Earlier this year a "pulse" of 105,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water was released from the Morelos Dam on the Arizona/Mexico border in an international effort to study the environmental impact of restoring the flow of the river to its historic reach into the Sea of Cortez. Due to water demand and allocation, the Colorado River -- considered the most endangered waterway in the U.S. -- hadn't reached the Sea of Cortez in 15 years, leaving the once lush delta...

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres and COP20 President and Peruvian Minister of Environment Manuel Pulgar celebrate the approval of the proposed compromise in Lima on Dec. 14, 2014. U.N. members on Sunday adopted a format for national pledges to cut greenhouse gases, the heart of a planned pact to defeat climate change. (Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty Images) After two weeks of discussions and arguments over climate change, negotiators in Peru have finally reached a draft accord, called the Lima Call for Climate...

If the seas are rising, why not seek refuge below the surface? That's the basic premise behind Ocean Spiral, an audacious construction project "dreamed" up by the Japanese construction firm Shimizu Corporation that aims to shelter humans from natural disasters, extreme weather and climate change, by housing them beneath Earth's vast oceans. According to the plans, Ocean Spiral would consist of spherical structures, 1,600 feet in diameter, with long, spiraling extensions that dip miles beneath the ocean and down to...