Ninety billion tons, nearly one-tenth of Earth's biomass, is made up of microbes living beneath the sea floor, according to two studies appearing this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Nature.

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As the planet overheats and gas prices remain high, we could get thinner; we might sneeze more; and we have a higher chance of getting kidney stones. That's the good, the bad and the ugly, according to the latest research released concerning the future of our health in terms of external circumstances.

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Last week scientists were extolling the virtues of duckweed—this week, another type of pond scum is being called a possible savior. Norwegian scientists believe microalgae could slash CO2 levels—responsible for a lot of our global warming woes—and even be tapped for a more effective biofuel in the future.

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Time and time again we hear news about the danger the world's coral reefs are in. Now, the first-ever comprehensive international assessment of their conservation status reveals that the fate of coral is worse even than scientists previously believed.

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When I was eight years old, my uncle told me that I’d get a solar-powered car for my sixteenth birthday – and that it would be affordable. When I turned 16 in 2002, though, solar power was still inefficient and expensive, and I landed a bike instead. It's taken impossibly high fuel costs, global warming, and some serious engineering developments, but six years later, solar power is finally becoming a viable alternative to oil.

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Biologists at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University have a strange fascination with pond scum. But the fascination may prove more useful than anyone could have imagined.

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On Tuesday, G8 leaders in Japan made an agreement that sounds great – by 2050, they’ll cut the number of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions by half. It’s an improvement to Kyoto Protocol, at least, which the United States refused to adopt (and refused to apologize about). But developing nations, including China and India, were quick to criticize the accord, insisting that the G8 cut their emissions by more than 80 percent.

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Wait, now pollution is preventing global warming? That’s the conclusion of a recent study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, which says rising temperatures seen in Europe over the last few years result as much from the reduction of air pollution as from the creation of it. The research, which looked at the effects of aerosols on climate, confirms an older concept known as global dimming, and complicates our understanding of how mankind affects the climate.

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Imagine a '57 Chevy cruising through the air, and you get an idea of what single-engine, propeller-driven airplanes do to the environment. The average private plane, such as the popular two-seat Cessna 172, is 30 years old. It carries a four-cylinder piston engine designed in the 1940s that burns leaded gasoline, has no catalytic converter, and gets as little as 12 miles per gallon. “It’s fair to say that small aircraft are gross polluters,” says Mark Moore, an engineer who has led personal-aircraft projects for NASA.

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Tell me this isn’t a summer blockbuster—as man faces the catastrophic effects of increased carbon dioxide levels, plants flourish. German researchers from the Thuenen Institute confirmed as much Tuesday, when they released findings showing that crop yields boom when plants are exposed to high levels of CO2. Jets sprayed the plants with extra CO2—enough to match the amount that scientists predict will fill the atmosphere by 2050—and the outputs of barley, beets and wheat jumped 10 percent.

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It was all smooth sailing for seafaring extremist Ken-ichi Horie. That wasn’t exactly what he was hoping for when he set sail for Japan from Hawaii in the world’s most sophisticated wave-powered boat, named the Suntory Mermaid II

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In addition to drowning polar bears and winning Al Gore a Nobel Prize, climate change may have serious public health consequences. But thanks to Vice President Cheney, you may not find out what those health implications are until you feel them. Today a former Environmental Protection Agency official said Cheney pushed for the deletion of key components of congressional testimony.

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Watch your carbon footprint grow fainter with Sharp's completely solar-run LCD TV. The sleek 26-inch wide, 20 mm-thick prototype made its grand debut this week at the G8's Summit's Zero Emission House. Appropriate timing considering what a hot topic the environment has been at this year's summit.

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