Receding of the Aral Sea from 1960 to 2008 (Source: Wikipedia) The fishing towns that lined the borders of the Aral Sea were once a showpiece of the Soviet Union’s industrial might. The sea was so teeming with life that sailors could pull ashore 50,000 tons of fish a year, bringing resources and economic opportunity to [...]

You can consider these the barebone notes on the history of hydraulic fracturing or fracking: The process of hydraulic fracturing for the stimulation of oil and natural gas wells was first developed in the 1940s, with experimentation occurring as early as 1903. It was first used commercially by Halliburton in 1949, and because of its [...]

The Amazon river basin is without a doubt the most biodiverse region on the planet. Researchers are continuing to discover new species every year. Recently, a group from Yale University discovered a fungus that appears to be quite content eating plastic in airless landfills, an environment too harsh for even the world’s most industrious bacteria. [...]

The statistical analysis and computer modeling used by climate scientists could easily be applied to economics and business management. Instead of trying to calculate the role that clouds play in regulating global temperatures and instead of drilling ice cores in search of trapped pockets of prehistoric air, these individuals could be spending their time predicting market trends [...]

I was reading about ancient methods of water management and I came across the step wells of India. They are pretty cool examples of ancient engineering, built long before the discovery of electricity, and I thought I would share some pictures of the wells in the great subcontinent. Most common in western India, these structures serve(d) [...]

Environmental researchers around the globe are finding that glaciers are melting faster than previously expected. While this melting will have little impact on the global stage (Garry Clarke, professor emeritus of glaciology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, estimates, that if all of western Canada’s glaciers were to melt away, the oceans [...]

Water resources are quickly declining around the world and with the global population reaching 7 billion, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise.  Desertification continues to diminish arable land and farmers are being put out of business as their crops dry up. But Edward Linnacre, an Australian engineering student who recently won the James [...]

The world’s oceans, which encompass more than two-thirds of the global, are continuing a rapid decline that began just a few decades ago. Fisheries are dwindling and the world’s largest ecosystems are falling apart as global fish fleets remove far more oceanic wildlife that the seas can provide. Existing conservation laws and restrictions exists, but [...]

National Geographic’s Rivers and Life is a four part program focusing on the changing character of four of the world’s most important water ways; the Rhine, Amazon, Nile, and Yangtze Rivers. Each of these waters is being changed by human development and changing environmental conditions. They also provide a case study of the effects on [...]

It’s a plane!  No, it’s a bee!  O’Hare Airport in Chicago is now the first US airport to house a beekeeping operation on its vacant land.  The O’Hare apiary is 2,400 square feet with 23 beehives, expected to produce 1600 pounds of honey this year. Starting in May, the Chicago Department of Aviation partnered with [...]