ENVIRONMENT

If doomsday soothsayers are to be believed, the world has less than a year to exist because everything's going to end on December 21, 2012.

British scientists have discovered an astonishing range of creatures living in one of the most inhospitable regions of the deep sea.

Australia's federal government announced on Friday that it would extend financial assistance to communities hit by ex-tropical cyclone Grant. The money could be used to repair damaged bridges and roads and to help the battered areas recover.

As far as the old saying “waste not, want not” goes, people have long been practicing the act of conservation –utilize of everything that can be used so as not to waste anything in the process. But this old motto comes to life as news of elephant poop being turned into paper makes headlines.

The Australian weather bureau cancelled on Thursday a cyclone watch it made for Cape York in Queensland. The bureau explained its move to changes in ex-tropical cyclone Grant.

Amid the spate of train accidents in Australia involving shipment of minerals, BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) assured on Thursday that the route it would take to move toxic products from its Olympic Dam expansion is safe.

Anyone who's ever flown knows the drill before take-off. Seatbelts on and turn off all electronic devices. However according to a study conducted by U.S.A Today more people are refusing to turn off their electronic devices even during take-off, flight and landing. What are the effects of these electronic devices to a plane? Will they really cause a plane to drop out of the sky?

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory has granted Natcore a license to develop its patented black silicon technology. Natcore expects to deliver the first commercial black silicon product in 2012.

Many beaches in Sydney will remain closed until Wednesday as waves of up to four meters created by ex-tropical cyclone Fina hit the coast.

A team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana has created a new material called "solar paint" which could pave the way for cheaper solar cell technology.

Farmers in 10 of Murray-Darling Basin's 23 communities would allow the flooding of their lands' easement covering more than 1 million hectares.

Heavy rains and flooding since Tuesday have killed 23 people in Tanzania's capital of Dar es Salaam prompting President Jakaya Kikwete to call on residents in affected valleys and lowland areas to evacuate.

A former whaling captain warned that Japan's annual whale hunt in Antarctica could hurt Australia's $300-million-a-year whale-watch industry.

The changing climate has made it more difficult to predict weather patterns that could either be damaging to life and property. Some architects from the U.S. and Asia have devised the latest of designs in order for homes to withstand the wrath of Mother Nature.

China, earnest in its campaign to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions through 2015, has set a pollution reduction goal for 2012.On Wednesday, the world's second-largest economy, which happens to be also the world's biggest energy consumer, announced that for the coming year 2012, it aims to reduce by 2 per cent its sulfur dioxide (SO2) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) as well as ammonia nitrogen by 1.5 per cent, apart from maintaining zero-growth in the emission of nitrogen oxides, the...

The Western Australian government rejected on Wednesday the application of LD Operations to run a coal mine at Osmington hear Margaret River.

It was a bad year of Australia's insurance industry which had to pay out more than $4 billion in insurance claims due to the natural calamities that battered the country in 2011.

Fiscal crisis stricken Germany, by far the eurozone's largest single investor in renewable energy, is all the more getting serious to wipe out its coal usage by 2020.

Researchers hope to assess the potential impact of global warming on marine ecosystems by examining tiny worms that inhabit the Southern Ocean around Antarctica.

Every day scientists and inventors are discovering new technologies that will change the world in ways that we can't imagine. Here are some of the current technologies that will inevitably change the way we live in the future.

Scientists have found clues on the formation of the mysterious Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains, also known as “ghost mountains, that is buried deep beneath the ice sheet surrounding Dome Argus, the highest ice feature in Antartica.

Effective Jan. 1, China will start implementing a modified Vehicle and Vessel Tax Law that imposes a corresponding higher tax levy for vehicles with an engine size of 2 liters and above.

New study claims that letting babies cry — without intervening — could lead to higher incidences of ADHD, anxiety and developmental disorders.

Republicans in Congress have delayed part of a 2007 law that would require U.S. light bulbs to be more energy-efficient, scoring a symbolic victory.

Climate change will result to a massive shift in the Earth’s vegetation by 2100 when the world’s greenhouse gas emissions would have doubled, a new study revealed, based on a computer model to project how the world’s vegetation would shift in the next three centuries.

Embryonic cells and sperm collected from two species of coral that live in the Great Barrier Reef are being preserved in frozen repository that could someday restore some of the corals to the reef.

Can second-hand coke be as dangerous as second-hand smoke? This will be a new area for research as a new study has found that regions with high level of cocaine and marijuana use have higher concentrations of cocaine in the atmosphere.

From being regarded as a largely dead science, cold fusion has grabbed the attention of mainstream media and the scientific community when high-profile demonstrations in Italy allegedly showed a cold fusion device generating 470 watts for five hours. The device, called the E-Cat or Energy Catalyzer was developed by Andrea Rossi, Italian inventor and entrepreneur and Sergio Focardi, a physicist at the University of Bologna. The E-Cat reportedly fuses nickel and hydrogen at low temperatures to rel...

Hydraulic fracturing or fracking has come under fire lately. The process involves fracturing rocks by pressurized fluids to release petroleum, natural gas, coal seam gas and other substances.