One knock against Wikipedia and other user-written resources is that you don't know whether an article was penned by an authority or some high school dropout living in his parents' basement. By handing the writing and editing over to experts, the Encyclopedia of Earth aims to provide that accountability. The reference is the centerpiece of the new Earth Portal, sponsored by the nonprofit National Council for Science and the Environment in Washington, D.C.

The 150 or so authors--who include Ph.D.s, teachers, lawyers, and other specialists--had to submit their credentials for approval, and their work is vetted by an editor conversant with the field. You can browse the more than 2000 articles to learn how the body expels toxins and why the global "dust budget," a tally of how much dust enters and leaves the atmosphere, is important for climate forecasting. Earth Portal also offers a news section and a discussion forum.

Volume 316, Number 5826, Issue of 11 May 2007

Dwindling mountain glaciers provide one line of evidence for global warming. Where are they shrinking faster? To find out, slide over to this data storehouse from the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) in Zurich, Switzerland.

Just posted are the 2004 and 2005 measurements of net change in ice thickness, or mass balance, for 100 glaciers, including South Cascade in Washington state, Saint Sorlin in France, and Bahía del Diablo in Antarctica. Researchers have been continuously monitoring 30 mountain glaciers since 1980. The thickness of the average glacier fell by 725 millimeters in 2004 and another 625 millimeters in 2005. Only 20% of the glaciers are enlarging.

For results on several hundred glaciers going back to 1990, you can download reports, issued every 5 years, that record variables such as movement of a glacier's front. One limitation of the site is that it doesn't provide a complete archive--to get data extending back to 1959, you have to contact WGMS.

Volume 315, Number 5813, Issue of 09 February 2007

Researchers in the poorest nations can nab a free pass to environmental science literature, thanks to a collaboration between the United Nations Environment Programme, Yale University, and more than 200 journal publishers. Announced on 30 October, Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE) takes after similar projects to eliminate barriers to medical and agricultural publications. Educational organizations in 70 "low-income" countries can apply for access to full-text content from 1000 databases and journals, including Science, Nature, and Ecology. In 2 years, organizations from slightly wealthier countries can join for a small fee.

Volume 314, Number 5801, Issue of 10 November 2006

Los Angeles is infamous for throngs of polluting cars, but electronics plants and other facilities that spew toxic compounds also clutter the area. To track down emission sources and locate other pollution trouble spots, ooze over to Enviromapper from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The site offers 11 modules for charting environmental variables. The Envirofacts module, for instance, can pinpoint everything from contaminated streams to air polluters. Zoom in and click on any source to find out how much of each chemical it releases. With another feature, users can flush out results of soil, water, and sediment tests conducted at locations such as schools and petrochemical plants after last year's Gulf Coast hurricanes.

Science 20 October 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5798, p. 393

The Middle East's largest wetlands, the sprawling marshes near the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq were once home to about 500,000 people. But the ecosystem withered because of upstream water diversions and Saddam Hussein, who ordered the wetlands drained to suppress dissent in southern Iraq (Science February 2005, p. 1186). This site from the U.N. Environment Programme follows the progress of a project to restore the parched area begun after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. At the time, the wetlands' original 20,000 square kilometers had dwindled by more than 90%. But by this June, they had rebounded to about 60% of their previous size. The site offers satellite land cover maps and progress reports that track water extent and vegetation regrowth.

Science 15 September 2006:
Vol. 313. no. 5793, p. 1547