to be extra vigilant in forcing their kids out of the house and simply act like…

Butterfly populations are an important gauge of the health of local habitats and wider climate change. As families this weekend join the Big Butterfly Count, Faye Dobson explains what population changes mean, and how you can get involved.

Many simple models of plant response to warming climates predict vegetation to find cooler and/or wetter locations, generally moving upslope from their current positions. However, the mechanisms explaining species-specific responses to changes in temperature and water availability are most likely much more complex, according to researchers at Texas Tech University and the United States Geological…

We all know that the journey to a sustainable existence on this planet is going to be a difficult one. Indeed, it might well be what former Xerox CEO David Kearns said of the company’s quest for quality, “a race without a finish line.” I say this because absolute sustainability is an ideal that can…

What is the world wide trend in air pollution? On the surface North America and Europe have been gradually improving. However, that is due to often moving industry to other countries such as China or India where air pollution is a bit more of a problem. Most of the world’s population will be subject to…

Soaring temperatures and low precipitation could not occur at a worse time for many farmers in the United States. Intensifying drought conditions are affecting corn and soybean crops throughout the Midwest, raising grain prices as well as concerns about future food prices. The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that 88 percent of this year’s corn crop…

Antarctica was once home to a diverse range of tropical plants including ferns, palms and rainforest trees, say scientists. They have uncovered the first direct evidence of a much warmer, greener continent in the Southern Ocean. They publish their findings today in Nature.

Some people in this world such as The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper possess a memory with such extreme precision that they can recall events in detail from years or even decades in the past. They refer to this amazing skill as an eidetic memory. It turns out that individuals with this ability actually have…

Wind turbines tend to look like windmills or giant propellers, and the design does in fact borrow from that. But that isn’t the only design that’s ever been tried. At Sandia National Laboratories wind energy experts are looking at vertical axis wind turbines, (called VAWTs). VAWTs have a couple of advantages over traditional horizontal-axis designs,…