The sage grouse has been up for consideration for listing as an endangered species in the United States. The sage grouse has experienced a decrease in population of 90 percent in the last century. Included in this decline is the disappearance of more than half of their previous habitat. In addition to these perils, the sage grouse is also in danger due to energy developments in the West.

The bird is most prevalent in Wyoming, which is a popular spot for natural gas and wind energy. The sage ...

You might have heard about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. That almost continental sized accumulation of plastic debris situated in remote waters between California and Hawaii. Now, you can hop over and see its cousin – on the Atlantic Ocean. The growing garbage patch on the Atlantic has been ignored till now.

Though, the Atlantic patch still hasn’t reserved a moniker, it won’t be long before it catches the eye with its 520,000 bits of trash per square mile. The Pacific garbage Patch has nearly 1.9 million bits per ...

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, estimated to be upwards of thirty times more potent than carbon dioxide for trapping heat. Methane comes from numerous sources, including man-made. Methane comes from landfills, cattle and even rice paddies. It also forms naturally in wetlands, oceans and through wildfires.

According to scientists, methane levels have remained around 0.3 parts per million overall and 0.6-0.7 parts per million when the earth experienced warmer times. However, a recent study ...

I bet you wouldn’t normally eat food that has been grown in body waste (read – excreta). But that’s just the solution, a Swedish entrepreneur has developed. It’s a biodegradable plastic bag that’s a single use pouch for your nature’s calls. Thanks to some simple chemistry gets its second life as fertilizer for crops.

It seems just the solution for under-developed countries of Asia and Africa. Especially when you consider that 40% of the global population does not have access to proper toilets, mostly in Asia and Africa.
Disposable of human waste is a hygienic as well as a space worry for poorer ...

We drink water from the tap every day and often don’t consider what goes on “behind” the sink. Before we can drink our tap water, it goes through a rigorous process to purify the liquid. According to the EPA in 2003, “water utilities treat nearly 34 billion gallons of water every day.” So what is done to the water to make it acceptable for drinking?

The type of treatment method is dependent upon where the water comes from and how contaminated it is. Common processes are coagulation (flocculation and sedimentation), filtration, and disinfection. These processes can be applied on after the ...

Climate change impacts the oceans, forests and ecosystems on this planet. In order to better prepare for the potential impacts on forests, the European Union recently released their so-called discussion paper on the topic. The EU is hoping to confront the issues of climate change on the forests before they become a major concern.

Forests represent forty percent of the European Union’s land area. However, the 27-nation EU accounts for only five percent of the world’s total forests. Unlike ...

It is well known that amphibians worldwide are in decline from various causes, including disease and global warming. Another contributor to declining amphibian populations may also be attributed to weed killers, particularly atrazine. A recent study was published concerning the impacts atrazine has on frogs.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and was performed by researchers at the University of California Berkeley. The researchers wanted to examine ...

Antarctica holds key roles in numerous aspects of the planet, especially in the face of global warming. Amongst these roles is the sea level determination, of which Antarctica is a major player. If large parts of the continent melts, sea levels will rise drastically across the globe. In addition to sea rises, Antarctica also plays a major role in global ocean circulation.

Scientists are now concerned that the global ocean circulation may be greatly impacted after a major iceberg ...

Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer and therefore contributes a great deal to the greenhouse gas emissions each year. Not only does the company Wal-Mart itself emit massive amounts of emissions, all of their suppliers do as well. In order to continue being competitive in the market and to reduce operation costs, Wal-Mart is looking to reduce their overall emissions through suppliers.

Wal-Mart has already began developing a system for rating their products by their level of eco-friendliness. ...

Google is well known for its search engine technologies. But one part of its business also has to do with energy, especially energy of the renewable kind. It has been conducting research in different kinds of sustainable energy. In a latest development, Google has unveiled a new mirror technology that it hopes could better the efficiency of solar energy.

Google’s focus has been on new age materials for the mirror's reflective surface and the substrate on which the mirror is mounted. The new prototype could cut the cost of building a solar thermal plant by half. Solar thermal technology involves the heating ...