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Economic and population growth on top of climate change could lead to serious water shortages across a broad swath of Asia by the year 2050, a newly published study by MIT scientists has found.

Warming ocean waters are bleaching the world's corals to an unprecedented degree and could destroy huge swaths of coral reefs in areas ranging from Australia to Africa. "This is a huge, looming planetary crisis, and we are sticking our heads in the sand about it," says Justin Marshall of the University of Queensland in Australia.

Former Alaska Republican Gov. Sarah Palin yesterday said climate change is a myth that scientists and policymakers are peddling to advance a political agenda.

A brown cloud of pollution now frequently shrouds much of northern India. It's a growing health and environmental problem, and scientists are working to understand its many causes, which range from burning agricultural waste to auto emissions.

According to a study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the levels of carbon dioxide in the air increased by 3 parts per million during 2016, and levels have continued to increase during the first few months of 2017. NOAA scientist Pieter Tans said carbon dioxide levels have risen 100 times faster during the last decade than the during the transition from the last Ice Age.

Twenty-four out of 30 top companies in the packaged food, fast food and personal care industries have inadequate commitments or lack commitments altogether for sourcing sustainable palm oil for their products, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

Unsustainable agricultural methods have caused the planet's soil to release up to 70% of its carbon into the atmosphere -- and scientists say that restoring soil conditions might help to reabsorb that carbon and slow climate change. "If we treat soil carbon as a renewable resource, we can change the dynamics," says carbon-cycle expert Thomas Goreau

Scientists from IBM Research say they have accidentally discovered a new class of polymer materials that could deliver cheaper, lighter, stronger and recyclable materials ideal for electronics, aerospace, airline and automotive industries.

Some scientists and analysts are touting carbon capture and storage as a necessary tool for avoiding catastrophic climate change. But critics of the technology regard it as simply another way of perpetuating a reliance on fossil fuels.

The map shows the world's carbon emissions from 1997 to 2010, say the scientists who made it. The data came from satellite measurements and reported emissions rates from factories and power plants, among other sources.

Thousands of researchers will descend on Boston this fall for an event billed as the world's largest gathering of synthetic biologists. The field is evolving so rapidly that even scientists working in it don't agree on a definition, but at its core synthetic biology involves bringing engineering principles to biotechnology.

Ocean acidification is set to cost us $1 trillion by 2100 as it eats away at our tropical coral reefs. The world's oceans have seen a 26 per cent increase in acidity - a result of the oceans absorbing about a quarter of our carbon dioxide emissions.

This week, scientists from The Nature Conservancy and The Dow Chemical Company, with research support from Colorado State University and Duke University, published Finding solutions to water scarcity: Incorporating ecosystem service values into business planning at The Dow Chemical Company's Freeport, Texas facility, which addresses challenges businesses face to accurately estimate the value of water resources and address future scarcity threats. 

there's another major consumer of water in California and the United States - one that doesn't receive the same attention as lush lawns or the agricultural industry: power plants. In 2005, power plants across the country withdrew as much water as farms did, according to a 2011 report, Freshwater Use by U.S. Power Plants: Electricity's Thirst for a Precious Resource, from the Union of Concerned Scientists and a team of independent water experts.

Scientists have developed a technique that could pull the mounting carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and transform it into carbon nanofibers, resulting in raw materials for use in anything from sports gear to commercial airliners.

More than half of Earth's 37 largest aquifers are being depleted, according to gravitational data from the GRACE satellite system.

More than half of the world's 37 biggest aquifers are running dry, putting at risk the freshwater supplies of hundreds of millions of people, according to a NASA analysis. "The water table is dropping all over the world," said NASA water scientist Jay Famiglietti. 

The best climate scientists in the world are telling us that extreme weather events like hurricanes are likely to become more powerful.  When you combine stronger storms with rising seas, that's a recipe for more devastating floods.

With the world's coral reefs increasingly threatened by warmer and more acidic seas, scientists are selectively breeding corals to create species with the best chance to survive in the coming century and beyond. Are genetically modified corals next?

On July 20th, James Hansen, the former NASA climatologist who brought climate change to the public's attention in the summer of 1988, issued a bombshell: He and a team of climate scientists had identified a newly important feedback mechanism off the coast of Antarctica that suggests mean sea levels could rise 10 times faster than previously predicted: 10 feet by 2065. The authors included this chilling warning: If emissions aren't cut, "We conclude that multi-meter sea-level rise would become practically unavoidable. Social disruption and economic consequences of such large sea-level rise could be devastating. It is not difficult to imagine that conflicts arising from forced migrations and economic collapse might make the planet ungovernable, threatening the fabric of civilization."

Climate change is driving tropical fish northward, with species used to relatively sparse coral reefs suddenly finding an appetite for the more abundant vegetation of northern kelp and sea grass beds. That could lead to radical changes in northern aquatic ecosystems, researchers say. "The faunas are mixing, and nobody can see what the outcome will be," says marine scientist Ken Heck.