The reluctance of U.S. federal regulators to require operators of nuclear reactors to spend $5 billion to enhance the security of spent fuel rods stored underground threatens the country with a potential catastrophe, scientists warned on Friday.

The huge plummet in prices of solar energy in India has helped leaders to walk away from its plans of building nearly 14 gigawatts of coal-fired power stations. Analyst Tim Buckley said this shift will have “profound” ramifications for global energy markets.

Wolves and other top predators need large ranges to be able to control smaller predators whose populations have expanded to the detriment of a balanced ecosystem. That’s the main finding of a study appearing May 23 in Nature Communications that analyzed the relationship between top predators on three different continents and the next-in-line predators they eat and compete with. The results were similar across continents, showing that as top predators’ ranges were cut back and fragmented, they were no longer able to control smaller predators.

Artificial lawns, plants from arid countries and flower beds designed to cope with floods are among future features of UK gardens outlined in a major new report.

Solar panels have set a new record for electricity generation, providing nearly a quarter of the demand. As much of Britain basked in warm and sunny weather, solar produced some 8.7 gigawatts at midday on Friday, representing 24.3 per cent of the electricity being used at the time, the National Grid has revealed. The previous record was set on 10 May when 8.48GW was generated by solar, which tends to peak at about lunchtime.

The Turnbull government has quietly axed eight environmental conditions aimed at protecting vulnerable turtle species set to be affected by Adani's proposed $3 billion coal terminal expansion at Abbot Point in Queensland. The move by the Environment Department, signed by minister Josh Frydenberg on May 10, also modified a ninth condition that required the Indian-owned miner spend $450,000 annually to implement a marine offsets strategy. Those funds will now go to the Reef Trust, possibly from a later date.

Fidelity Investments may support shareholder proxy proposals calling on companies to report on sustainability matters this year, a major shift by the Boston asset manager as climate activists gain more traction at large U.S. corporations.

Scientists have found a high rate of tumors in flatfish in the Baltic Sea that could be linked to old munitions. Weaponry dumped in the sea at the end of World War II is leaching chemicals toxic to fish - and people.

It’s one of our most widely used natural resources, but it’s scarcer than you think.

Environmentalists are ignoring the elephant in the room … the world’s largest polluter.

Climate change only explains at least 20 percent of the movement.

More than 37 million pieces of plastic debris have accumulated on a remote island in the South Pacific, thousands of miles from the nearest city, according to estimates from researchers who documented the accumulating trash. Turtles get tangled in fishing line, and hermit crabs make their homes in plastic containers. The high-tide line is demarcated by litter. Small scraps of plastic are buried inches deep into the sandy beaches.

Climate change denial has made numerous headlines in recent weeks. David Rose stated in The Daily Mail that there has been a global warming hiatus covered up by dubious science, Bret Stephens criticized the certitude of evidence in The New York Times, and Trump is rapidly making decisions based on his belief that humans have not impacted climate change.

If there’s a silver lining to the toxic cloud hovering over the White House, it’s that our science-denying president hasn’t caused too much damage to the environment. Yet. But nearly four months into the Trump administration, the risks to the nation’s air, land and water are large and looming, as is the threat to the country’s belated — and still insufficient — efforts to combat catastrophic global warming. If Trump supporters believe this is an over-regulated nation, they better prepare themselves and their descendants for unhealthier and more disrupted lives.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Tuesday announced an ambitious plan to cut carbon pollution from the state's power plants, taking a stand against the Trump administration's continued efforts to dismantle carbon-cutting regulations. McAuliffe issued an executive order directing state environmental regulators to begin creating a market-based carbon-trading program. The mandatory cap-and-trade program would become the third in the country, after California's statewide carbon compliance market and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative...

Top predators like wolves have a powerful effect on their ecosystems, and if they are taken away, a strange phenomenon can happen

The Antarctic Peninsula is not only getting warmer, it's getting dramatically greener with a sharp increase in plant growth over the past 50 years.

No seeds were lost but the ability of the rock vault to provide failsafe protection against all disasters is now threatened by climate change.

A Coast Guard patrol spotted the wrecks in shallow waters that are only clear after the lake's ice melts and before summer sediment swirls and algae blooms

A beetle-and-fungus combo is about to wipe out millions of Southern California trees—and that means people's lives are at stake, too.

Scott Pruitt announced the EPA would reverse a proposed ban on this extremely harmful pesticide and allow it to remain on the market. By Nicole Greenfield.

An offshore oil and gas well in Australia leaked oil continuously into the ocean for two months in 2016, releasing an estimated 10,500 litres. But the spill was never made public by the regulator and details about the well, its whereabouts and operator remain secret. In its annual offshore performance report released this week, the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority included a mention of a 10,500-litre spill in April 2016. It provided limited details about, noting that it had been identified during a routine inspection.

'The full impacts will take decades to play out, but once set in motion they could be hard to reverse.' By Ian Johnston.

‘This should never have happened.’ —President Donald Trump. By Gabriel H. Sanchez.

The rule limits venting and flaring gas, a move the Obama administration estimated would prevent 180,000 tons of climate-warming methane from leaking into the atmosphere every year.

On current trends, the Arctic will be ice-free in summer by 2040.

Using the insecticide thiamethoxam in spring could reduce bee numbers later in the year, a study finds.

"Without access to clean water, states, nations, and all of civilization will collapse." Sizable and necessary attention has been paid in recent years to the important fight over the impact of dirty fossil fuels on our environment. But it is sometimes overlooked that while oil, gas, and coal are extremely important to life as we know it, none are humanity's most necessary commodity.

Millions of wind turbines proposed to power Arctic ice-making

As global temperatures rise and the oceans warm, what used to be 500-year floods are now happening more frequently.

Dana Nuccitelli: A new study finds that explaining the techniques of science denial makes people resistant to their effects

Luckily for Dow, the E.P.A. is now run by climate-change skeptic and general enemy of living things Scott Pruitt, who last month said he would reverse “an Obama-era effort to bar the use of Dow's chlorpyrifos pesticide on food after recent peer-reviewed studies found that even tiny levels of exposure could hinder the development of children's brains.” Plus, Dow Chemical C.E.O. Andrew Liveris is good buddies with President Donald Trump.

He’s visiting East Chicago, a Superfund site. By Nathalie Baptiste.

The 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill did $17.2 billion in damage to the natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico, a team of scientists recently found after a six-year study of the impact of the largest oil spill in U.S. history. This is the first comprehensive appraisal of the financial value of the natural resources damaged by the 134-million-gallon spill. “This is proof that our natural resources have an immense monetary value to citizens of the United States who visit the Gulf and to those who simply care that this valuable resource is...

Gardening simply requires greater vigilance than before.