Carbon future in black and white
<p>Making sense of recent energy trends can seem like a high-stakes Rorschach test. Some experts see the boom in renewable energy and the shift away from coal in many countries as evidence that the world
Jeff Tollefson
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Raking through sludge exposes a stink
A former US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientist is suing the agency's officials and researchers at the University of Georgia in Athens, alleging that they manufactured and published false data to support the use of potentially harmful sewage sludges as fertilizers. The sludges have been linked to health problems in humans and cattle
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Carbon-trading market has uncertain future
The budding carbon-offsets market could already be on its last legs, industry representatives say, if the latest European proposals are agreed. European negotiators went into a United Nations climate meeting in Bangkok this week warning developing countries that they need to step up to the challenge of climate change if they are to see additional money flowing into clean-development projects.
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All eyes on the Amazon
Meteorologist and biosphere scientist Carlos Nobre of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research in S
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Brazil goes to war against logging
It represents half of the world's rainforest and is home to one-third of Earth's species, yet the Amazon has one of the highest rates of deforestation : a report.
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Save the trees
Scientists and policy-makers will meet in Bonn this June to discuss one of the most pressing concerns to come out of December's United Nations climate meeting
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Carbon burial buried
The US Department of Energy has pulled out of a flagship project to build the first 'clean' coal-fired power plant in the United States, a move that will kill the project unless supporters can rouse Congress on its behalf.
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Credit crunch threatens US wind-energy projects
Wind developers in the United States could be the first among the energy sector to fall victim to the global financial meltdown emanating from Wall Street. The banking crisis that began with bad loans in the US housing sector has now brought down several commercial banks, one of the world's largest insurance companies and leading investment banks.
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Altered microbe makes biofuel
In a bid to overcome the drawbacks of existing biofuels, researchers have engineered a bacterium that can convert a form of raw plant biomass directly into clean, road-ready diesel.
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US seeks solar flair for fuels
The US Department of Energy has launched an 'artificial photosynthesis' initiative with the ambitious goal of developing, scaling up and ultimately commercializing technologies that directly convert sunlight into hydrogen and other fuels.