Green Options

The Canadian government has made good on a promise to protect 15.8 million acres of unique British Columbia rainforest–an area more than twice the size of the entire country of Belgium.

The world’s largest oil sands company now admits that a total of 1,606 ducks were found dead last spring after initially reporting the death of only 500 birds.

A Flemish company has announced plans to sell what it claims to be the world’s only true zero emissions vehicle, the HPV (pictured above).

Our friends at Zaproot took a new look at Jake Richardson’s article, Extremely Rare Bird Photographed for First Time - Then Eaten.

On March 28, 2009, 3,922 cities in 88 countries around the world turned out or dimmed their lights in commemoration of Earth Hour. Organizers hoped for 1 billion participants to turn out their lights, sending a message to world leaders in anticipation of the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009 that there is global interest in addressing climate change. The event followed similar, smaller Earth Hour events in 2007 and 2008. Here, selected and compiled from the Earth Hour Media Library, are 12 around the world before and after photos of Earth Hour 2009, plus two freebies at the end.
Brisbane, Australia

Hurdia victoria was previously thought to be a crustacean-like animal. However, newly reconstructed specimens now lead scientists to believe it was one of the earliest top predators on Earth.

The success of organic foods was never a sure bet in South Korea. Since the Korean word for pesticides literally means “plant medicines” many Koreans have had a difficult time seeing what’s wrong with using them. But today’s ultra health conscious Korean is becoming more environmentally savvy too. Today, words like “blossom” and “bloom” are too mild to describe the exploding popularity of organic foods and environmentalism in South Korea.

In less than one day, nearly 400,000 volunteers in 104 countries found and collected 11,439,086 items of litter from beaches and waterways.
The garbage cleanup was part of the Ocean Conservancy’s annual Coastal Cleanup. Information about the types of garbage found during the cleanup was compiled into a report that will help planners to understand and address the problem of litter.

Conservation issues often involve conflicts between humans and other animals. In Sumatra, tigers are losing habitat to illegal loggers and palm oil plantations, which often have illicit support from local officials. A recent spate of tiger attacks shows that the tigers have nowhere left to go in the wild. In fact, there are only several hundred Sumatran tigers left in the wild. However, the attacks have only reinforced the local’s belief that every remaining tiger should be shot.

Depending on how you look at it, Obama’s meeting with Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva this past weekend could be interpreted as either a first step toward cooperating on biofuel trade or a missed opportunity to protect the Amazon rain forest.