Restoring A Tropical Rainforest
Half a century after most of Costa Rica's rain forests were cut down, researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Sciences on the Cornell campus are attempting what many thought was impossible -- restoring a tropical rain forest ecosystem. When the researchers planted worn-out cattle pastures in Costa Rica with a sampling of local trees in the early 1990s, native species of plants bega... posted on Nov 16 2008, 2,512 reads

India's Humble Rickshaw Goes Solar
It's been touted as a solution to urban India's traffic woes, chronic pollution and fossil fuel dependence, as well as an escape from backbreaking human toil. A state-of-the-art, solar powered version of the humble cycle-rickshaw promises to deliver on all this and more. The "soleckshaw," unveiled this month in New Delhi, is a motorized cycle rickshaw that can be pedaled normally or run on a 36-v... posted on Oct 14 2008, 3,574 reads

Japan's Carbon Footprint Labels
Japan is planning to label consumer goods to show their carbon footprints in a bid to raise public awareness about global warming, an official said Tuesday. Under the plan, a select range of products from beverages to detergent will carry markings on the carbon footprint -- or how much gas responsible for global warming has been emitted through production and delivery. The ministry's research show... posted on Oct 04 2008, 3,811 reads

110 Years of Sustainable Agriculture
A plot of land on the campus of Auburn University shows that 110 years of sustainable farming practices can produce similar cotton crops to those using other methods. In 1896, Professor J.F. Duggar at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama (now Auburn University) started an experiment to test his theories that sustainable cotton production was possible on Alabama soils if growers would... posted on Sep 22 2008, 2,077 reads

The Woman Who Saved 16,000 Cats
Lynea Lattanzio, a fit 50-something woman with curly brown hair, slides open her kitchen door and five, 10, 15 cats rush through the opening like water gushing out of a pressurized spigot. The Cat House on the Kings is a 12-acre sanctuary for abandoned and feral cats in California's Central Valley. Over 600 cats live here along with Lattanzio, who dedicates her ranch-style home to the cause of kee... posted on Sep 19 2008, 3,497 reads

The Benefit of Tree-Lined Streets
Children who live in tree-lined streets have lower rates of asthma, a New York-based study suggests. Columbia University researchers found that asthma rates among children aged four and five fell by 25% for every extra 343 trees per square kilometer. They believe more trees may aid air quality or simply encourage children to play outside. This article from the BBC shares more.... posted on Sep 14 2008, 2,281 reads

Teens Tutor Teens
When Ann Connelly telephoned a tutoring company she read about in the newspaper, she was surprised to find herself talking to a teenage boy in his dorm room at NYU. Erik Kimel, 22, has spent the past five years building a tutoring service for families in suburban Washington while completing a college education in New York. Peer2Peer Tutors, the company he founded five years ago as a senior pairs m... posted on Sep 07 2008, 2,469 reads

The Green Housing Boom
"How do you inspire a revolution?" It's a question that obsesses Matthew Berman. A 36-year-old New York architect with short hair and a starched blue shirt, he doesn't, frankly, look like much of a rebel. "There's this grumbling," he continues. "It grows, it brings things to the center, and then you get this explosion." Berman and his partner, Andrew Kotchen, 35, boast high-profile clients such as... posted on Aug 15 2008, 3,908 reads

Sustainable Extravagance: The World as Cherry Tree
"Nature is nothing if not extravagant. Responding to unique local conditions, ants have evolved into nearly ten thousand species, several hundred of which can be found in the crown of a single Amazonian tree. Fruit trees produce thousands of blossoms -- an astonishing abundance of blossoms -- in order that another tree might germinate, take root, and grow. Over the past 150 years, however, human i... posted on Aug 14 2008, 3,506 reads

A Month Without Plastic
"I am giving up plastic for the whole of August. By this I mean not buying or accepting anything which contains plastic or is packaged in plastic. So, no take-away coffees, bottles of water or pre-packed sandwiches." A BBC Journalist takes on an experiment and in this article reflects on why she undertook it, and the challenges she faces.... posted on Aug 13 2008, 3,955 reads