Stories by David Biello

Nuclear power is one of the few technologies that can quickly combat climate change, experts argue

A call goes out for a new global effort to puzzle out humanity's ecological history over the last 50,000 years or more

Two new reports lay out the case for fast action and increased awareness

On the streets of Beijing, little old ladies coax even littler dogs to do their business. Some even bear the little plastic bags carried by civically conscious urbanite pet-lovers everywhere.

BEIJING—A Chinese high speed train whispers into the station, before finally engaging the brakes and coming to a stop with a sound like the tinkling of breaking glass.

Of the more than 150,000 car fires in the U.S. this year, one got all the attention

On a global level, the popular "footprint" metric used to measure people’s ecological impact may not be very a useful after all

The list includes locations suffering from toxic pollution as a result of everything from e-waste to chemical weapons

Opposition complicates the White House plan to move toward clean energy

What’s the best idea for reducing the impacts of ocean acidification on the environment and society? After all, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere continue to go up and up and up, which suggests that the pH of seawater will continue to fall and fall and fall.

Having led Japan through the 2011 nuclear crisis, the elder statesman is now campaigning for a world without nuclear power

Warming is global, but efforts at the local level make the most difference

By combining quantum and classical mechanics, three researchers could model how electrons jump between elements in a molecule, enabling a deeper understanding of reactions and the design of new drugs

The innovative car faces a host of challenges, including fires

Changes have been made. No, I’m not talking about the difference between the 2007 climate change report from the Intergovernmental on Climate Change versus this latest iteration.

The IPCC notes again that climate change is unequivocal so the question becomes what will be done to restrain its impacts

Talk about management by committee: one group of more than 800 scientist authors to cope with more than 9,000 scientific publications on climate change and more than 20,000 comments from “expert reviewers” (plus another 30,000 or so from various other interested parties.) Now the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is into four days of wrangling [...]

Despite its lightweight metal body, the Tesla Model S electric vehicle earned the highest automobile safety rating in North America

The Environmental Protection Agency has new rules for how much carbon dioxide power plants can spew. Designed to ensure that no new plants built in the U.S.

As the world's oceans turn more acidic, a cheaper and more accurate sensor would be useful—inspiring a new $1-million award

Innovations could cut the growing amount of energy used for air-conditioning and refrigeration

Sea-surface temperatures may explain why climate change is not warming the planet as fast

There is no technical issue with fracking, the controversial technique of fracturing shale rock with high-pressure, chemically treated water to release natural gas.

By 2021, climate scientists should be 99 percent certain that climate change is our fault—up from 95 percent certain presently and a mere 90 percent certain all the way back in 2007.