Ammonia would make a pretty handy, potentially carbon-free liquid transportation fuel, say engineers, and it could be produced right at gas stations using electricity from the grid, water, and air.  Researchers at Texas Tech University have developed a new ammonia production system, which makes an end-run around the problems of the so-called "hydrogen economy" -- you remember, all those hydrogen-powered "freedom cars" that Bush Jr. said we'd be driving by now. Hydrogen is difficult to store, but this system combines the hydrogen with nitrogen from the atmosphere, turning it into ammonia, which is still a good fuel source but a …

On the seafloors of Antarctic basins, the water has warmed by just 0.27 degrees C — but that’s enough to allow giant king crabs to take over the ecosystem and eat everything they find. These suckers are more than three feet across, and they're gobbling up sea urchins, sea lilies, sea cucumbers, and starfish. They're also messing with the make-up of the sea floor. Check out the (terrifyinggggg) video above: The crab looks like an invasive vehicle in a Star Wars movie that's launching a sneak attack on an unsuspecting, peaceful civilization. Scientists had predicted these guys would invade Antarctic …

The Obama administration provided a loan guarantee to a SolarCity project that would put solar panels on 160,000 military homes — "the largest domestic residential rooftop solar project in history," Energy Secretary Chu said. Rick Perry thinks he's a smart as Galileo. Or at least that some climate-denying scientists are. So he’d be pretty irked to see yet more evidence that global warming is real, if he actually read newspapers. As temperatures shift in the Andes, residents are looking to hardy crops, like huaña, that Andean people depended on historically. The president of Kiribati, an island nation scheduled to succumb …

If Obama won't listen to the Tar Sands Action protesters, will he listen to nine of his fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureates? Because they've all but told him -- in their very kind and Peace-Prizey way -- that they'll be embarrassed to share the medal with him if he doesn't. Nine laureates, including the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, have written Obama a letter urging him to nix the pipeline. The night you were nominated for president, you told the world that under your leadership—and working together—the rise of the oceans will begin to slow and the planet will …

Hey, remember those ads where they used to secretly replace people's actual made-from-beans coffee with freeze-dried Flavor Crystals? Those were a laugh riot, right? So obviously the most genius possible marketing plan for frozen dinners -- basically the food equivalent of instant coffee -- would be to make people think they're eating real made-from-food food, and then alert them that they've been baited and switched. It can't fail! You know, unless the people involved are food bloggers who care about eating organic, fresh, and healthy ingredients rather than mass-fabricated sodium-enhanced spun and capped protein strands. Then they might get pissed. …

Hey, we all love sharing, right? It lets you live comfortably while limiting consumption and waste. And you have that bathroom, and you're not using it all the time, right? What are you, selfish? Put your money where your mouth is, toilet-hog, and offer up your bathroom to strangers with a deuce to donate. Otherwise the terrorists win. If you're seriously willing to hang an "Open to Strange Butts" placard outside your lavatory (what are you, nuts? We were joking), a new app called CLOO' will let you take shit from just about anyone. CLOO' is a community of registered users …

As individuals, how can we face the existential threat of climate change when we are continually reminded that everything we do -- the very act of living -- inexorably contributes to our own undoing? It’s sort of the world’s most angst-inducing question, which is why The Onion’s take on it is so genius. Suppose you've just sat down in a crisply air-conditioned movie theater. Why not take the length of a preview or two to consider the building's massive carbon footprint? Imagine those greenhouse gases trapped in the atmosphere, disrupting ecosystems and causing infectious diseases to spread rampantly, particularly in …

You remember Survivaballs, don't you? They're the ultimate solution to a planet gone crazy with excess thermal energy, marketed directly to the executives most responsible for all this climate change. Well, now someone has turned oil rig escape pods into the ultimate climate-immune hotel. If you favor adaptation over mitigation, this is the love nest for you! Harness up a few extras for your offspring and you might even stick around long enough to repopulate the planet. Each survivapod is only 14 feet in diameter and sports little in the way of amenities beyond a chemical toilet. But what do you …

Texas, which is rapidly turning into just the sort of desert we were promised it would soon be, has already seen a year of record-breaking drought and out-of-control wildfires. Now the flames are threatening residential areas, even the state capital itself. Kate Galbraith, reporter for the Texas Tribune, just noted on Twitter: There is an intense smell of smoke outside our building in downtown Austin. Residents of Austin and surrounding areas are packing hurricane-style "go bags" in case they have to flee in a hurry, abandoning homes no one ever thought would be threatened by anything worse than a hail …

Here's a cautionary tale for hybrid owners: A Prius-owning family in California lost its car to a joy-riding bear.  After wedging itself inside the car, the bear became stuck. Frustrated, hungry and mad, it kicked, scratched, bit and tore at the interior of the hybrid, trying to force a way out as easily as it found its way in. In its behind-the-wheel rampage, the bear ripped open the seats, bit a chunk out of the steering wheel and damaged the Prius' gear box, shifting the car into neutral. From the safety of the cabin, the awakened family watched helplessly as …