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Table of Contents: 1: Global Warming: Is It Man-Made? | Reducing Carbon Emissions 2: Offshore Oil Exploration and Drilling | Drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) 3: “Clean Coal” | Natural Gas 4: Nuclear Energy | Endangered Species 5: Water Shortage | Renewable Energy (Solar, Wind, Geothermal) Global Warming: Is It Man-Made? The Democratic presidential contender, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), acknowledges that climate change is real, man-made and an “immediate threat....

Mark Shegelski, an associate professor of physics at the University of Northern British Columbia, explains. The simple answer is, theoretically, yes. First, let us ignore friction, the rotation of the earth, and other complications, and focus on the case of a hole or tunnel entering the earth at one point, going straight through its center, and coming back to the surface at the opposite side of the planet. If we treat the mass distribution in the earth as uniform, one would fall into the tunnel and then come back up to the surface on the other side in a manner much like the motion of a pendulum swinging down and up again....

An ascendant aide in the Trump White House has warned of the threats posed by climate change, has argued for taxing carbon, has promoted wind power and was even endorsed by the Sierra Club. The political stock of Peter Navarro, President Trump’s nationalist trade adviser, has been on the rise since he won an internal White House dispute over imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum. Trump’s top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, is leaving the White House after losing the tariff battle, and Navarro is widely expected to jockey for Cohn’s job....

By Marian Turner of Nature magazine Scientists have found an antibody that inactivates all influenza A subtypes. The antibody binding site, tucked away in a stable region of the virus, might form the first lasting vaccine against flu. The influenza virus constantly mutates, forcing scientists to play catch-up and produce a new seasonal vaccine each year. But Antonio Lanzavecchia, an immunologist at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Bellinzona, Switzerland, and an author on the new study, says that observing the human immune response to influenza convinced him that it would be possible to design a vaccine that prevails over mutation....

As light travels through space, it gets stretched by the expansion of the universe. This is why many of the most distant objects shine in infrared light, which is longer in wavelength than visible light. We can’t see this ancient light with our eyes, but the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was designed to capture it, revealing some of the first galaxies ever to form. Credit: Jen Christiansen Integrated Science Instrument Module JWST’s core includes four science instruments, described below, that collect its data....

One of the world’s most important food crops may be declining in quality due to greenhouse gas emissions. The results of a major study, published yesterday in Science Advances, suggest that rice—a crucial food source for billions of people—is less nutritious when grown under higher carbon dioxide concentrations. Its stores of protein, iron, zinc and some important B vitamins all decline. That’s a potential concern for public health, the authors say, particularly in poorer nations where rice makes up a large proportion of people’s diet....

When the heavy rains came to Iowa this spring, corn farmer Dave Miller tilled the rolling portions of his 255-hectare plot. Cutting into the soil slows runoff and, particularly, prevents water from gouging big gullies in the fertile but softly held land. A few years back such tilling would have cost him money, thanks to an attempt to pair farmers improving the carbon management of their soils and companies looking to reduce pollution....

Are you ready for something a little different? This article is a full transcript of a conversation I had about yoga and how we can use it in specific ways to aid our athletic performance. For the audio version of this interview (which I strongly encourage you to listen to), I was not locked in my little closet in my own studio at home like I usually am, I was actually in Whistler, British Columbia “on location” with my dear friend, Abi Carver, of Yoga15....

Twenty-three years ago I was summoned to the scene of shooting as part of Denver’s disaster response plan. Calls reporting a multitude of victims besieged our dispatch centers. As I walked through Columbine High School that day, I hoped there might still be survivors. But at that point, unfortunately, all I could do was confirm 15 deaths, including the two shooters. I kept thinking to myself then that it should not have been possible for this to have happened in this country....

Mexico won’t pay for President Trump’s border wall. But Northern Californians might. Many of them live near the American River, one of the country’s most flood-prone urban watersheds. Houston residents could shoulder the cost, too, along with Texans along the Gulf of Mexico, where the Army Corps of Engineers is working on 10 disaster projects funded by Congress in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Florida might have to put beach nourishment projects on hold....

A clinical trial has shown that a gene-editing technique can be safe and effective in humans. For the first time, researchers used enzymes called zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) to target and destroy a gene in the immune cells of 12 people with HIV, increasing their resistance to the virus. The findings were published March 5 in The New England Journal of Medicine. “This is the first major advance in HIV gene therapy since it was demonstrated that the ‘Berlin patient’ Timothy Brown was free of HIV,” says John Rossi, a molecular biologist at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California....

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to claim lives around the world, there are no specific treatments for the disease beyond supportive care. Several drugs already prescribed for other illnesses have shown promise against the novel coronavirus in preclinical studies. And they are now being tested in clinical trials or given to patients on a compassionate-use basis. But experts warn that these medications have yet to prove effective in treating COVID-19 patients....

Dear EarthTalk: What effects do fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides used on residential lawns or on farms have on nearby water bodies like rivers, streams—or even the ocean for those of us who live near the shore? – Linda Reddington, Manahawkin, NJ With the advent of the so-called Green Revolution in the second half of the 20th century—when farmers began to use technological advances to boost yields—synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides became commonplace around the world not only on farms, but in backyard gardens and on front lawns as well....

When Wisconsin’s new state treasurer Matt Adamczyk took office in January, his first act was to order a highly symbolic change in stationery. Adamczyk, a Republican and one of three members of the board that oversees a small public lands agency, “felt passionately” that Tia Nelson, the agency’s executive secretary, should be struck from the letterhead. As soon became clear, his principal objection to Nelson, daughter of former Wisconsin governor and environmentalist-hero Gaylord Nelson, was that in 2007–08 she had co-chaired a state task force on climate change at the then-governor’s request....

If you are unhappy with your weight or frustrated by your inability to lose weight, you’ve probably wondered whether a slow metabolism may be to blame. Your suspicions may have been confirmed by all the diets, programs, and products out there that claim to “fix” a slow metabolism. Let’s take a closer look at what factors have an impact—either positive or negative—on our metabolism and how big that effect might be....

Prospects for the next big particle collider are in limbo. On March 7 Japanese officials announced they are interested in hosting a physics experiment called the International Linear Collider (ILC), but they would not commit to the plan and are seeking international partners to help fund the project. The ILC, a successor to the currently running Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Europe, would smash electrons and their antimatter counterparts together in the hopes of finding new particles or forces to explain some of the deepest cosmic mysteries....

U.S. investment in clean energy was down in 2012 after breaking records all through 2011, but rapidly declining installment costs mean deployments are likely to continue to rise, according to new analysis from Ernst & Young LLP, a multinational accounting firm. The report ranked the renewable energy “attractiveness indices” for all 50 states, and those numbers remained similar – California and Texas continue to dominate the market, with Hawaii making the strongest jump last year through significant solar and wind gains....

Our inner ear is a marvel. The labyrinthine vestibular system within it is a delicate, byzantine structure made up of tiny canals, crystals and pouches. When healthy, this system enables us to keep our balance and orient ourselves. Unfortunately, a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that 35 percent of adults over age 40 suffer from vestibular dysfunction. A number of treatments are available for vestibular problems. During an acute attack of vertigo, vestibular suppressants and antinausea medications can reduce the sensation of motion as well as nausea and vomiting....

NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft has discovered a dust cloud billowing over Mars, up to 1,000 kilometres above the planet’s surface. The dust does not threaten spacecraft orbiting the red planet, but the unexpected finding poses big challenges to atmospheric researchers, who are trying to explain where the cloud came from. “This is the first discovery of dust or debris at orbital altitudes around Mars,” says Bruce Jakosky, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder and the mission’s principal investigator....

How many NASA engineers does it take to change a lightbulb? The question is no joke to NASA, which is investing $11.4 million to change out aging fluorescent lights in the International Space Station’s U.S. On-orbit Segment. When NASA began considering the replacements, doctors realized they had an opportunity to tackle an entirely different problem: astronaut insomnia. Sleep deprivation’s fuzziness is an annoyance on Earth but dangerous in space. Although their schedule allows for 8....