Earth

  1. Climate

    U.N effectively locks out reporters, others in Copenhagen

    For a year, the United Nations and national leaders have stumped around the world, championing the importance of the Copenhagen climate negotiations. It made this international conclave a must-see destination. And the UN responded by granting accreditation to huge numbers of government officials, UN officials, public-interest groups and journalists. In fact, to almost twice as many individuals as the conference center could hold. And that led to pandemonium today as the UN confronted literally thousands of people waiting to pick up their security badges – people this organization couldn’t or wouldn’t accommodate.

    By
  2. Climate

    ‘Climate-gate’: Beyond the embarrassment

    The United Nations Climate Change meeting, which I arrive at tomorrow in Copenhagen, is currently deadlocked on more important issues than who said what impolitic thing about somebody else in a private email to a colleague.

    By
  3. Life

    Dinosaurs broiled, not grilled

    Debris from K-T impact could have been heat source and heat shield.

    By
  4. Paleontology

    New fossil helps solidify dino origins

    The dog-sized creature bolsters the notion that early dinosaurs first appeared in what is now South America.

    By
  5. Earth

    Earth’s atmosphere may be extraterrestrial in origin

    Analyses of krypton, xenon hint that air didn’t fizz from within the planet.

    By
  6. Earth

    The big spill: Flood could have filled Mediterranean in less than two years

    Discovery of a distinctive channel and new calculations of possible water movement suggest a fast and furious flow formed the sea.

    By
  7. Ecosystems

    Greening Christmas

    I love the smell of balsam and firs and decorating holiday cookies – preferably with the sound of popular holiday standards in the background. I even enjoy shopping for and wrapping carefully chosen presents in seasonal papers festooned with huge bows. So when my hosts, this week, asked what I wanted to see during my visit, the answer was simple. Take me to one of Germany’s famed Christmas markets. And literally within a couple hours of my plane’s landing, they were already ushering me into the first of what would be a handful of such seasonal fairs. But as I also quickly learned, this first was an unusual one: a "green" bazaar.

    By
  8. Humans

    Another livestock drug endangers vultures

    After one veterinary NSAID almost wiped out vultures in South Asia, one of the possible replacements turns out to be toxic too.

    By
  9. Climate

    EPA: Greenhouse gases still endanger health

    In April, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that based on its reading of the science, greenhouse gases threaten public health. Since then, the public and legions of interest groups have weighed in on the subject, shooting EPA some 380,000 separate comments. “After a thorough examination of the scientific evidence and careful consideration of public comments on the ruling,” EPA today reiterated its so-called “endangerment” assessment of greenhouse gases

    By
  10. Life

    Bacteria seen swimming the electron shuffle

    Researchers have captured the bacterium Shewanella’s behavior on film, and the microbes didn’t behave as expected

    By
  11. Climate

    Newspapers issue strong warning on climate

    SN senior editor Janet Raloff blogs from Hamburg, Germany, before going to Copenhagen to attend the climate talks.

    By
  12. Earth

    Countering Copenhagen’s Carbon Footprint

    The United Nations’ Climate Change Conference, beginning Monday (Dec. 7), will draw legions of people to Copenhagen from 192 countries. Traveling to Denmark — sometimes from the far corners of the Earth — will expend huge amounts of energy. And spew plenty of the very carbon dioxide that the meeting negotiators are trying to rein in. So several bodies will be offsetting the carbon footprint of this gathering — with bricks. Or brick ovens, anyway.

    By