Photo: Flickr, CC Solar Power is Hot (But that Phrase is Getting Old) It's good news when many studies say the same thing. At about this time last year, we reported on the Utility Solar Assessment Study, which concluded that 2015 is the year solar power would start to reach grid parity (meaning: it would cost about the same as electricity produced...

Photo via NY Times Even though we've just wrapped up our focus on the worldwide water crisis, we must adress the fact that one of the most volatile regions in the world can add another problem to its miles-long laundry list of them: a dwindling water supply. The Euphrates River is drying up, and it's putting thousands of Iraqis at risk. ... ...

Photo via the Consumerist I hate to admit it, but it's true--it's getting harder and harder to hate Wal-Mart. Details are surfacing about the gigantic retailer's initiative to create a massive 'sustainability index'--one that would meticulously measure the environmental impact of every single item it stocks. Needless to say, the idea alone raises ...

Let's remember that the people who will be worst affected by climate change are likely to be the ones who have the lowest levels of per capita emissions, and the ones least adapt to changing conditions, such as rivers becoming seasonally dry. Photo: Hideyuki Kamon via flickr. The divide between what the world's wealthy nations are willing to commi...

Photo via SMH Golly. Mrs. Palin has a couple problems with the cap and trade plans, dontcha know. Seems it'll be awful expensive, and a little risky--and why bother when there's a big natural gas pipeline we can build, and this Arctic National Wilderness Refuge that's got a whole lot of oil we can use? Plus, coal's getting a whole lot cleaner the...

Michal Czerwonka Public Space as Alternative to Law Enforcement At night, urban parks can become hives for gang activity and violence. A program in Los Angeles, the American gang capital, seeks to combat that phenomenon simply by keeping the lights on until midnight, reports the New York Times. To both locals and police, it's a bright idea. Last y...

Not as literally as this image might indicate... photo: S Woodside via flickr China and India have been calling for more green technology transfer if they are to be part of an international climate change agreement. The chairman of the IPCC, Dr Rajendra Pachauri has said that focussing on green economic growth and tech transfer is the ... ...

Photo via LA Injury Lawyer The stunning fall of AIG has left a number of things in its wake: billions of dollars in bailout money, big questions about federal regulation of investment, and, of course, layoffs. But the latest thing to get the axe might be the most surprising of all: global climate change.... ...

Photo via the AP An invasive species of seaweed has invaded the California coastline, where it's set about blocking out much-needed sunlight from native the native kelp. Now it's endangering entire marine ecosystems that call California kelp forests home, and it's spreading fast. Really fast--the Asian kelp, which is called wakame, and is the stuf...

Photo via Dragonfly 777 Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have just completed a rigorous study of the world's coastal ecosystems, and the results are shocking. The analysis uncovered the single dirtiest, most imperiled coastal ecosystem on earth--and it's right here in the USA. Beating out the sludge-filled Mekong and the polluted Ganges delta, the m...

Photo: Aabar I'm Sure Conspiracy Theorists Are Paying Attention Back in May, Daimler bought a 10$ stake in electric car maker Tesla. But once you own something, you can resell it. That's what Daimler just did; it sold 40% of its Tesla stake (or 4% of Tesla) to Abu Dhabi-based Aabar Investments. "This investment allows Daimler and Aabar to leverage...

photo: The Sierra Club For the average TreeHugger reader the environmental costs of coal are probably well known—massive emissions of CO2 and other air pollutants, potential deadly spills of stored coal ash, ...

Right now, Congress is debating climate change legislation. And while the focus is on GHG reduction, a lot more than pollution is on the line, including America’s economy, our national competitiveness and our energy security. That’s why we called our recent study on policy leadership in the quest to address climate change The Balancing Act: ...

When it was announced, I thought it was a spoof . Alan did a great photoshop job of one of their papers under the arm of a newsie. But they were serious; it was going to be a printed-to-order dead tree version of a blog. But it didn't work. Founder Joshua Karp never found his market, noting “Despite a significant personal investment on my part,...

Photo via www.airliners.nl The energy and climate moving through Congress has many corporate backers that are big polluters, including many big power utilities, such as Duke Energy. But you can add the airline industry to the list of those who support some form of climate action, but not the current bill under consideration. The Air Transport Asso...

Image credit: Vbites Heather Mills' Animal-Free Cafe While Paul McCartney pushes Meatless Mondays, his ex-wife Heather Mills, who campaigned alongside Paul against seal clubbing - among other things - has opened a vegan cafe in Hove Lagoon in the UK. She may also be emulating the Linda McCartney food empire, launching a range of frozen vegan fake ...

The Tigris River winds its way through Diyarbakır, irrigating a small area of green agricultural land in a largely arid region. In the height of summer, the "great river" Tigris looks more like a lazy stream as it passes beneath the 1,500-year-old black-basalt city walls of Diyarbakır, in southeastern Turkey. It's almost hard to believe the rive...

Schematic drawing of hurricane mitigation concept. Image credit: patent filing Hurricanes are fed most of their energy from sun-heated ocean waters. When upper atmospheric air-flows are not too turbulent, hurricanes are able to add enough energy to send storm surges over breakwaters and levees of coastal cities. Could some entrepreneur figure o...

Photo via Flickr If you're in the anti-coal movement, then you've likely been a long-time admirer of the Sierra Club's efforts to stop new coal plant construction. Last week, Intermountain Power’s coal plant in Utah became the 100th new coal plant to be stopped or abandoned since 2001, a truly amazing feet. ... ...

A man sorts e-waste in Guiyu, China. Photo courtesy of Allison Cross. Ever wonder what happens to all your old PCs, broken keyboards and ink cartridges? If you take your electronics to recyclers, you probably have visions of workers in well-ventilated buildings wearing masks and gloves as they take apart the toxic components of your electronics .....