For once, there is good news for the environment: a flurry of international conservation initiatives and environmental research projects were given the green light last week. They were backed with more than half a billion US dollars in grants from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in Washington DC, the world’s largest funder of environmental projects.
The world’s biggest dam removal project — and the second-largest environmental restoration project in U.S. history — is in progress on the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state.
The Elwha Dam and the Glines Canyon Dam blocking the Elwha River are coming down due to aging infrastructure and as part of an effort to restore fish runs. When the dams were built in the early 1900s to provide hydroelectric power to nearby residents, they were installed without a way for fish to pass. Ever since, prime habitat upstream on the Elwha has been inaccessible to salmon.
We’ve all heard that some countries produce more carbon dioxide per capita than others, with the United States among the leaders of the pack. But how do your individual emissions change over the course of a lifetime? As it turns out, if you’re enjoying senior citizen discounts, you’re probably much kinder to the planet than you were in your slightly younger days, but your 20-something grandchildren are kinder still.
Mercury, lead, chromium and other toxic compounds, used in many industrial processes, rob years of healthy life from millions each year. Simple fixes could go far in solving the issue
As the Arctic permafrost melts over the coming decades, long-frozen microorganisms will thaw out and start feasting on the soil. The first have already begun to wake up – and early signs are that they will have a major impact on how Earth’s climate changes.
The weathering rates of gravestones are an indication of changes in the acidity of rainfall between locations and over time. The acidity is affected by air pollution and other factors, and could be used as a measure of changes in climate and pollution levels.
Remember those haunting images of animals stuck in plastic soda rings? This is worse. Since 2009, photographer Chris Jordan has been documenting birds on Midway Atoll way out in the Pacific Ocean — near what’s known as the “Pacific Garbage Patch” or, essentially, a swirling heap of plastic the size of Texas.
What Jordan found on those islands were carcasses of baby birds that have died an unnerving death: According to the BBC, “about one-third of all albatross chicks die on Midway, many as the result of being mistakenly fed plastic by their parents.”
ELKINS, W.Va. — On top of the wooded green, orange and red rain-soaked hills near here, AES Wind Generation LLC, a subsidiary of AES Corp., yesterday unveiled its new grid-scale power storage system, the largest facility of its kind in the world.
The energy storage system is part of AES Laurel Mountain, a 13-mile stretch of 61 wind turbines traversing Barbour and Randolph counties. “We’ve never put wind and storage in one location [before today],” said Phil Harrington, AES’s president of global wind generation. “The combination of these resources together holds the promise of grid stability.”
