During a recent one-day cleanup, volunteers in and around Washington, D.C., collected 162 tons of trash from the Potomac River watershed in three hours. Lined end to end, the trash—weighing about as much as 30 school buses—would stretch for more than three miles (five kilometers).
A dramatic rise in poaching in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Garamba National Park is threatening to destroy the last wild population of northern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum cottoni), conservationists warn.
More than a millennium ago, fierce power struggles raged between Maya kings in the city of Waka, deep in the Guatemalan jungle. Today, the city is once again under assault, this time from drug smugglers, cattle ranchers, and the impoverished farmers they hire as arsonists.
Few shores are immune from the tide of plastic soda bottles, bags, cartons, and other trash floating on the ocean today. Now a new study suggests the problem runs deeper: Microscopic bits of plastic permeate the world's beaches and marine environment.
This Arbor Day—Friday, April 30, 2004—a clone of a tree planted by George Washington will be planted at a historic New York State farm. That same day, a clone of Washington State's tallest sycamore will be planted at George Washington's Virginia home, Mount Vernon.
Eighteen years ago today (2004), reactor number four of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. The accident killed at least 30 plant workers, caused the hospitalization of hundreds of others, and exposed millions of people to harmful radiation. Yet today the true health costs of the nuclear disaster are still unknown.
Never mind its chilly name—as a travel destination, Iceland is hot.
Visitors to the North Atlantic island, known as Europe's "land of fire and ice," topped 300,000 last year, more than Iceland's entire population.
Sacred Planet, a new giant-screen movie that pays homage to nature's harmony and indigenous cultures around the world, opens today, Earth Day. The film's director says he wanted to raise public awareness about the environment by focusing not on Earth's destruction, but on its splendor.
Most scientists agree that global warming presents the greatest threat to the environment. If our planet's ice caps and glaciers continue to melt the sea level will rise and submerge vast territories, from entire countries to large parts of the United States.
An upstart Los Angeles-based limo service has earned rave reviews from the rich, eco-friendly Hollywood set for its fleet of "green" SUVs. The swanky rides feature bars stocked with organic snacks and soy vodka and, perhaps better still, engines powered by natural gas.
They breathe rust, clean up polluted groundwater, generate electricity, and may harbor clues to life's origins. That's a lot for one family of microbes. But Derek Lovely, the researcher who discovered the first Geobacter bacteria species 17 years ago, says the wonder bugs continue to amaze.
Manhattan's gridlocked streets were a proving ground this week for the first production gas-electric hybrid sport-utility vehicle. As fuel prices rise, more automakers are getting into the hybrid game—promising dozens of the fuel efficient, low-emission vehicles over the next few years.
Greenland's ice sheet could disappear within a thousand years if global warming continues at its present rate, according to a new study. Scientists predict the thaw could raise sea levels and swamp coastal cities, including London and Los Angeles.
A microorganism too small to see with the naked eye may be the answer to one of the U.S. Department of Energy's largest environmental problems: hundreds of billions of gallons of groundwater contaminated with uranium and other toxic chemicals—the byproducts of nuclear bombs made during the Cold War.
While 11.5 percent of the planet's land surface is now officially protected for nature conservation, a new study reveals that hundreds of critically endangered species range completely outside those sanctuaries. Conservationists question whether the world's governments have protected the wrong places.
