California governor orders mandatory water restrictions. Green Cities of the Future. Obama drives ahead on climate with government emissions cuts. WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama ordered the federal government on Thursday to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by nearly half over the next decade, driving his climate change agenda forward despite percolating challenges from Republican-led states.
By curtailing pollution within the U.S. government, Obama sought to increase political pressure on other nations to deal seriously with climate change. Obama to unveil fracking rules - Elana Schor. The Obama administration is set to unveil the first major nationwide safety restrictions on fracking, touching off a fresh political confrontation between the president and his critics in Congress and the energy industry.
The Interior Department’s rules — expected to be released as soon as Friday — are the federal government’s most comprehensive foray to date toward regulating the technology at the heart of the U.S. oil and gas boom, addressing worries such as potential dangers to drinking water. They will also offer oil and gas supporters new room to accuse President Barack Obama of seeking to throttle fossil-fuel production, despite his repeated boasts about the nation’s booming energy supplies. Story Continued Below. 8 crazy new solar research breakthroughs. Researchers created solar powered leaves on 3D printed tree trunks, making a mini electric forest.
Image: VTT We've said it before, and we'll say it again. 2015 is going to be a huge year for the solar industry. A photovoltaic system is installed every four minutes in the US. There are now 142,000 jobs in the solar industry alone. Some experts are even saying that rooftop solar will reach grid parity in all 50 states by 2016. The research behind solar energy is booming, too. Venice on the Charles? Boston’s solution to rising seas includes novel canal system in Back Bay Canals. Will the Innovation District be underwater? A sea level rise plan for Boston. This is a guest post from Gina Ford, a principal at Sasaki Associates.
Sasaki is a Boston-based architecture and design firm working on projects that focus on the possible issues that could come with future rises in the sea level. They are running an exhibit at District Hall through June 4. It’s hard to picture, but the potential danger is real: By 2050, there could be an additional two feet of water due to sea level rise, seven feet during a major storm, and 14 feet during a Category 3 hurricane. By 2100, sea levels are projected to elevate as much as six feet. MiniSite. Water Woes: Vast US Aquifer Is Being Tapped Out. Nearly 70 percent of the groundwater stored in parts of the United States' High Plains Aquifer — a vast underground reservoir that stretches through eight states, from South Dakota to Texas, and supplies 30 percent of the nation's irrigated groundwater — could be used up within 50 years, unless current water use is reduced, a new study finds.
Researchers from Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan., conducted a four-year study of a portion of the High Plains Aquifer, called the Ogallala Aquifer, which provides the most agriculturally important irrigation in the state of Kansas, and is a key source of drinking water for the region. If current irrigation trends continue unabated, 69 percent of the available groundwater will be drained in the next five decades, the researchers said in a study published online today (Aug. 26) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Taking water measurements View gallery.
Researchers find trash littering the ocean floor. Rapid retreat of Chile glacier captured in images. SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Researchers in Chile released a series of time-lapse photos Wednesday showing the dramatic retreat of a glacier in Patagonia.
The Jorge Montt Glacier is shrinking faster than any other in Chile, with its snout retreating 1 kilometer (more than a half mile) between February 2010 and January 2011, glaciologist Andres Rivera said. How Hurricanes are Named. Satellite Photos - Japan Before and After Tsunami.
Reflections on a Thirsty Planet for World Water Day. The Mahanadi River in Orissa, India, ebbs to a trickle during the dry season.
Photo credit: James P. Global warming presents historic disaster risk, report says. Mumbai is among the densely populated cities that scientists say is at great risk.
(Photo: Getty Images) WASHINGTON — Global warming is leading to such severe storms, droughts, and heat waves that nations should prepare for an unprecedented onslaught of deadly and costly weather disasters, an international panel of climate scientists said in a new report issued Wednesday. The greatest threat from extreme weather is to highly populated, poor regions of the world, the report warns, but no corner of the globe — from Mumbai to Miami — is immune.
The document by a Nobel Prize-winning panel of climate scientists forecasts stronger tropical cyclones and more frequent heat waves, deluges, and droughts. About Greenopolis. Greenopolis makes a very simple – yet powerful – promise to you, our user: We are about doing good.
Specifically, our goal is to provide you with information and tools to: Teacher Guides By Film - Poisoned Waters. 19 Climate Games that Could Change the Future « Climate Interactive — The Blog.