North America's first offshore wind turbine deployed in Maine. The number of wind power installations connected to the electrical grid in the US has exploded in recent years, driven in part by government tax credits for renewables, but all of them have been confined to land so far. That changed today, when North America's first-ever offshore wind turbine, the VolturnUS (pronounced as one word, "vol-tern-us"), was installed on a floating platform off the shore of the Penobscot River in Brewer, Maine. In the coming days, the turbine is set to be towed across the river to a site further out into the waters of the Atlantic, where it will be plugged into the electrical grid through an undersea cable. By Tuesday, it will spin to life, becoming the first operational machine of its kind on the continent.
The project is a collaboration between the University of Maine and many other private and public organizations, and cost about $15 million, most of which was funded by a 2009 grant from the US Energy Department. Cloning takes California's ancient redwood trees abroad. COPEMISH, Mich. (AP) — California's mighty redwoods are going international, cloned in an effort to promote reforestation and deal with climate change.
Although measuring just 18 inches (45 centimeters) tall, the laboratory-produced trees are genetic duplicates of three giants that were cut down in northern California more than a century ago. Remarkably, shoots still emerge from the stumps, including one known as the Fieldbrook Stump, which measures 35 feet (10.7 meters) in diameter. It's believed to be about 4,000 years old. The tree was about 40 stories high before it was felled. "This is a first step toward mass production," said David Milarch, co-founder of Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, a non-profit group spearheading the project, which is planting redwoods Monday (Earth Day) in Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, Germany and the U.S.
"We need to reforest the planet; it's imperative. The Archangel leaders say they're out to prove the doubters wrong. Georgia steps up bid for access to Tenn. River. NEW HOPE, Tenn. -- Less than 100 yards of muddy grassland separates Georgia from the Nickajack Reservoir along Tennessee's southern border, but if Peach State lawmakers have their way , the land could one day be theirs. What they really covet is water from the Tennessee River, which feeds the reservoir. But they're serious enough about quenching the growing thirst of metropolitan Atlanta that Georgia legislators last week passed a resolution authorizing the state's attorney general to sue Tennessee if it doesn't voluntarily give up a 1.5-square-mile parcel of land they say is rightfully theirs. Standing on the reservoir's banks recently, Marion County (Tenn.) Commissioner Jody Rollins said he understood the Georgians' plight — but only to a point.
"Everybody in the world should have clean drinking water," Rollins said as fishing boats and ducks floated nearby. "I don't want them all to take it out of the Tennessee River. " Sympathy is limited Tennessee state Rep. Tennessee Gov. He smiled. Alaska on the edge: Newtok's residents race to stop village falling into sea | Environment. What is a climate refugee? The immediate image that comes to mind of “climate refugees” is people of small tropical islands in the Pacific or of a low-lying delta like in Bangladesh, where inhabitants have been forced out of their homes by sea-level rise. The broader phenomenon is usually taken to be people displaced from their homes by the impact of a changing climate – although the strict definition of a refugee in international law is more narrow including people displaced by war, violence or persecution, but not environmental changes.
With climate change occurring rapidly in the far north, where temperatures are warming faster than the global average, the typical picture of the climate refugee is set to become more diverse. Sea ice is in retreat, the permafrost is melting, bringing the effects of climate change in real time to residents of the remote villages of Alaska. "I dream about the water coming in," she said. In the dream, Warner climbs on to the roof of her small house. 1 of 20. Rains or Not, India Is Falling Short on Drinkable Water. Photo CHERRAPUNJI, India — Almost no place on Earth gets more rain than this small hill town. Nearly 40 feet falls every year — more than 12 times what Seattle gets. Storms often drop more than a foot a day. The monsoon is epic. But during the dry season from November through March, many in this corner of India struggle to find water.
Some are forced to walk long distances to fill jugs in springs or streams. That people in one of the rainiest places on the planet struggle to get potable water is emblematic of the profound water challenges that India faces. Half of the water supply in rural areas, where 70 percent of India’s population lives, is routinely contaminated with toxic bacteria. And India’s water problems are likely to worsen. A separate analysis concluded that groundwater supplies in many of India’s cities — including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai — are declining at such a rapid rate that they may run dry within a few years.