Sixteen prominent climate scientists argue that there is more reason than ever for the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gases, at the same time some politicians are pushing the EPA to reverse its 2009 decision to do so.

A cheap and effective new catalyst developed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, can generate hydrogen fuel from water just as efficiently as platinum, currently the best — but also most expensive — water-splitting catalyst out there.

Frequent, moderate-intensity burns in California forests don’t just reduce the risk of catastrophic fire. They also serve an ecological role by promoting biodiversity and the regeneration of fire-adapted native plants.

As the IPCC warns that we have only 12 years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly half or risk significantly greater impacts from climate change, UC Berkeley scientists are charting the best course to save California’s native plants from these human threats.

Retaining a bit of the wild in our working lands – including farmland, rangeland and forests – may be key to preserving biodiversity in the face of climate change.

Solar energy could be the key to providing low-cost, highly reliable energy to the roughly 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who currently live without power.

The 1972 Clean Water Act has driven significant improvements in U.S. water quality, according to the first comprehensive study of water pollution over the past several decades, by researchers at UC Berkeley and Iowa State University.

When fed gold nanoclusters, the bacterium Moorella thermoacetica is transformed into a hybrid artificial photosynthesis system that converts sunlight and carbon dioxide into useful chemicals for solar fuels.

Human-caused climate change has exposed U.S. national parks to conditions hotter and drier than the rest of the nation, says a study that quantifies for the first time the magnitude of climate change on all 417 parks in the system.

UC Berkeley engineers have created a new way to remove contaminants from storm water, potentially addressing the needs of water-stressed communities that are searching for ways to tap the abundant and yet underused source of fresh drinking water.

Low-tech ways of improving soil quality on farms and rangelands worldwide could pull significant amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere and slow the pace of climate change.

California today issued its latest assessment of the many challenges the state faces from climate change — including wildfires like those still raging throughout the state – and highlighted for the first time the regional impacts with nine deep-dive reports spearheaded by University of California scientists.

As temperatures in the Arctic rise in response to climate change, vegetation has invaded areas once too frigid to support plant life.

Bird communities in the Mojave Desert straddling the California/Nevada border have collapsed over the past 100 years, most likely because of lower rainfall due to climate change.

Suicide rates likely to increase as global temperatures rise

California residents not benefiting from improved air quality during first 3 years of cap-and-trade program, while other states show reductions in greenhouse gas.

Human disturbance is creating a more nocturnal natural world.

UC Berkeley scientist demonstrated that their device can collect drinkable water from the air each day/night cycle.

Shuttering coal- and oil-fired power plants lowers the rate of preterm births in neighboring communities and improves fertility, according to two new University of California, Berkeley, studies.

Hippopotamus are a major tourist draw to African watering holes, but their bountiful poop is increasingly fouling African rivers and lakes during the dry season, killing off fish and other aquatic life. And human activity is making it worse.

New research demonstrates that exposing sorghum plants to drought conditions can shift the balance between specific types of microorganisms found within their root systems.

Engineers have developed a thin-film system that can be applied to sources of waste heat like these to produce energy at levels unprecedented for this kind of technology.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has selected Patrick Gonzalez as a lead author for its next major report on climate change.

Now, a research team has opened the door to using other metals in lithium-based batteries, and have built cathodes with 50 percent more lithium-storage capacity than conventional materials.

More than 100 experts from 45 countries have published a three-year study of the Earth’s land degradation, calling the problem “critical”.

A new U.S. Department of Energy project to develop the first detector able to remotely monitor nuclear reactors will also help physicists test the next generation of neutrino observatories.

Businesses are more likely to be environmentally friendly if it’s easier for them to borrow money.

In a breakthrough that could lead to a new class of materials with functions found only in living systems, scientists have figured out a way to keep certain proteins active outside of the cell.

An oft-neglected layer of weathered rock underlying the soil on hillslopes could be a significant reservoir for water, providing critical moisture for trees during droughts, according to a new study.

Justin Brashares explores the social and cultural impacts of declining wildlife populations around the world, from fish to carnivores.

Call it “liquid sunlight.” With the right technology, the gas station of the future will make its own fuel directly from sunlight, in the process sucking up carbon and producing oxygen.

A new discovery by Berkeley researchers may soon bring us windows that automatically tint on a sunny day to block the heat while also generating electricity.

To drive through parts of the Sierra Nevada these days is to witness a morbid reminder of California’s extreme drought: Vast landscapes of standing dead trees, a brown tide sweeping across the green landscape.

Physicist Mary Ann Piette wants to address too much electricity from solar in the middle of the day and a sharp drop-off in the evenings and mornings by changing when Californians use energy.

Drones will play a key role in assessing the impact of highly variable water resources around the state thanks to a new $2.2 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

The proliferation of palm oil plantations throughout Southeast Asia has led not only to widespread deforestation but also to the proliferation of wildlife that destroy remaining forests, according to a new international study.

The planet is experiencing an unparalleled increase in greenhouse gas emissions accompanied by soaring population growth and resource extraction – almost all of it occurring within a single lifetime.

A research expedition tracked endangered tigers through the Sumatran jungles for a year and found tigers are clinging to survival in low density populations.

No place on the planet is truly isolated anymore, which means invasive species travel as easy as humans, hitchhiking on boats and planes with potentially devastating effects on the ecosystems they land in.

The first “big data” analysis of California’s native plants, using digitized information from more than 22 herbaria and botanical gardens around the state, provides some surprises about one of the most thoroughly studied and unique areas in the country.

Doctoral candidate Dan Hammer has been awarded the first-ever Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award for his work to make satellite imagery more accessible and understandable for journalists who are reporting on the environment. 

A new study suggests that many of the state’s birds are adapting to rising temperatures by breeding earlier than they did a century ago.

Dan Kammen’s experience in the developing world makes it clear that energy solutions, like politics, must be local.

Today, as an expert on water, David Sedlak says that cities may soon have to develop their own version of the stillsuit to recycle wastewater, from storm runoff to household sewage, for drinking.

Since we don’t yet know how fast and how high sea levels are going to rise because of climate change, our strategies must be ready and adaptive as conditions change, according to UC Berkeley urban designer Kristina Hill.

Visitors to Mexico and the U.S. Southwest can’t help but stand in awe of the solitary and majestic saguaro, the towering clusters of the organ pipe cactus and Baja’s cardón, the appropriately named “elephant” cactus and the largest cactus in the world.

Climate modeler Inez Fung is part of an international scientific team refining the detection skills of the new Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2.

Climate modeler William Collins explores “pathways for getting down off the up escalator of climate change.

A report from the Center for Environmental Public Policy provides new policy recommendations to implement program to eliminate hotspots of severe air pollution harming the health of people in disadvantaged communities.