By Kieran Mulvaney, Discovery News The trawler’s crew could scarcely believe their eyes. They had seen icebergs before as they fished off the coast of Labrador, but never anything quite like this, what was described as “a dazzling white ice island five kilometres long and alive with mountains, valleys, brooks, waterfalls, ponds and seals.” A […]

By Andy Soos, ENN Energy Star is an international standard for energy efficient consumer products originated in the United States of America. It was first created as a United States government program during the early 1990s, but Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan and the European Union have also adopted the program. Devices carrying the […]

By David A Gabel, ENN A new study published in the journal, Science, has quantified the forests’ role in regulating carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere. Because plants absorb CO2 as part of their metabolism, the greater the forest, the more CO2 is removed, and the impact of global climate change is decreased. The […]

Three Simon Fraser University biologists, including two co-authors of a new study, say that the study’s findings on the fate of tuna globally intensify a conundrum in managing this dwindling species. Do regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) risk making multi-million dollar fisheries go bankrupt by putting a moratorium on them? Or do they continue to […]

By Andy Soos, ENN The question seems simple enough: What happens to the Earth’s temperature when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels increase? It has happened in the past. The answer is elusive. However, clues are hidden in the fossil record. A new study by researchers from Syracuse and Yale universities provides a much clearer picture of […]

People across China continue [zh] to announce their candidacy in local district level People’s Congress elections, but how far this new surge in civic consciousness can go remains uncertain.   The case of Liu Ping in Jiangxi province has drawn greater attention recently after Liu and fellow candidates Li Sihua and Wei Zhongping were prevented, […]

By Thomas Schueneman, Global Warming is Real The latest issue of the Monthly Energy Review published by the US Energy Information Administration, electric power generation from renewable sources has surpassed production from nuclear sources, and is now “closing in on oil,” says Ken Bossong, executive director of the Sun Day Campaign. In the first quarter […]

Reuters Vast deposits of rare earth minerals, crucial in making high-tech electronics products, have been found on the floor of the Pacific Ocean and can be readily extracted, Japanese scientists said on Monday. “The deposits have a heavy concentration of rare earths. Just one square kilometer (0.4 square mile) of deposits will be able to […]

By Terry Macalister, guardian.co.uk Britain’s richest man is planning a giant new opencast mine 300 miles inside the Arctic Circle in a bid to extract a potential $23bn (£14bn) worth of iron ore. The “mega-mine” – which includes a 150km railway line and two new ports – is believed to be the largest mineral extraction […]

By Michael Fitzpatrick, guardian.co.uk Japanese scientists have developed a new micro-processing chip which they claim could do away with the energy loss caused by appliances while on “standby”. Existing chips in electronics that eat up energy when a device is switched off but plugged in could be replaced by the new microchip by 2015, claims […]