Any major coal spill on Australia's Great Barrier Reef could kill some colorful corals within two weeks and stunt the growth of fish and seagrass, a new study revealed Tuesday.

While coal spills are rare, environmentalists have been increasingly concerned about the risks to the reef from ships carrying the commodity mined in Queensland state through its waters.

Specimens of goldenrod sewn into archival paper folders are stacked floor to ceiling inside metal cabinets at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. The collection, housed in the herbarium, dates back to 1842 and is among five million historical records of plants from around the world cataloged there. Researchers turned to this collection of goldenrod — a widely distributed perennial plant that blooms across North America from summer to late fall — to study concentrations of protein in goldenrod pollen because it is a key late-season food source for bees. 

The newer samples look much like the older generations. But scientists testing the pollen content from goldenrod collected between 1842 and 2014, when atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide rose from about 280 parts per million to 398 ppm, found the most recent pollen samples contained 30 percent less protein. The greatest drop in protein occurred from 1960 to 2014, when the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose dramatically. A field experiment in the same study that exposed goldenrod to CO2 levels ranging from 280 to 500 ppm showed similar protein decreases. 

When it comes to electric vehicles, Japan is speeding ahead of the rest of the world, blissfully free of the range anxiety that afflicts plug-in drivers elsewhere.

More than a third of Australia’s landmass is earmarked for coal or gas, according to a new analysis and interactive map commissioned by the community group Lock the Gate.

India's top court Friday ordered state governments to provide free meals to schoolchildren even during the summer break as the country reels from the impact of one of the worst droughts on record.

Free lunches are offered to some 120 million students throughout India in what is the world's largest school feeding program, but not during holidays.

In a dark and steamy room in Indonesia's tofu heartland three men sweat over bubbling cauldrons, churning creamy beancurd with wooden paddles before draining it by hand and slicing it into silky cubes.

Tofu has been cooked this way for generations but today, innovative villagers on Java island are producing something extra from the simple soybean -- cheap, renewable energy, piped directly into their homes.

The United States on Thursday unveiled the first federal regulations on methane -- a powerful greenhouse gas that accelerates global warming -- aimed at reducing emissions from new oil and gas operations.

The Environmental Protection Agency rules are part of President Barack Obama's plan to fight climate change, curb pollution and protect public health, the agency said.

Five tiny Pacific islands have disappeared due to rising seas and erosion, a discovery thought to be the first scientific confirmation of the impact of climate change on coastlines in the Pacific, according to Australian researchers.

Dyson could become the next Tesla motors as it develops a new electric car, according to a leading industry expert. Filed patents show the Dyson vehicle may use solid-state batteries, which would see the car’s range stretch to hundreds of miles and also be safer than current batteries.

ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIAMikhail Verevkin points his spyglass toward the Gulf of Finland and squints into the distance.