Can the carbon dioxide emitted by volcanoes really be considered "missing science" in the climate change debate, as a 2009 bestselling book claimed? No — the real missing science, geologist Terry Gerlach says, is when popular books don't include the most recent or accurate data to support their claims.

Ravaged by war, drought and natural hazards such as earthquakes and landslides, Afghanistan’s people face many challenges. Here, USGS scientist Jack Shroder gives a first-person account of how he, the USGS and Afghanistan have been entwined over the last few decades in efforts to assess Afghanistan's vast natural resources.

Iceland, Guatemala, Ecuador: It may seem that there has been an unusual amount of volcanic activity lately. But is it really unusual — and are the eruptions connected? The short answer to both questions: no.

The proposed American Power Act aims to significantly curb the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions, in part through carbon capture and storage (CCS) from coal-fired power plants. But will that be enough?

Everything from population to food production to freshwater availability has its own point of no return — including the fertility of soil. Has large-scale agriculture already taken us past the point of Peak Soil?

National income isn't the only factor that should go into calculating a country's GDP, according to a new EARTH feature - environmental sustainability should be part of the equation, too.

What makes humans human? Many definitions have been proposed — language, using tools, even recreational sex — but none of these are unique to human beings. So energy policy analyst Michael Webber, of the University of Texas at Austin, proposes another option: manipulating energy.

When natural disasters strike major cities, such as the Haiti earthquake and 2005's Hurricane Katrina, scientists debate whether to rebuild or relocate the city. Relocating may be the best bet for Port-au-Prince, says EARTH commenter and Columbia Earth Institute geophysicist John Mutter. But in other cases, such as New Orleans, we should rebuild.

Inexpensive, abundant and relatively clean: EARTH commenter and Stanford geophysicist Mark Zoback makes the case for natural gas to become a key part of U.S. energy policy.

When it comes to natural hazards, the big issue is not in their prediction, but in mitigation — in preventing an ensuing catastrophe, such as the devastation that followed 2005's Hurricane Katrina or the 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami. That's where geoscientists can truly help society reduce risk, argues EARTH contributor Mary Lou Zoback in this comment.

The biggest change in tomorrow's agriculture will be one of mindset: It must become an industry closely connected to energy, environment, health, global security and economic prosperity, says EARTH regular contributor George A. Seielstad in this comment.

With the future of energy so uncertain, only a fool would boldly make predictions, according to EARTH regular contributor Michael E. Webber. So here, he gives his "fool's take" on the future of energy.

For our end-of-year issue, EARTH asked several of its regular contributors to look into their crystal balls and anticipate what will happen in the future in their various fields. In this comment, Rasoul Sorkhabi gives his take on the energy scenario for 2010, both in the United States and around the world.

Instead of debating whether oil production is about to go into terminal decline, the author writes, let's just make "peak oil" — and therefore a post-peak oil world — happen as fast as possible.

How the new administration's policymakers treat energy research and development will be telling: If they’re smart, say commenters Alix Broadfoot and Michael Webber, they’ll avoid earmarks.