As it stands, our addiction to smartphones is damaging to the environment. But Chile has a plan to make our mobile devices much greener. There's one problem, however: they'll have to pay a premium to develop technology that's more environmentally friendly, Popular Science notes. Smartphones, tablets and even green technology are produced using rare earth minerals.Currently, the cheap way to mine these minerals involves extracting the cerium from the subsurface,. Once the minerals are mined from the nasty cocktail, a...

Ridding the global economy of its carbon is the only way to stabilize the climate, something the leaders of the G7 nations recognized Monday when they called for all countries to cease emitting climate-changing greenhouse gases over the next 85 years. But there’s a sense among some climate scientists that such a goal may be too little too late, even though it serves as a necessary first step toward a commitment among nations to slash global carbon emissions. A new...

Japan has a huge environmental problem, and it'll only get bigger until they do something about it. Some 620,000 tons of radioactive water have been filtered in recent months , Nautilus reported. But that doesn't mean the water is toxin-free, and the radioactive version of hydrogen known as tritium will be extremely difficult and expensive to remove, the report added. What's more, the tainted water grows in volume every day. "More than four years after the disaster, pumps still must...

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration released a detailed dataset Tuesday that will better equip developing countries and the United States against climate change. In this ongoing battle, developing countries tend to be more susceptible to the issue, as they often lack the effective resources and technology to combat it. But, NASA hopes to change this with its newest project. The agency’s Earth Exchange Global Daily Downscaled Projections dataset is designed to assist the scientific community and general public the...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday said it has found that greenhouse gas emissions from commercial aircraft cause climate change and threaten public health and that it plans to take steps to regulate those emissions. When the EPA’s so-called endangerment finding is finalized in 2016, it will follow a similar determination made in 2009 that emissions from car and truck tailpipes also threaten public health because they cause climate change. The commercial aircraft the EPA is proposing to regulate...

Ethiopia announced plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions Wednesday, joining a global climate pact that will soon be adopted during the Paris summit. Although its emissions are only a small fraction of the globe’s total, Ethiopia aims to reduce its emissions by 2030 with the help of developed countries. Ethiopia’s submission during climate talks in Bonn, Germany, brings the total number of target countries to 39. (MORE: ) However, early analyses by climate researchers and environmental groups show the...

Photographer William H. Pierce captured the sheer size of the Atlantic's mighty icebergs in some of the earliest photographs of the phenomenon taken in 1864. The images were obtained during a voyage with American painter William Bradford, who peaked the public's curiosity after painting stunning portraits of the mysterious giants, floating silently in the Arctic's frozen waters. Pierce accompanied Bradford on a voyage off the Coast of Labrador, Canada, to an area known as "Iceberg Alley". The region is considered...

Nearly a month after a pipeline rupture near Santa Barbara, California, spilled oil and muddled California beaches, Plains All American Pipeline announced the cleanup effort had reached $62 million. There is no timetable for when cleanup will be complete, and efforts are costing $3 million a day, Patrick Hodgins, Plains All American Pipeline's on-scene coordinator, told The Associated Press. The oil spill caused the closure of two state beaches and a fishing ban in the area, placing the company in...

Groundwater storage trends for Earth's 37 largest aquifers from UCI-led study using NASA GRACE data (2003 - 2013). Of these, 21 have exceeded sustainability tipping points and are being depleted, with 13 considered significantly distressed, threatening regional water security and resilience. Image Credit: UC Irvine/NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth’s groundwater resources are being used up at an alarming rate, reaching dangerously low levels, according to two new studies out of the University of California, Irvine. The reason? Researchers found groundwater from aquifers without...

Pope Francis' newly released teaching document is a wide-ranging look at what he calls an "ecological crisis" destroying our "common home." The document, or encyclical, titled "Laudato Si," (Praise Be), is at once a theological treatise, a public policy analysis and a heart-felt plea for personal change. Here are some key excerpts from the document, which was made public Thursday:ON THE SCOPE OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION: "The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile...

Mega-droughts. Long-lasting heat waves. Flooded coastal cities. These are the weather scenarios for 2050 from a series of imaginary, yet realistic, reports from the (WMO) that predict a future of warmer, wetter and wilder weather. Just days after on climate change and the environment Thursday, The Weather Channel is airing a special edition of "Weather 2050", starting at 12:30 p.m. EDT Sunday, June 21. The special will explore how the changing climate will reshape the world's weather just a few...

Just days after Nutella for allegedly contributing to tropical deforestation and global warming, the environmental organization Greenpeace came to the producer's defense. Nutella on a grocery store shelf. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Earlier this month, with French cable channel Canal+, French ecology minister SegoleneRoyal left Nutella lovers aghast when she called for a boycott of the hazelnut spread, saying, “We must stop eating Nutella because it’s made with palm oil.” Royal, producer of Nutella, for its use of palm oil –...

Scorching summertime heat waves in Europe, Asia and North America, as well as extreme cold snaps in central Asia, have become more likely because of changes in the way air is flowing over those regions, a new study detailed in the suggests. The that has resulted from the buildup of greenhouse gases has generally tipped the odds in favor of more extreme warm temperatures and fewer cold ones. But the way areas of high and low pressure meander around the...