A revolution in the renewable energy source domain is picking up speed after a new study released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) revealed plummeting costs for wind and solar power. The International Renewable Energy Agency notedof competitiveness between 2013 and 2014. As Grist's David Roberts points out in from the report,power from geothermal, hydro and onshore wind are in the same competitive price range as traditional fossil fuels. (MORE: ) Since the end of 2009, solar photovoltaic (PV)...

Underwater volcanoes could have a long-term effect on Earth's climate cycles. A new study out of Columbia University shows that these , but also trigger climate swings. (MORE: ) “People have ignored seafloor volcanoes on the idea that their influence is small—but that’s because they are assumed to be in a steady state, which they’re not,” marine geophysicist Maya Tolstoy, the study's author, said in a statement. The study, published recently in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, . But that's...

Move over California, there’s a new earthquake capital. According to , Oklahoma had three times as many earthquakes as California and remains well ahead in 2015.Hydraulic facturing, or fracking, the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas inside, is believed to be the major factor in increasing seismic activity in the Midwest. (MORE: )Though earthquakes have proven more deadly on the West Coast, none in the...

In what was once considered a fringe idea to alter the weather conditions of our planet, a federal report was released Tuesday suggesting it might be time to take desperate measures to reverse the effects of climate change. The two-volume report released by the National Academy of Sciences posed the idea of injecting sulfur pollution into the upper levels of the atmosphere to reflect the sun's heat away from the planet. Though the report stopped short of suggesting this method...

Brazil's worst drought in 80 years has brought a town back to life, but not how you would expect. In 1969, the Brazilian government dammed the Jaguari River near Sao Paulo and , Reuters says. Over four decades later, as the Jaguari River has dropped to 98 feet below its normal levels, remnants of the town are popping out of the water. (MORE: ) Bricks, ruined buildings, trees and old benches are resurfacing and kindling nostalgia. Former Igarata resident Irene...

This bird appears to be either walking on water, surfing or somehow swimming with just his toes really, really fast. Kruger Sightings, which posts videos taken at Kruger National Park in South Africa, shared this video of what at first looks like a heron gliding across the water as if it was skateboarding or paddle boarding. But as the ride continues, a large dark shape starts to appear around the heron. A dark shape with ears, a snout and little...

(Photo of the crater from the AWI Polar 6 aircraft. Credit: Alfred-Wegener-Institut) Scientists with the German-based Alfred-Wegener-Institut (AWI) made an interesting discovery on Dec. 20, 2014 while doing research in Antarctica on the supercontinent Gondwana. Photo of the crater from the AWI Polar 6 aircraft. Credit: Alfred-Wegener-Institut While surveying the eastern part of Antarctica by air, they spotted a nearly two-mile-wide crater in the frozen landscape. Two days after the discovery, they went back to take radar and altimeter measurements...

Percevero, a young sea lion probably looking for food, was rescued along a major boulevard in San Francisco, more than 1,000 feet from the ocean. Hundreds of sick and starving sea lion pups and yearlings are turning up on California beaches. (AP Photo/National Park Service) Percevero means “perseverance” in Latin, so it makes sense that’s the name National Park Ranger Matt Wallat gave a hungry sea lion pup found more than 1,000 feet from the ocean in San Francisco. Though...

The United States will likely experience 'megadroughts' the magnitude of which haven't been experienced in a millennium, due in large part to man-made climate change, a newstudy conducted by NASA, ColumbiaUniversityand Cornell University scientists said. The study analyzed climate models and tree ring records in portions of at least 16 states and found that global temperature rise due to man-made climate change, and not a lack of precipitation, could increase the chance of the West and Southwest experiencing a megadrought...

Climate change's effects on New York City are blatantly prominent: Temperatures are increasing and sea levels are rising at an alarming pace, according to a 2015 report by the New York City Panel on Climate Change. A rise in sea level has the potential to increase intensity and frequency of coastal flooding, the report says. The Big Apple's five major boroughs are at risk, with low-lyingof the flooding, Scientific American reports. This climate hazard to the region's heavily populated areas,...

A neighborhood covered with snow during Winter Storm Juno on Jan. 27, 2015, in Boston. (Grace Raver/weather.com) With record snowfall accumulating in and around Boston this year — February has been the snowiest month on record — city and state officials have a tricky job: Figuring out what to do with all the white stuff. Earlier this month, the Massachusetts Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs, gave the green light to and other “open water with adequate flow.” Until 25...

The warmth that led 2014 to become the hottest year on record has continued into 2015, with last month ranking as the second-hottest January on record globally, theannounced Thursday. “I think it is safe to say that the warmth so far in 2015 really is a continuation of the warmth in 2014,” NOAA climatologist Jake Crouch said in an email. The past month was 1.39°F above the 20th century average of 53.6°F, second only to 2007 in the agency’s records,...

Some big cities, particularly that are hot and humid, spawn more thunderstorms than rural areas.That’s the conclusion of a , published in Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.The study also found that thunderstorm births were significantly higher on weekdays compared with weekend days, suggesting that increased pollution levels related to industry and commuting may play a role. Rural areas showed no significant weekday-weekend differences.The increased thunderstorm risks illustrate human-induced climate change at the local scale, said Alex Haberlie, a...