A team of South Korean scientists have produced the polymers used for everyday plastics through bioengineering, rather than through the use of fossil fuel-based chemicals.
A team of South Korean scientists have produced the polymers used for everyday plastics through bioengineering, rather than through the use of fossil fuel-based chemicals.
A loud crack echoes throughout the canopy as two young orangutans come tumbling down, grasping at branches along the way to break their fall. They recover and sheepishly scamper back up.
A salty soup of seawater, microscopic pieces of plastic and marine debris. Those are the ingredients in the North Pacific Gyre, an ocean vortex estimated by Greenpeace to be the size of Texas, contaminated with the floating detritus of our modern lives.
When it comes to sun energy, the focus is often on solar power plants or rooftop panels. But there's an increasing number of snazzy portable products that also draw juice from our nearest star -- things we can carry, wear or set on our desks.
In order to stop dangerous climate change we may be forced to construct giant solar shades and cover great swathes of land with artificial trees that suck up carbon dioxide.
Coral reefs around the world are worth a staggering $172 billion dollars a year to the global economy. But the wealth of the oceans' reefs, and their amazing monetary value, is on the verge of being destroyed.
Midway Atoll, a small stretch of sand and coral in the middle of the north Pacific, is home to one of the world's largest populations of Laysan Albatrosses.
Making a set of subway stairs into a piano and a bottle bank into an arcade game; just two ingenious ways to get people to take time to do the right thing and have fun.
Silent Sound completed her voyage through the Canadian Arctic on October 10, four months and four days after slipping her moorings in Victoria, British Columbia.
Around the world, bees are dying in their millions and there's something in this mysterious, silent tragedy that has seized public consciousness.
While the world remembers the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, one frontier of the Cold War remains intact; the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea.
There was no mistaking the target: the eight huge cooling towers at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, sending plumes of steam high into the watery blue sky of the English Midlands.
The smile never came off of my face as we heard who placed third, second, and first in the 2009 Solar Decathlon.
A university team from Germany has won the U.S. Energy Department's Solar Decathlon for the second competition in a row, officials declared Friday. In second place was Team Illinois, and third place went to Team California.
For two weeks the National Mall in Washington D.C. has been transformed into a boulevard of homes of the future.
Dozens of protesters camped out on the roof of Britain's parliament overnight to "save the climate," police reported Monday.
"The Earth is just too small," sighed South African adventurer Mike Horn, one of the few people on the planet who can get away with saying such a statement.
Having lived in California, the sound of the ocean is one that is synonymous with calm, peace and of course, vacation.
William Kamkwamba dreamed of powering his village with the only resource that was freely available to him.
The glaciers in the Himalayas are receding quicker than those in other parts of the world and could disappear altogether by 2035 according to the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.
The last 50 years have borne witness to a spate of climate-related disasters across the world causing over 800,000 fatalities and $1 trillion in economic losses.
I've spoken to doctors in Baghdad before, but never one this optimistic.
My taxi driver is telling me about his meal last night. His name is William. He ate whale.
There are several definitions of where the Northwest Passage begins and ends, but using the Arctic Circle is certainly the most encompassing, so we've been holding our breath until we crossed this line.
Much has been made of the problem of livestock emissions of methane -- a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 -- but a solution might be just around the corner.
There are many reasons why Roz Savage is an extraordinary woman -- she has rowed single-handed across the Atlantic and is now tackling the Pacific, after all.
When the chips are down, the world may one day owe a debt of gratitude to a group of potato farmers high up in the mountains of Peru.
Arctic temperatures in the 1990s reached their warmest level of any decade in at least 2,000 years, new research indicates.
Jean Paul Libert knows motor sport.
Climate change has taken a short break in the Arctic this summer, leaving Silent Sound to sail through some heavy ice as we steer her for home before winter sets in.
Three years ago many would have dismissed the notion that a significant supply of the world's automotive fuel could come from algae. But today the idea, while still an adventurous one, is getting much harder to ignore.
Peter Gathungu walks more than a mile to a shopping center, where he pays a sizable sum to charge his cell phone.
You're probably not thinking about what you would like for Christmas yet. But ask any environmentalist for their ideal gift and you'll get a version of this answer: a binding agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December that is strong enough to match the science.
What green gadgets are worth splashing out for?
We asked you what you thought about in-vitro meat, and hundreds of you replied. Read a selection of your comments, below, or visit the main page to read the full article, all your comments and watch the report.
Over 350 new species including the world's smallest deer, a "flying frog" and a 100 million-year old gecko have been discovered in the Eastern Himalayas, a biological treasure trove now threatened by climate change.
Efforts to curb overfishing in five of the world's marine ecosystems are starting to show signs of working.
Clouds of black smoke from burning plastic hang over the sites of Nigeria's vast dumps, as tiny figures pick their way through slicks of oily water, past cracked PC monitors and television screens.
It is a problem of massive plastic proportions -- a giant floating debris field, composed mostly of bits and pieces of plastic, in the northwest Pacific Ocean, about a thousand miles off the coast of California.
Meat is murder? Well, perhaps not for much longer.
What motivates someone to dedicate their life to save the planet? From art and conservation to activism and philanthropy, people from all walks of life are doing extraordinary things in the name of environmentalism.
If sex still sells, so increasingly does "green". But as consumers we're becoming increasingly savvy to bold-faced greenwashing, so advertisers are being more creative when using environmental themes in their campaigns.
The earthquake in Sichuan, southwestern China, last May left around 69,000 people dead and 15 million people displaced. Now ecologists have assessed the earthquake's impact on biodiversity and the habitat for some of the last existing wild giant pandas.
Danny Seo is a green lifestyle expert who champions green consumerism.
Tuvalu, the fourth smallest nation on the planet, has announced it aims to be totally powered by renewable energy sources by 2020.
ExxonMobil is teaming up with the biotech research company run by genomics pioneer Craig Venter to produce algae-based biofuels.
Microsoft had trouble solving the problems with its Vista operating system, so what are its chances of fixing climate change?
Twenty milligrams; that's the average amount of carbon emissions generated from the time it took you to read the first two words of this article.
In Dutch Harbor the smell of fish wafting from the docks and the canneries is the smell of money. And lately, the town has smelled a lot less fishy.
With its belching exhausts, acres of tarmac track and tendency to truck tons of cars and equipment around the globe to compete, motor racing could easily take pole position as the world's least environmentally friendly sport.
In the northwest of China's mountainous Yunnan province, among the world's most biodiverse areas, a green revolution is under way among rural residents.
Changing winter conditions are causing Scotland's wild Soay sheep to get smaller, according to a study that suggests climate change can trump natural selection.
Walk past the southern face of the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, and you will be greeted by a massive wall of brilliant green foliage -- an 8,600 square feet plant installation by the designer Patrick Blanc, featuring more than 170 different species.
To guard against public indifference to climate change the United Nations has enlisted a coalition of the world's leading advertising agencies.
The United Nation's International Maritime Organization (IMO) has gathered this week in the shipping hub of Hong Kong to draw up new rules on ship recycling.
Many leading brands, including Cadbury-Schweppes, Tropicana and Tesco, have begun introducing "carbon labeling" on products to give customers an idea of the environmental impact of the food that they are buying.
The first comprehensive report into the human cost of climate change warns the world is in the throes of a "silent crisis" that is killing 300,000 people each year.
A small band of sailors are facing a summer of raging Arctic storms, cramped quarters and soggy clothes in their search for the human face of climate change.
If we don't know our history, then we can't know our future. Historians arguing the relevance of their subject often repeat that mantra.
Advances in the study of coral in the last few years has led a group of scientists to conclude that corals almost rival humans in their genetic complexity and their relationship to algae is key to their survival.
Researchers have found that rooks, a member of the crow family, are capable of using and making tools despite not doing so in the wild.
Dawa Steven Sherpa is leader of Eco Everest Expeditions, aiming to educate climbers about their impact on the Himalayas and highlight the affects of climate change on the region.
Dr. Saul Griffith is a man with a thousand ideas buzzing around his head.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton on Tuesday urged urban leaders and policymakers they need to take the lead now in fighting climate change.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton on Tuesday urged urban leaders and policymakers they need to take the lead now in fighting climate change.
Experts have warned that the richly diverse coral reefs of the Coral Triangle around southeast Asia will disappear by the end of the century if action is not taken against climate change.
As people across China's Sichuan province continue to rebuild their lives one year after a 7.9-magnitude earthquake leveled some towns and cities, the region's famed giant pandas are still struggling due to the devastation wreaked by the deadly temblor.
The migration patterns of basking sharks have long mystified marine biologists, but new research has finally revealed where the world's second-biggest fish hide out for half of every year.
Around 200 new species of frogs have been found in Madagascar, one of the world's biodiversity hotspots.
The people of Indonesia's Java Island still follow wedding traditions passed down centuries ago by their ancestors.
A team of scientists from Canada, Spain and the United States has identified a key gene that allows plants to defend themselves against environmental stresses like drought, freezing and heat.
Siberia's Lake Baikal, the world's largest and most biologically diverse lake, faces the prospect of severe ecological disruption as a result of climate change, according to team of U.S. and Russian scientists.
Despite its various setbacks, public bike-sharing is slowly but surely paving the way to a greener urban environment, one city at a time.
Plants absorbed carbon dioxide more efficiently under polluted skies than they would have done in a cleaner atmosphere, according to new findings published this week in Nature magazine.
Plants absorbed carbon dioxide more efficiently under polluted skies than they would have done in a cleaner atmosphere, according to new findings published this week in Nature magazine.
Much has been made of the electric car driving to the rescue of ailing automobile manufacturers and saving the planet at the same time. But what if that eco-savior came on two wheels instead of four?
To celebrate Earth Day this year its organizers have returned to environmentalism's roots.
Bird migrations are likely to get longer according to a study of the potential impacts of climate change on the breeding and winter ranges of migrant birds.
Elephant seals equipped with electronic tags and robotic mini submarines using sonar were just two projects during the International Polar Year (IPY) that aimed to investigate the effects of global warming in polar regions.
When Jon Bohmer sat down with his two little girls for a simple project they could work on together, he didn't realize they'd hit upon a solution to one of the world's biggest problems for just $5: A solar-powered oven.
Standing on a turfed roof garden of an old Chinese building, property developer Amil Khan surveys the ever-changing skyline of Hong Kong.
British authorities and environmental groups were welcoming the launch this week of the world's first biodegradable chewing gum, which they say could help save some of the millions spent on clearing up the mess ordinary gum creates.
Arctic reindeer herders in northern Scandinavia are getting a view from space to help them look after their herds as the region copes with climate change.
Since the revolution in 1959 Cuba has been many things to many people, but the collapse of the Soviet Union meant few have seen the island state as a vision of the future.
Lights went off across the world Saturday as millions of homes and businesses went dark for one hour in a symbolic gesture highlighting concerns over climate change.
The benefits to humans of omega 3 fatty acids in fish oils are well documented, but a new study has found that fish oils can have a wider benefit to the environment -- by reducing the amount of methane produced by cows.
New research suggests that crabs not only suffer pain but that they retain a memory of it.
An off-shoot of the Jane Goodall Institute is Roots & Shoots, a youth group that promotes positive environmental change.
An environmentally-friendly surfboard has taken to the waves after five years in development.
What to do with 50,000 used, possibly smelly and dirty prison mattresses that need to be disposed of every year?
Melting glaciers in the Alps may prompt Italy and Switzerland to redraw their borders near the Matterhorn, according to parliamentary draft legislation being readied in Rome.
Robert Swan's life reads like a boy's own adventure tale with a modern eco-twist.
There is one holiday destination that should shake the faith of even the most vehement climate change skeptic: the Carteret Islands, part of Papua New Guinea, located northeast of Bougainville.
The world is facing an increasing risk of "irreversible" climate shifts because worst-case scenarios warned of two years ago are being realized, an international panel of scientists has warned.
A container ship lost 30 containers of chemicals in heavy seas off eastern Australia on Wednesday morning, maritime officials said.
Most of us have grown used to conservation charities putting charismatic animals front and center of their fundraising campaigns.
It's a country where tribal divisions and allegiances are deep-seated and has more than 700 native tongues, but with the help of conservation groups local communities and the government of Papua New Guinea have come together to create the country's first national conservation area.
Think of the future of green energy and the mental picture you may conjure up is one of vast solar plants glinting like a beetle's eye in the sun, or ranks of wind turbines turning in the breeze.
"Plastics deliver bountiful benefits to you and your world," exclaims the SPI web site, the online home of the U.S. plastics industry trade association.
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