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Geneva, Switzerland – Reckless industrialization alongside the Great Barrier Reef could cause severe damage to one of Earth’s most important environmental systems, according to a new report commissioned by WWF. The Great Barrier Reef Under Threat found that the dumping of waste from port expansions within its World Heritage-listed boundaries would have “devastating impacts” on the reef. In order to...

Methane is over 80 times more potent than carbon pollution when it comes to climate change in the short term Washington, D.C. — This morning, as part of a series of executive actions by the Obama Administration to combat climate change, the White House announced a goal of reducing the oil and gas industry’s waste of methane, the primary component...

Australian Antarctic stations are rethinking their operational practices after the discovery that common household pollutants are dispersing from Casey station into the local Antarctic environment. Research published in Environmental Science and Technology and led by Dr Susan Bengtson Nash from Griffith University’s Southern Ocean Persistent Pollutants Program, records the first evidence of the dispersal of these pollutants from local sources...

A new NOAA-led report shows that Arctic air temperatures continue to rise at more than twice the rate of global air temperatures, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification. Increasing air and sea surface temperatures, declining reflectivity at the surface of the Greenland ice sheet, shrinking spring snow cover on land and summer ice on the ocean, and declining populations and...

Underwater robot sheds new light on Antarctic sea ice The first detailed, high-resolution 3-D maps of Antarctic sea ice have been developed using an underwater robot. Scientists from the UK, USA and Australia say the new technology provides accurate ice thickness measurements from areas that were previously too difficult to access. The results, published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience...

BOULDER -- Unregulated trash burning around the globe is pumping far more pollution into the atmosphere than shown by official records. A new study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research estimates that more than 40 percent of the world’s garbage is burned in such fires, emitting gases and particles that can substantially affect human health and climate...

Countries bordering the south and east of the Mediterranean need to continually improve many aspects of environmental management to reduce pollution in the sea, according to a new assessment. Photo © Mhobl The "Horizon 2020 Mediterranean report - Toward shared environmental information systems"  has been coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the United Nations Environment Programme/Mediterranean Action Plan with financial...

Gland, Switzerland: Mexico’s plans to increase its renewable energy supply from 15% to 25% of total energy supply by 2018, sets the pace globally for a much needed increased ambition towards the UN climate negotiations in Lima, Peru later this year, according to WWF. Mexico's plans would reduce about 15% of emissions from the power sector, according to WWF´s preliminary...

The Parliament voted to give lorry manufacturers more design space for the front end of the cab, allowing a more streamlined nose. Some of the extra cab space has to be used to get rid of blind spots, include a crumple zone and to make sure pedestrians and cyclists are not knocked underneath the wheels in a collision. Lorry...

The European Parliament and Member States, concluding final negotiations today on the new fuel infrastructure law, failed to set-out a clear pathway for a low-carbon European transport network. Transport & Environment expresses disappointment at this wasted opportunity, which contains no binding targets for low-carbon charging infrastructure and does little to help a transition towards sustainable e-mobility. The deal sets no...

Oakland, CA — An Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled that a 2013 law put a stop to a lawsuit designed to force the state of California to examine the environmental effects of the highly controversial oil and gas drilling process called fracking.Environmental advocates, represented by Earthjustice, were in court seeking to force the agency responsible for regulating the...

This is a media advisory from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), which is part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Scientists recently recorded the lowest temperatures on Earth at a desolate and remote ice plateau in East Antarctica, trumping a record set in 1983 and uncovering...