EarthScape

During the late 1800s Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse were engaged in an intense industrial rivalry. Edison’s electrical inventions ran on DC (direct current). Westinghouse tried to convince governments and business that AC (alternating current) was the way to go for the development of large-scale power distribution systems. In their book American Entrepreneur: The Fascinating…

Get out the toboggans and winter gloves: There’s snow on the ground in 49 out of 50 U.S. states – including Hawaii. The only state that isn’t at least partially a winter wonderland today is Florida, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). The agency estimates that 70.9 percent of the country is currently covered…

Wolves and grizzly bears are mostly to blame for a steep population decline in a signature elk herd in the northern range of Yellowstone National Park, government scientists said on Wednesday. The elk population in the northern section of the park is prized by sportsmen who hunt outside Yellowstone boundaries in Montana and by the…

Is it growing warmer or it growing colder? In the US and in Europe it is hard to tell this year. As of now about 71% of the USA is covered with a layer of snow. Comparing earlier January amounts this is the highest in the last 7 years. 2010 was 56% with a low…

A total of 333 rhinos were illegally killed in South Africa in 2010, including ten critically endangered black rhinos, according to national park officials. The yearly total is the highest ever experienced in South Africa and nearly triple 2009 when 122 rhinos were killed in the country. An additional five rhinos have been lost to…

ScienceDaily (Jan. 10, 2011) — Using detailed land analysis, Illinois researchers have found that biofuel crops cultivated on available land could produce up to half of the world’s current fuel consumption — without affecting food crops or pastureland.

A relatively new phenomenon is the E-Reader, be it Kindle, iPad, or a number of other new competitors coming into the marketplace. When you think about it, these devices would seem to be more environmentally friendly than your typical paper and cardboard book, even a paperback. Should we be buying our loved ones e-readers or…

The sudden en-masse deaths of thousands of birds in the Southern U.S. on the night of New Year’s Eve have created a frenzy of media attention, but in reality hardly compare to the massive number that die each year because of human activity.

Canada had its warmest year on record in 2010, according to the country’s environmental agency, with the biggest impact seen in the Arctic region. The national average temperature for the year was 3 degrees Celsius above normal, based on preliminary data, according to a report put on Environment Canada’s website on Monday. That made it…

Prisons are where they keep criminals. What has that to do with the environment? The answer is that prisons need to be heated and like industrial boilers or even home heating systems they must burn fuel and in the combustion release potential air pollutants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice…