Environment

Some scientists have argued that so much gas leaks out during production that it is actually worse for the environment than coal. But a new nationwide study shows that methane leaks from natural gas production aren't as bad as some feared.

For the past couple of years, NASA has been using remotely piloted aircraft to study hurricanes. And they are turning up new information about things like how dust from Africa can determine whether weather systems become hurricanes in the Atlantic.

The chemistry of dozens of streams and rivers across the U.S. is changing. Waters are becoming more alkaline — the opposite of acidic. And the reason is counterintuitive — researchers believe that acid rain is to blame.

A dispute over a proposed iron ore mine in Wisconsin has spilled into the nearby woods. Native Americans have set up a camp to protect land near the mine site and say federal treaty rights allow the campers to stay.

Range hoods are designed to capture the pollutants from your stove, but many models are not effective and it's hard for consumers to know how good a hood is. But researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab are developing a new standardized test that manufacturers can use to rate their range hoods.

BP is fighting the settlement it agreed to last summer that let the oil company avoid thousands of potential lawsuits over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP now says the claim process is corrupt and wants to stop all the money flowing from its claims fund.

Scientists report in the journal Nature Geoscience that they've uncovered the largest volcano on Earth in the Northwest Pacific Ocean, about 1,000 miles east of Japan. In fact it's one of the largest in the solar system, second only to Olympus Mons on Mars. Scientists have been studying the massive structure for decades, but now are confirming it's a single volcano about the size of New Mexico. It rises about four miles off the sea floor, but doesn't break through the ocean surface. Called Tamu Massif, it hasn't erupted in more than 130 million years, helping to keep its true nature secret.

Risking and embracing failure is part of the job for explorers and adventurers like aeronaut Salomon August Andrée. His fatal attempt at reaching the North Pole motivated others to push their own limits. The September issue of National Geographic investigates "famous failures" and why they mattered.

About 160 years ago, before Europe began warming up, glaciers in the Alps started rapidly retreating. Now NASA scientists offer a possible explanation for this apparent paradox: Soot from the Industrial Revolution could have heated up the ice.