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Gardening on the Roof

Posted by Wolf on Sunday, 21 August 2011 in Green Design

NEWARK -- On a warm fall day in 2008, Annette Shine sat in a classroom teaching a course she likes to call "how not to blow up a chemical plant." Her group of University of Delaware chemical engineering students struggled to learn the difficult material in a sweaty, 86-degree room. The bui...

Infant Gorilla Rescued

Posted by amir on Friday, 19 August 2011 in Environmental Heroes

An infant mountain gorilla was rescued from poachers in Rwanda in August 2011 with help from a partnership made up of WWF, African Wildlife Foundation and Fauna & Flora International. A group of Rwandan and Congolese men were attempting to smuggle the female, less than one-year old, into Rwanda ...

Polluters Should Pay but Can We Make Them?

Posted by grant on Thursday, 18 August 2011 in Oil Spill

Shell’s oil spill in the North Sea this week is the worst in a decade, but compensation for any environmental damage could be in short supply says Susie Wilks from ClientEarth What is the difference between a sea bird dying because its feathers are coated in crude oil, and a sea bird starving to de...

Shell spills over 50,000 gallons of oil off Scotland

Posted by grant on Tuesday, 16 August 2011 in Oil Spill

Jeremy HanceAugust 16, 2011 Yesterday, Royal Dutch Shell estimated that to date 54,600 gallons of oil had spilled into the North Sea off the east coast of Scotland, spreading some 19 miles wide (30 kilometers) at its maximum. While the company stopped the initial leak on Thursday, it has now announ...

Ray C. Anderson dies at 77; carpet tile mogul

Posted by Wolf on Tuesday, 16 August 2011 in Environmental Heroes

Anderson's Georgia-based firm, Interface, makes carpet tiles from petroleum products. He transformed the firm into a model of sustainability. By Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times In the summer of 1994, carpet-tile mogul Ray C. Anderson made a sobering discovery: Although his billion-dollar business wa...

NRDC's Legislative Watch

Posted by Aaron on Tuesday, 16 August 2011 in General Environment

Congress, particularly the House of Representatives, cast many major environmental votes during July. Most significantly, spending bills have become vehicles for an unprecedented number of anti-environment policy riders -- provisions that block environmental protections without reducing federal spe...

Coral Reefs Under Rapid Climate Change and Ocean Acidification

Posted by plantitfilm on Tuesday, 16 August 2011 in Ocean/Seas/Coastlines

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is expected to exceed 500 parts per million and global temperatures to rise by at least 2°C by 2050 to 2100, values that significantly exceed those of at least the past 420,000 years during which most extant marine organisms evolved. Under conditions expected...

Helping Animals Relocate

Posted by bchristo on Thursday, 11 August 2011 in Animals

Humans hate change, and they hate moving to suit someone else’s agenda—that’s why politicians avoid projects that require eminent domain. Animals and plants don’t deal particularly well with change, either. They’ve adapted to live in a certain types of places, after all. But the massive amount of ca...

Surfer ridding beach of garbage

Posted by Wolf on Thursday, 11 August 2011 in Environmental Heroes

On Earth Day of this year, pro surfer Jesse Heilman, 23, thought about what he might be able to do to make a difference in the environmental landscape. With seemingly insurmountable doom and gloom on the ecological horizon, the possibility of affecting change might seem too daunting for some. &nb...

North America's Top 10 Most Endangered Mammals

Posted by smashley1988 on Wednesday, 10 August 2011 in Animals

As I was researching the most endangered mammals, I came across the top 10 mammals that are the most endangered. I found these mammals on IUCN.org (International Union for Conservation for Nature). This organization finds solutions to different environment challenges. The first endangered mammal is ...

Healthiest And Unhealthiest Fast Food Kids' Menus

Posted by plantitfilm on Tuesday, 09 August 2011 in Human Health

When you think about what constitutes a healthy meal, chances are you're not thinking of a burger and fries from your favorite fast food spot. However, a number of major fast food chains have recently taken the initiative to offer healthier menu options to kids -- including Burger King, McDonald's, ...

Al Gore Calls BS on Climate Change Doubters

Posted by plantitfilm on Tuesday, 09 August 2011 in Climate Change

The ice caps are still melting, the ozone layer is still disappearing and Al Gore is getting pissed. In a speech at the Aspen Institute last week the former Vice President hid no emotion when he disputed claims that global warming was not happening by repeatedly shouting “bullsh*t.” “They pay ...

US Economy and Rising Seas

Posted by EarthDude on Tuesday, 09 August 2011 in Climate Change

As many of this column’s readers know, I am from the U.S. and have lived in Europe and most recently Canada for the 10 years since getting my Ph.D. at the University of Colorado. While I am no economist (my Ph.D. is in business), I believe that the recent U.S. debt crisis and the complete and ...

India Assessing Mumbai Oil Spill Damage

Posted by Wolf on Monday, 08 August 2011 in Earth Violators

India's coastline remains dangerously vulnerable. Last week MT Pavit, an unmanned oil tanker, ran aground on Juhu beach. That happened because, nitpicking over their jurisdictional responsibilities, Mumbai police sat on the information for hours. The alarm bells still ringing, a technical snag groun...

The World at 7 Billion

Posted by EarthDude on Thursday, 04 August 2011 in Human Health

Demographers aren't known for their sense of humor, but the ones who work for the United Nations recently announced that the world's human population will hit 7 billion on Halloween this year. Since censuses and other surveys can scarcely justify such a precise calculation, it's tempting to imagine ...

The Water-Energy Nexus: Connecting energy production to water use

Posted by peter.gephart@gmail.com on Wednesday, 03 August 2011 in Water Conservation

The water-energy nexus is a critical aspect of sustainability that must be understood. Energy production requires water, and when energy is saved, so is water. A 2006 report released by the U.S. Department of Energy stated that 39 percent of total freshwater withdrawals in the U.S. were for energy p...

Action Plan Undertaken to Save Tigers

Posted by lillianbarbeito on Tuesday, 02 August 2011 in Animals

The government has undertaken an action plan for saving the Royal Bengal Tigers of the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forests, a top forest official said on Friday. "The Tk 276 crore Tiger Action Plan would be implemented as part of strengthening regional co-operation for wildli...

Himalaya glaciers shrinking, some may disappear

Posted by amir on Tuesday, 02 August 2011 in Climate Change

Three Himalaya glaciers have been shrinking over the last 40 years due to global warming and two of them, located in humid regions and on lower altitudes in central and east Nepal, may disappear in time to come, researchers in Japan said on Tuesday. Using gl...

North Sea oil leak biggest in decade

Posted by amir on Monday, 01 August 2011 in Oil Spill

An oil spill from a platform off Scotland in the North Sea is the biggest in the region in a decade, the British government said Monday as energy giant Shell battled to close off the leak completely. The spill from the Gannet Alpha platform, 112 miles (180 kilometres) east of Aberdeen, likely...

Tim DeChristopher was sentenced to 2 years in prison

Posted by Wolf on Friday, 29 July 2011 in Environmental Heroes

Tim DeChristopher was sentenced to 2 years in prison today at the Salt Lake City federal courthouse. He was taken immediately into custody, being denied the typical 3 weeks afforded to put his affairs in order and say goodbye to his friends and family. Federal prosecutors asked for Tim to...