Seeking to cut down on methane pollution from organic waste, California is launching a statewide food waste recycling program in January, the largest such initiative in the United States, the Los Angeles Times reported. When microbes break down potato peels, coffee grounds, grass clippings, and other organic waste, they generate methane as a byproduct. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, […]

In recent decades, cattle grazing has accounted for around two-thirds of deforestation in Brazil, with ranchers clearing forest to create pastures. Halting climate change demands not only stopping deforestation, but reversing it, for instance, by turning pastures back into woodlands. A new study of secondary forests in Central and South America and West Africa offers some hope, finding that forests […]

As wind and solar power have become dramatically cheaper, and their share of electricity generation grows, skeptics of these technologies are propagating several myths about renewable energy and the electrical grid. The myths boil down to this: Relying on renewable sources of energy will make the electricity supply undependable. Last summer, some commentators argued that blackouts in California were due […]

Wildlife officials in Florida will feed starving manatees, whose food supplies have dwindled as a result of marine pollution, Reuters reported. Such interventions are extremely rare, as conservationists are wary of making animals dependent on humans for food. “The idea behind this experimental supplemental feeding … is that you can give them just enough more food that can get them […]

When a heavy storm hit in October, residents of the floating community of Schoonschip in Amsterdam had little doubt they could ride it out. They tied up their bikes and outdoor benches, checked in with neighbors to ensure everyone had enough food and water, and hunkered down as their neighborhood slid up and down its steel foundational pillars, rising along […]

China used cloud seeding to generate rain and clear pollution ahead of the Communist Party’s July 1 centenary celebration in Beijing, according to a new study. In the days leading up to the event, officials shut down factories and halted cargo trucks in and around Beijing to minimize pollution, but stagnant winds did little to clear skies, the South China […]

Ecuador’s constitutional court has blocked plans to mine copper and gold in Los Cedros, a protected cloud forest, ruling that the plans violate the rights of nature. “This is a historic victory in favor of nature,” Natalia Greene of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature said in a statement. “This sets a great juridical precedent to continue with […]

The U.S. generates more plastic waste than any other country, producing roughly 287 pounds of plastic per person per year, according to a new congressional report. That adds up to an enormous volume of plastic waste — about 42 million metric tons in 2016 — which is nearly twice the amount of plastic waste generated in China, with its 1.4 […]

Last February, the Toyota Motor Company broke ground on what it calls Woven City, a built-from-scratch futuristic urban center on 175 acres in the shadow of Mount Fuji. Woven City is a reference to the way the project plans to weave together cars, robots, data, and computers to create a city that the builders say, is highly efficient, pollution free, […]

A tale of two continents: Europe’s emissions rose by one fifth in the spring, as manufacturing and construction rebounded from the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, in China, emissions scarcely grew in the spring and fell in the summer amid a shortage of coal and a slowdown in construction. Carbon emissions from European Union countries were 18 percent greater in the second […]