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The list of human impacts on the planet is a long one. We move more earth and stone than all the world's rivers

By Maciej Onoszko WARSAW (Reuters) - Drilling at Poland's first shale gas exploration well using the controversial technique known as fracking has not harmed the environment, according to a government study published on Friday. Hydraulic cracking, or fracking, performed at a site in northern Poland operated by 3Legs Resources did not pollute groundwater or the atmosphere, said the study by the Polish Geological Institute. Fracking involves injecting water mixed with sand and chemicals into shale formations at high pressures to extract gas, a technique some fear pollutes underground aquifers and harms the environment

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has abandoned an effort to reconstruct a detailed picture of hour-by-hour changes in the atmosphere stretching back to the 19th century. [More]

We don't hear too much about natural dust, the kind that the winds loft from deserts and dry lakebeds into the air and carries for hundreds of kilometers, crossing oceans and continents, but we should. Plumes of dust connect the atmosphere, the oceans and the forests, and affect the most fundamental processes of life on our planet.

An international research team has tracked down and measured an elusive molecule that rapidly breaks down pollution in the atmosphere, turning it into clouds that actually help cool the Earth.

By Nina Chestney LONDON (Reuters) - High levels of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere mean the next ice age is unlikely to begin for at least 1,500 years, an article in the journal Nature Geoscience said on Monday. [More]

Several years ago, upon my return from a bloggercon of some kind, I was enthused by the atmosphere at the event and thought to myself how nice it would be to have something similar but with a focus on science. I posted my thoughts on the blog and received many enthusiastic comments and e-mails

By Geoff Brumfiel of Nature magazine Scientists in California are reporting raised levels of radioactive chemicals in the atmosphere in the weeks following the disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. [More]

The United States is on the verge of losing its ability to monitor phytoplankton activity in the world's oceans from space, the National Academy of Sciences said yesterday. The loss of satellite-based "ocean color" measurements would be a blow to climate science, because phytoplankton -- tiny ocean plants -- help regulate the global carbon cycle. Like plants on land, phytoplankton produce energy by photosynthesis, pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to fuel the process

Many people are working to harness renewable energy sources more effectively and to enhance energy efficiency. All good. Most of the efforts will probably result in welcomed but incremental improvements, however.

In 1959 physicist Gilbert Plass warned in Scientific American that increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was causing climate change. In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson warned Congress of the risk . In 1979 the U.S

NEW YORK -- A new scientific study suggests that the severe flooding that hit northern Australia earlier this year may have not been caused by rising global temperatures induced by greenhouse gases, but rather by the hole in the ozone layer. Research published last week by scientists at Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science, in conjunction with partners in Canada, purports to demonstrate how the massive hole in the ozone layer of the atmosphere high above Antarctica is altering rainfall patterns in the Southern Hemisphere. The study ran in Science magazine Friday

The sun strikes every square meter of our planet with more than 1,360 watts of power. Half of that energy is absorbed by the atmosphere or reflected back into space.

The first indication that our expedition was not going as planned was the abrupt sputter and stop of the boat’s inboard engine at 2 a.m.