EarthScape

Abu Dhabi, UAE, may be a major oil supplier to the world, but the Emirate is also active with ideas and commitments to a green energy future. The World Future Energy Summit 2011 in Abu Dhabi began on January 17th. The summit is taking place not far from the emerging city of Masdar which is…

Organic milk has more beneficial fats than conventional milk, at least in the United Kingdom, says a new study. Whether these differences are nutritionally significant is less clear. Surveys of U.S. milk have yielded different results, though they also show differences between organic and conventional milk.

It holds the Guinness World Record for having the most names of any animal on the planet, with 40 in English alone. It’s also the widest-ranging native land animal in the Americas, yet is declining throughout much of its range. Mongabay talks with big cat expert Dr. Howard Quigley about the status and research implications…

Sakhalin Energy Investment Company – part owned by Shell – has announced plans to build a major oil platform near crucial feeding habitat of the Western North Pacific gray whale population. Only around 130 whales of the critically endangered Western population exist today, and their primary feeding habitat – off Sakhalin Island in the Russian…

More than a quarter of drinking wells in Vietnam’s densely-populated Red River delta contain unsafe levels of arsenic that can cause cancer, neurological problems and hypertension, researchers warned on Tuesday. In a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they also said 44 percent of the wells in the delta…

Inflammation is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli and to initiate the healing process Scientists have identified a protein that acts as a “master switch” in certain white blood cells, determining whether they promote or inhibit inflammation. The study, published in the journal Nature Immunology, could help researchers look for…

Dining on crickets, locusts, or even cockroaches, instead of cattle or pigs, could ease both food insecurity and climate change, according to researchers.

Creating new well-paying jobs to spur the economic recovery remains a central concern globally and in the US. The Great Recession has left many professionals and their families struggling to make ends meet for over two years. This jobless recovery is likely to be the longest recovery since the Great Depression. Furthermore, the convergence of…

Habitat alteration, simply put, is a change to a particular environment. What is unclear from its designation, however, is the adverse affect changes — big or small — have on the broader environment and related plant and animal life. According to The Nature Conservancy, habitat alteration, along with invasive species, are the two main causes…

According to a new paper published in Science, current carbon accounting methods significantly overstate the amount of carbon that can be absorbed by forests, plains, and other terrestrial ecosystems. That is because most current carbon accounting methods do not consider the methane and carbon dioxide released naturally by rivers, streams, and lakes.