Off the southeast coast of Australia, the waters at night glow an eerie blue, a hue reminiscent of Broadway’s neon lights. Photographer Andy Hutchinson captured the phenomenon at Jervis Bay, caused by a natural occurrence called . This happens when creatures in the water give off light. Many do it, squid and some fish, even single-celled organisms called dinoflagellates. In bioluminescence, a “light-producing chemical reaction occurs inside an organism,” according to the , a resource run by the University of...

Despite all the leaps the United States made in the past few years to cut ozone emissions, researchers found China's pollution is blowing into the Western U.S. and putting a dent in the progress. The findings, published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience, show the ozone levels in the troposphere – the lowest level of the atmosphere– from 2005 to 2010. The study also said that the Chinese pollution has offset 43 percent of all efforts to reduce ozone...

China's choking pollution contributes to 1.6 million deaths per year, according to a new scientific paper released by Berkeley Earth. That's an average of dying from respiratory diseases worsened by smog, the study said. Air pollution contributes to roughly 17 percent of all deaths in the country, the study also found. "Air pollution is a problem for much of the developing world and is believed to kill more people worldwide than AIDS, malaria, breast cancer, or tuberculosis," the report said....

The Animas River has reopened for recreational use in Colorado just after 3 million gallons of wastewater, filled with heavy metals, leaked into the river last week. After the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment announced contamination levels were below the level for concern relating to typical recreational exposure, Durango Sheriff Sean Smith moved to , CBS reported. The order went into effect at noon Friday, the report added. Despite the reopening, officials still know they had quite a...

With more than four months still left to go in 2015, humans already have spent all of the resources Earth produces to sustain us for the year, according to the latest in a series of annual reports on the demands the world's population makes on the planet. Called "Earth Overshoot Day," it fell this year on Aug. 13, marking the point in the year at which humanity goes into ecological debt, based on a comparison between what we use up...

Global food shortages will become three times more likely as a result of climate change in the decades ahead, a new U.S.-British joint task force report says. The report, released Friday by the , focuses on the rising risks of disruptions to the world's food supply and price spikes thanks to extreme weather events – and says that food production "shocks" will likely go from something that happens once a century to something that happens every 30 years or so....

For the first time in more than two decades, the U.S. government has given the go-ahead to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean, off the northwest coast of Alaska. On Monday, the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement announced that it approved the permit for Royal Dutch Shell to drill below the ocean floor after the oil giant brought in a required piece of equipment to stop a possible well blowout. The agency previously allowed Shell to begin...

"If we're gonna die, we might as well film it!" That's what was running through Caroline Pedro's mind as a huge debris flow came rushing toward her and friend Zachary Jones during a recent hike at Westside Road at Mount Rainier in Washington, according to the Seattle Times. The phenomenon , and it occurs when warm conditions melt snow on the peak and send it downhill, picking up mud, boulders and trees on the way. Before the debris flow reached...

The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesdaymeant to help combat climate change by curbingfrom new hydraulically fractured crude oil wells and natural gas pipelines and other infrastructure. The measure, part of the Obama administration’s Climate Action Plan, seeks to cut methane emissions from the oil and gas industry by up to 45 percent below 2012 levels over the next 10 years. Methane is about 35 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a heat-trapping greenhouse gas over the course of a...

The West Antarctic is one of the most remote places on the planet, but its fate is intimately tied with hundreds of millions living along the world’s coastlines. That’s because it’s frozen expanse contains enough ice to raise sea levels by. There have beenof growing instability across the region and thedue to a mix of warming water and air and the topography below the ice. But the complexities of how much ice melts and when it disappears are still outstanding....

Electric car owners in the United Kingdom may be hitting the jackpot if a government trial goes as planned. U.K. officials announced this month that they will soon begin testing an emerging technology that will allow roads to recharge electric vehicles. The process known as Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer (DWPT) has been in a procurement stage for several months and is nearly ready for off-road trials. (MORE: ) This image shows what the lane could look like. (Bloomberg Video Screenshot)...

Central Asia's Tien Shan mountain range is home to glaciers that bring water to tens of millions of people, but their future is threatened thanks to warming summer temperatures, according to the results of a new study. Published earlier this week in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience, the study says the glaciers , and stand to lose as much as half their current ice if current climate trends continue. The Tien Shen glaciers are part of a system known as...

The wildfires ravaging California are not the only issue brought on by what has proven to be a relentless drought. It now seems that the state's signature giant sequoia trees are feeling the wrath of nearly five years without sufficient rainfall, and ecologists are worried about what could happen to the natural giants if conditions don't change. Sequoia Trees at the Giant Forest at Sequoia National Park in California. (Getty Images) According to The Huffington Post, with some losing up...