There is a type of rock with a voracious appetite for carbon dioxide

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday set stringent new standards for airborne lead particles, following the recommendations of its science advisers and cutting the maximum allowable concentrations to a tenth of the previous standard. It was the first change in federal lead standards in three decades.

Fears of a sharp worldwide economic slowdown are threatening a hard-won European plan on climate change that European leaders hoped would set an example for the rest of the world.

A group of about 11 rich and influential countries is expected to meet in New York in the last week of this month to put together a proposal on the lines of the Marshall Plan to reconstruct Pakistan

Come September 18 and 18 artists from across the globe will auction their works in New York in a bid to collect fund for development of the first community biosphere reserve in India, reports PTI. The Eko Dumbing community biosphere reserve in Siang valley in Arunachal Pradesh will be the first-of-its-kind in the country. It is also one of the last tropical pristine forests left on earth, says Nalong Mize, media associate, Future Generations, a US-based NGO which is organising the auction.

BY MATTHEW L. WALD
NEW YORK

When the builders of the Maple Ridge Wind farm spent $320 million to put nearly 200 wind turbines in upstate New York, the idea was to get paid for producing electricity.

But at times, regional electric lines have been so congested that Maple Ridge has been forced to shut down even with a brisk wind blowing.

That is a symptom of a broad national problem. Expansive dreams about renewable energy, like Al Gore's hope of replacing all fossil fuels in a decade, are bumping up against the reality of a power grid that cannot handle the new demands.

When Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg dreamed out loud last week about a New York skyline filled with wind turbines, one of the most serious issues raised by the naysayers was that the wind does not always blow when you need it.
But a New Jersey company plans to announce on Tuesday that it is working on a solution to this perennial problem with wind power: using wind turbines to produce compressed air that can be stored underground or in tanks and released later to power generators during peak hours.

Ed Pilkington

New York: Within 10 years, New Yorkers may be walking over the Brooklyn Bridge beneath gently whirring turbines, and gazing up at the Empire State Building topped by a giant windmill.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is calling for the city to become a major generator of renewable energy. He wants to see New York wean itself from dependency on the conventional power grid by massive investment in wind, solar and wave energy and opened the prospect of wind turbines being placed on bridges and skyscrapers, in a way that could transform the city's skyline.

a recent study has found that children residing in areas with more trees are less likely to suffer from asthma. Trees may prevent asthma because they bring about a difference in the local air