Ecology

A Fly-By-Night Operation Is Even Harder If Your Plane Is Solar Powered

Inventors rolled out this prototype of a solar-powered aircraft today. The Solar Impulse will fly for the first time in December and make a 36-hour flight in 2010. And in 2012, a larger verison will fly around the world. Solar Impulse is the Swiss bid to make the first Solar-powered flight around the world. The…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Nov 6

A Deadly Fungus Is Stalking This Creature

This alien-looking creature is actually a newly discovered species of tree frog, Ecnomiohyla rabborum. And now it’s one of 47,000 species on the latest endangered-species list. The culprit is an aggressive fungal infestation, introduced into the frog’s habitat. In this case, the Rabb’s fringe-limbed treefrog is apparently being wiped out by a species of chytrid…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Nov 4

10 Ways To Rescue The Climate, According To Science Fiction

Hot enough for ya? Our crazy fossil-fuel orgy is driving the planet’s temperatures through the roof. Good thing science fiction books and movies have come up with 10 can’t-fail solutions (well, maybe they’d work) for stopping global warming. 1: Pump the atmosphere full of nanomachines to get “smart weather.” In Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds,…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Sep 4

The Shattered World Of 2050 Glows With Unearthly Beauty

The sands of a renewed desert claim the remains of Las Vegas in 2050. It’s not a still from Resident Evil 3, it’s one of the terrifying future visions from The Age Of Stupid, a new environmental docudrama. Gallery below. British movie The Age Of Stupid, which opens worldwide in September, takes place in 2050,…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Jul 6

Giant Jellyfish Swarms Off The Coast Of Japan

Just when you thought it was safe. Overfishing and human activities have led to jellyfish growth all over the world. And not just in population; this jellyfish, found off of the coast of Japan, is almost 5 feet across. https://gizmodo.com/the-jellyfish-are-coming-5109354 Not only that, but scientists have found jellyfish weighing up to 440 pounds. Human runoff…

io9 StephenGoldmeier Jun 8

An Island Sinks Into The Ocean, Lost To Human Habitation

Global warming has displaced the first of many refugees: Papua New Guinea has begun evacuating the Carteret Islands, which have been sinking into the ocean for years now, but they’re finally lost to human habitation. According to Dan Box at The Ecologist: The evacuation of the Carteret Islands [has] begun. This morning I stood on…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders May 11

An Iridescent Butterfly Gives Rise To Naturally Bright Fabrics Of The Future

This is the blue morpho butterfly, which has a cool alien-sounding name, but also has inspired a new biomimetic fabric that refracts light like the butterfly’s wings. It’s just one of the eco-friendly future fabrics. According to the Biomimetic Design blog: Morpho butterflies remain a vibrant blue throughout their lives, without ever needing a coat…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders May 5

The Best Green Technology Is Population Control

“I don’t see our environmental ills as a failure of technical capacity. Many technologies can have a positive effect on the environment; the problem is us, and where we tend to focus our innovative energy. “As environmental ideas have entered the zeigeist, mostly thanks to global warming—and still mostly focused on that issue—plenty of technology…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders Apr 6

The Eco-Paradise That Never Was

Back in the 1970s, eco-idealists dared to dream big. Just check out this fantastic concept art from the never-produced movie version of Ernest Callenbach’s classic novel Ecotopia. Gallery below. Architect Craig Hodgetts designed this awesome art for a movie of Ecotopia, but he actually put tons of thought into how everything would work. (Look at…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Dec 18

The Jellyfish Are Coming

They are gelatinous, pulsating, tentacled, and sometimes deadly. And they seem to be appearing in ever-increasing swarms across the oceans of the world. According to a recent report from the National Science Foundation, it’s time for us to figure out exactly what might be going on with these slimy-bodied invertebrates: In recent years, massive blooms…

io9 Nivair H. Gabriel Dec 13

BioBot Makes Bio Diesel at Home!

You would think that making your own Bio Diesel at home would be a tough, multi-stepped procedure that has a few dangerous spots to misstep. Well before the BioBot, a system that makes Bio Diesel from old cooking oil, you would have been right. Unfortunately, after the BioBot, you would have been right, too. Here…

Tech News Mark Wilson Oct 22

Mass Extinctions Rise Among Plant Species

Entire species of plants are dying off in droves, just like mammals. And there’s no way to save them all, say scientists. How do you decide which plant species to preserve at all costs, and which ones to consign to oblivion forever? Answering that question may mean the difference between selective extinction for some —…

io9 Lauren Davis Oct 22

Plants Invade Singapore Skyscraper

Step aside, humans; the plants are about to take over the Singapore skyline. This building may look like a scene from a post-human era, but it’s actually the EDITT Tower, an eco-friendly structure slated for construction in Singapore. The hope is that the veggie-laden tower will provide locals with a much-welcome view of plant life…

io9 Lauren Davis Oct 15

Beneath the Sulfurous Skies

Nothing like a stark data visualization to impress upon you just how bad pollution has gotten in Beijing. Here you can see the levels of sulfur in the air over the past several years in three similarly-sized regions of the world: on the far left is the U.S. midwest, the middle is eastern Europe, and…

io9 Annalee Newitz Aug 6

Where Are My Bioengineered Ecologies?

It’s another installment of Ask a Biogeek, a column where UC Berkeley biology researcher Terry Johnson answers all your questions — especially the weird ones. Reader Daniel wonders: As a biologist who studies whole organisms and populations, I find that more and more of biology (in terms of funding, positions and emphasis) is going to…

io9 Terry Johnson Jun 5

Norway Builds Giant Shelter For The End Of The World

Norway’s “Doomsday Vault” will open tomorrow, just in time to safeguard our biodiversity against the apocalypse. Carved into the permafrost of a remote Arctic mountain, about 620 miles from the North Pole, the vault has been built to withstand nuclear missiles or a plane crash on top of it, but it’s also far enough above…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Feb 25

Is the U.S. the Least Futuristic Country?

Is the United States the least futuristic post-industrial country? Every week we hear about cool robots playing soccer and musical instruments in Japan, or the Tron-looking Pad building in Dubai (see photo.) Meanwhile, the U.S. is retiring its space shuttles and has the slowest broadband in the universe. What’s going on? Five futuristic inventions from…

io9 Charliejane Jan 2

Burying Greenhouse Gases In A Metal Tomb

You can tell this coal plant is eco-friendly, because it has cool-looking curved surfaces and clean transparent lines. The $1.8 billion FutureGen project just chose Mattoon, IL for its new clean coal plant, which turns coal into gas and separates out the harmful CO2. The plant will bury the CO2 underground, and planners swear it…

io9 Charliejane Dec 19

Are You in a Climate Change Hot Zone?

An international team of scientists has crunched the numbers and predicted which areas of the world will be hit hardest by the effects of climate change. They created this map of the “socioclimatic” future of the world. The reddest areas, which include China, India, and the United States, are in the most danger because they…

io9 Annalee Newitz Dec 11

Super Boat Uses Wings For Solar Power, Sharp Turns

A new green boat for the super-rich has “wings” that harvest wind and contain double solar panels. The Turkish Volitan, aka the Flying Fish, can make sharp turns thanks to its two smaller stabilizer wings. The next step? Build one that can actually fly. Volitan, The Flying Fish – Futuristic Green Concept Boat [Born Rich]

io9 Charliejane Nov 15

A Fly-By-Night Operation Is Even Harder If Your Plane Is Solar Powered

A Deadly Fungus Is Stalking This Creature

10 Ways To Rescue The Climate, According To Science Fiction

The Shattered World Of 2050 Glows With Unearthly Beauty

Giant Jellyfish Swarms Off The Coast Of Japan

An Island Sinks Into The Ocean, Lost To Human Habitation

An Iridescent Butterfly Gives Rise To Naturally Bright Fabrics Of The Future

The Best Green Technology Is Population Control

The Eco-Paradise That Never Was

The Jellyfish Are Coming

BioBot Makes Bio Diesel at Home!

Mass Extinctions Rise Among Plant Species

Plants Invade Singapore Skyscraper

Beneath the Sulfurous Skies

Where Are My Bioengineered Ecologies?

Norway Builds Giant Shelter For The End Of The World

Is the U.S. the Least Futuristic Country?

Burying Greenhouse Gases In A Metal Tomb

Are You in a Climate Change Hot Zone?

Super Boat Uses Wings For Solar Power, Sharp Turns

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I’m Worried About the Helpless AI Disruptors of the Future

Russia Allegedly Swung at VPNs but Accidentally Hit Its Own Banking Sector Instead

Ryan Coogler Is Shifting ‘Animorphs’ Into a Disney+ Show

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