Environment

World's Largest Solar Plant Goes Online

The Shams 1 solar plant outside Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates is the world's largest solar power facility. It started producing electricity this month and will produce 100 megawatts of electricity at full capacity.

That's enough energy to electrify 20,000 homes and could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 175,000 tons each year — roughly the equivalent of taking 35,000 cars off the road, according to EPA emission estimates.

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US Pushes for Antarctic Marine Protections

The US and New Zealand are to push for a marine protected area (or MPA) in Antarctica's Ross Sea. If created, it would be the largest MPA in the world.

The Ross Sea is teaming with life, as the home to more than 1 million pairs of Adélie penguins; 28,850 pairs of emperor penguins; 30,000 to 50,000 Weddell seals; 5.5 million Antarctic petrels and 21,000 minke whales. And like many parts of the Antarctic ocean environment, the Ross Sea has been left relatively unscathed by human activities, with fewer pollutants and invasive species and less large-scale fishing than in other parts of the Earth's oceans.

But global warming and increasing interest in the rich fisheries found in the Southern Ocean are putting pressure on this environment, those calling for the MPA have warned.