Every year since 2005, the North Pole has shifted several centimeters, and researchers have now attributed those rapid changes to climate change. While the location of each pole is always in seasonal flux, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin used data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) to establish that the melting Greenland Ice sheet and other ice losses are responsible for the accelerated yearly polar drift.

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Post tags: Climate Change, Environment, global warming, melting greenland ice sheet, melting polar caps, Nature, News, Shifting polar poles, university of texas

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Post tags: albert comper, australia, christian dior, firearm, january biannual, loreal, Nature, organic material, RMIT University, sonia rentsch, violence, weapons

Researchers warn that the cold Arctic seas are undergoing a process of rapid acidification as a result of rising carbon emissions. With its protective ice cap diminishing during summer months and greater swaths of surface area exposed to the air, the cold Nordic seas absorb atmospheric carbon at a faster rate than warmer waters. Acidification destabilizes ocean chemistry and endangers the fragile ecosystem. Though scientists from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) warn that rapid change is afoot, they are unable to predict exactly what changes will occur.

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Post tags: acidification, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP), arctic seas, carbon emissions, Climate Change, Environment, global warming, Nature, News, nordic seas, Norwegian Institute for Water Research, ocean chemistry, pH of arctic seas, science

A Canadian company has received federal approval to proceed with a uranium mine near the Grand Canyon despite a ban put in place by President Obama last year. Energy Fuels Resources has skirted the ban by producing a 1986 environmental report conducted by the United States Forest Service, The Guardian reports, but several conservation groups and the Havasupai tribe have dismissed the report as being outdated. The mine will clearcut a stretch of land as large as a Walmart parking lot just six miles from the South Rim entrance to the Grand Canyon, which is up to 70 million years old.

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Post tags: Energy Fuels Resources, Environment, environmental destruction, grand canyon, Grand Canyon Trust, Havasupai, Nature, News, Red Wall Aquifer, seven natural wonders of the world, South Rim of Grand Canyon, Travel, uranium, us forest service

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Post tags: alternative transportation, collaborative consumption, conservation, e-waste, earth day, Gardening, hiking, Nature, recycling, solar chargers, Solar Power

Read the rest of Kiyoshi Mino’s Amazing Felt Sculptures Blow Taxidermy Away

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Post tags: animal sculptures, bird sculptures, Eco, eco-art, felt art, felt sculptures, green art, illinois, Kiyoshi Mino felt animal sculptures, Lucky Duck Farm, Nature, OCLCO, taxidermy, taxidermy alternatives, wool, woolen sculptures

Read the rest of San Antonio “Ghost Buildings” Renovated into Beautiful Mixed-Use Project by Lake|Flato Architects

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Post tags: adaptive reuse, broadway, development, ghost building, lake flato architects, natural daylight, Nature, outdoor space, real estate, San Antonio, San Antonio Riverwalk, texas, urban revitalization

Some researchers believe that creating a legal rhino horn trade is the only way to curb runaway poaching of the endangered mammal. At present, roughly two rhinos are killed for their horns every day in South Africa, the BBC reports. The horns are sold mostly in China, where some people believe that it is an aphrodisiac. Dr Duan Biggs and others with the University of Queensland wrote in the journal Science that the ban on trading rhino horns has actually increased trade by driving up the price to $65,000 per kilogram, and that a legal trade would curb pressure on decreasing rhino populations.

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Post tags: china, chinese medicine, CITES, drones, Environment, illegal wildlife trade, legal rhino trade, Nature, News, poaching, rhino, rhino horn, science, Wildlife conservation

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Post tags: cave complex, cave paintings, conservation, Design, eco design, france, Lascaux IV, Nature, News, snohetta, sustainable design

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", Brittany, D House, Daylighting, eco design, france, green design, holiday home, House D, light wells, Lode Architecture, minimalist design, natural light, Nature, retaining wall, sustainable design

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Post tags: adaptation, Africa, Art, assimilation, birds, climate controlled nests, Dillon Marsh, eco-art, Environment, kalahari desert, Nature, nature knows best, Photography, sociable weavers, southern africa, Travel, weaver's nests

Scientists working on a project to slow down the relentless flooding that has swamped Jakarta since mid January say that cloud seeding is getting the job done. Usually used to promote rainfall, cloud seeding might seem like the worst solution to slow floods in Indonesia’s capital, but by scattering salt on rain clouds above the ocean, officials believe they have prevented those clouds from emptying over the city.

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Post tags: cloud-seeding, Environment, floods, geo-engineering, indonesia, jakarta, Nature, News, preventing floods, promoting rainfall, slowing down rainfall, Tel Aviv University

Read the rest of Shift Architecture + Urbanism Transforms a 1930s Dutch Villa Into a Light-Filled Modern Dental Clinic

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Post tags: Daylighting, Dental Clinic, dentist, green, green renovation, historical, landscape, Nature, Netherlands, rotterdam, Shift Architecture + Urbanism

A meteorite exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia on Friday morning, causing a sonic boom and injuring more than 900 people. Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said the giant fireball that sped across the sky was traveling 19 miles per second before it exploded, causing a bright light that could be seen 125 miles away in Yekaterinburg. Most injuries occurred as a result of flying glass from shattered windows and at least 100 people remain in hospital, Reuters reports.

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Post tags: 2012 DA14, asteroid, Chelyabinsk, Environment, meteorite, Meteorite explosion, meteorite hits Russia, meteorite slams into Russia, nasa, Nature, News, russia, science, space

Image ©shutterstock

Red and white sea slugs that roam the warm waters of Southeast Asia just may be the envy of the animal world, given their ability to discard and re-grow a penis again and again. The Chromodoris reticulata is a hermaphroditic slug that, once mating is complete, can cast off its penis into the water. Twenty-four hours later, a new, fledgling penis unfurls from inside the slug, replacing the discarded one.

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Post tags: biology, Chromodoris reticulata, conservation, disposable penis, eco design, green design, hermaphrodite organisms, Nature, regenerative penis, science, sea slug, sustainable design, throw away penis

Sometimes we get so caught up in exciting new sustainable homes designed in Japan and Scandanavia, that we forget to honor the original masters of organic architecture. Take Mickey Muennig, who designed this gorgeous glass domed “Greenhouse” in California in 1976. This tiny home features a round floor plan favored by our ancestors, a simple, rustic material palette, and a view of Partington Ridge and the Pacific ocean that we would die for.

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Post tags: "natural materials", big sur, California, eco design, glass roof, green design, greenhouse, mickey muennig, Nature, organic design, pacific ocean, round houses, sustainable design, Sustainable Materials

Birdfreeder is a contemporary bird feeder that’s light as a feather and packs flat to ship. It comes smartly packed in a recyclable cardboard box, and it can be readily assembled in just a few simple steps. The clever feeder comes with a set of carefully balanced wooden sticks that suspend it in the air like a dancing mobile.

+ Birdfreeder

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Post tags: Animals, bird feeder, Birdfreeder, birds, flat pack bird feeder, Flatpack, green design, green products, Nature, Recycled Materials, sustainable design

Read the rest of Kate MacDowell Masterfully Crafts Porcelain Sculptures Inspired by Nature

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Post tags: american musuem of ceramic art, art history, ecosystem, environmental destruction, environmental stewards, figures of speech, human destruction, kate macdowell, mythology, Nature, porcelain, preserved specimens

It’s the 21st of December 2012, the end of a Mayan calendrical epoch that spanned 144,000 days, and according to some, humanity is expected to shift into a new era of collective consciousness. To mark the event, Dr Julie Kunen, director of the Latin America and Caribbean Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), penned a short essay on The Guardian about the Mayan civilization that collapsed more than one thousand years ago. Brought about by some of the same environmental challenges we are currently facing, this catastrophic end to a great people ought to inspire contemporary society to re-evaluate their treatment of natural systems.

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Post tags: 21-12-12, Apocalypse, Baktun, certified timber, Dr Julie Kunen, Environment, Maya Biosphere Reserve, natural protected areas, Nature, News, tropical forest, WCS

It is well known that when volcanos erupt and spew ash into the environment, those increased particles can block sunlight from reaching the earth and cause temperatures to drop. But now researchers have found that the opposite is true as well. When temperatures rise and glaciers melt quickly, changes in the stress on tectonic plates create more opportunities for magma to push its way out, increasing volcanic eruptions.

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Post tags: Climate Change, Environment, GEOMAR, harvard, Increased Volcanic Activity, Nature, News, rising sea levels, science, volcanic eruptions, Volcanos