In The News

China’s Environmental Concerns Could Be GM Problem

Emanuele Berry February 14, 2014
Cars and other fossil fuel-using vehicles contribute to smog, and regulations to reduce notorious urban pollution in China could put a dent in GM and other foreign auto sales there. In recent years, GM has sold more cars in China than were sold in the United States during any years, notes Bruce M. Belzowski of the Transportation Research Institute at the University of Michigan, in the report....

Danger to Cities by the Sea

Aditi Sen January 28, 2014
Asia’s coastal megacities are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, in particular the risk of coastal flooding. What makes cities like Jakarta, Manila or Bangkok so vulnerable is that they are heavily populated and among the least prepared, suggests Aditi Sen of Verified Carbon Standard. The organization aims to reduce greenhouse emissions and encourage quality assurance...

China Exports Pollution to US, Study Finds

Edward Wongjan January 27, 2014
Pollution knows no borders. A study by nine researchers in three nations quantifies “how air pollution in the United States is affected by China’s production of goods for export and by global consumer demand for those goods,” reports Edward Wongjan for the New York Times: “The scientists wrote that ‘outsourcing production to China does not always relieve consumers in the United States – or for...

If You See Something, Say Something

Michael E. Mann January 21, 2014
Climate scientists are in 97 percent agreement that rapid climate change is underway and immediate response could stem the effects of warming temperatures and rising seas. The media often suggest the issue remains under debate. “If one is looking for real differences among mainstream scientists, they can be found on two fronts: the precise implications of those higher temperatures, and which...

US Cold Snap Fuels Climate Debate

Jeff Tollefson January 10, 2014
A sudden drop in temperatures across the United States has ignited debate about the influence of climate change and polar melt over the stability of one of the world’s two jet streams. “The polar jet stream is a natural product of Earth’s rotation and climate system, created as warm air from the south merges with cold Arctic air,” writes Jeff Tollefson for Nature. “Most of the time it is fairly...

Typhoon in Philippines Casts Long Shadow Over UN Talks on Climate Treaty

Henry Fountain, Justin Gillis November 13, 2013
Those worried about climate change are not waiting for scientific deliberation that Typhoon Haiyan is a consequence of a warming planet. The typhoon is reported to have killed thousands in the Philippines, and relief organizations struggle to reach survivors with needed food, water and supplies. Some delegates in Warsaw for UN talks on a climate treaty point to the typhoon as “the cost of...

Power From the Sea?

October 21, 2013
The nonstop movement of ocean wavers could make them an ideal source for energy. Zhong Lin Wang leads a team at Georgia Institute of Technology that developed “an inexpensive and simple prototype of a triboelectric nanogenerator that could be used to produce energy and as a chemical or temperature sensor,” reports Phys.org. The research was introduced in the journal Angewandte Chemie, and Phys....