Humpback whales are making a comeback more than 40 years after a ban on commercial hunting was brought in to save them from extinction.
Marine biologists estimate that the number of humpbacks worldwide may have grown to more than 40,000 adults and about 15,000 juveniles, following the ban that began in the 1960s. The International Union […]

A drying Thames river basin in the UK would still face five times the current risk of flooding by 2080, a recent assessment of the effects of climate change has found.
The Thames Vulnerability Assessment Report prepared by WWF-UK also found dire results for fish and wildlife, the lawns and flowerbeds of the traditional English garden […]

African elephants are being slaughtered for their ivory at a pace unseen since an international ban on the ivory trade took effect in 1989. But the public outcry that resulted in that ban is absent today, and a University of Washington conservation biologist contends it is because the public seems to be unaware of the […]

California will sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for “wantonly” ignoring its duty to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from ships, aircraft, and construction and agricultural equipment, state Attorney General Jerry Brown said on Wednesday.
Brown said the lawsuit, to be announced at a news conference at the Port of Long Beach on Thursday and filed in […]

A new study by scientists into the future effects of acidic sea water shows that the reduced pH value of the oceans’ surface waters will have drastic results in around 100 years’ time. The scientists, from Sweden and Australia, carried out the world’s first research into how a lowered pH of the sea’s surface water […]

Scientists will study this for years to come; China has ordered 50% of all cars off the roads off Beijing to make sure air quality is okay for the upcoming Olympics. The measures might be perhaps the world’s most measurable traffic pollution reduction effort ever. What’s more, they’ve launched an airquality forecast tool online.
The main […]

What if cutting greenhouse emissions could also save the lives of soldiers in Iraq, where fuel-laden convoys make them targets? The U.S. Army says it is happening now in a push to reduce its carbon “bootprint.”
From forward areas like Iraq and Afghanistan to training ranges in the United States, the Army has been working to […]

The strongest earthquake to strike Southern California in more than a decade rattled windows, made buildings sway and sent people running into the streets on Tuesday. But there were no immediate reports of serious injuries or major damage.
“I think we were very lucky with this one,” California’s governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said.
The […]

A new, highly efficient material that converts heat into electricity may one day help cars get the most out of a gallon of gas, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
Only about 25 percent of the energy produced by a typical gasoline engine is used to move the vehicle or run accessories like the radio or windshield […]

What is the biggest contribution UK couples can make to combating climate change? Ditch the Chelsea tractor? Curtail air travel? Think again: have fewer children. That’s the argument made in the British Medical Journal (July 25).
Each new UK birth will be responsible for 160 times more greenhouse gas emissions than a new birth in Ethiopia, […]

South African researchers are working on a genetically engineered tobacco plant that turns red near land mines — offering a potentially cheap way to clear post-conflict zones.
The usual methods used to clear land mines are costly and dangerous, relying on random checks in a small area. But the GM tobacco would be able to assess […]

Trials of genetically modified crops should be conducted within a national high-security facility or in fields at secret locations across the country to prevent them from being attacked and destroyed by anti-GM activists, scientists said yesterday.
Researchers spoke out after protesters ripped up crops in one of only two GM trials to be approved in Britain […]

The world’s wetlands, threatened by development, dehydration and climate change, could release a planet-warming “carbon bomb” if they are destroyed, ecological scientists said on Sunday.
Wetlands contain 771 billion tons of greenhouse gases, one-fifth of all the carbon on Earth and about the same amount of carbon as is now in the atmosphere, the scientists said […]

One of Britain’s most windswept schools has taken advantage of its position on an exposed Cornish headland to reduce its electricity bills by up to 90 per cent.
Gorran School, near St Austell, has attracted £55,000 in grants to install a 50ft (15m) wind turbine in a corner of its playing field. When the wind blows […]

The number of “microborrowers” worldwide-people participating in the rapidly growing field of microfinance-increased by 17 percent in 2006, benefiting both communities and the environment, according to the latest Vital Signs Update released by the Worldwatch Institute.
“By helping individuals and villages replace firewood, oil, and kerosene with solar, wind, hydro, and biofuels, microfinance institutions help to […]