Serengreenity

As the world battles to secure a low-carbon future, secret cabinet documents from 1979 show that before global warming was on the radar, Canberra acted to lock in Australia's coal-based energy future.

The Obama administration may issue an order that would expand the National Environmental Policy Act's scope to prevent global warming. The move could open up new avenues to challenge projects.

Four years after California’s Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed off on the nation’s farthest-reaching global-warming law, a campaign is heating up to keep it from taking effect.

As hard as it was to negotiate a deal in Denmark, Obama faces an even tougher time in Washington trying to convince the U.S. Senate to pass cap-and-trade legislation.

An audit of emissions from hospitals, prisons, police offices and museums has laid bare the toll they are taking on the environment.

As president of Ceres, the network of public interest groups working to build sustainability into the corporate bottom line, Mindy Lubber is a strong advocate for tying environmental consideration, policy and regulation to business economics.

To study the impact of global warming on marine life in the seas around India, the government has embarked on a major project to give them DNA barcodes to “create inventories of biodiversity."

Power prices could triple under the Federal Government's blueprint to fight climate change, the nation's electricity market operator says.

Australia's top economists say a price on carbon is the "essential starting point" in addressing climate change.

Haryana is going to set up large size biogas plants alongwith bottling of biogas in cylinders for use in cooking and transport areas besides generating fertilizer.

French ministers scrambled on Wednesday to rescue a carbon tax aimed at cutting energy consumption, which was annulled by the Constitutional Court just 48 hours before it was due to come into force.

The coming of the New Year does not seem to bring good news about the outlook on the climate that the country will experience and the water supply Metro Manila will have in 2010, experts at the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said.

The joint review panel, after five years of study, concluded late Wednesday that the project “would deliver valuable and lasting overall benefits and avoid significant adverse environmental impacts.”

After more than 30 years of often bitter debate, a federal panel has thrown its support behind a proposed $16.2 billion pipeline to carry natural gas from the western Arctic along the pristine Mackenzie River valley.

Regional leaders will have to redouble their efforts to convince especially those of the world’s developed economies that an effective international treaty to mitigate existing and future problems is a dire necessity.

Does the political will to save the planet from the potential harm from global warming still exist in the U.S.?

Once you cut through the gloom in the headlines, you'll see the air is cleaner, our health is better, and many endangered species have been recovering in the 00s.

So what are the lessons from the electricity crisis? Some try to blame deregulation. That's like building an airplane, cutting off its wings and blaming aerodynamics when it crashes.

Worldwide, the real estate industry has the potential to reduce CO2 by two billion tons over three years. We have a lot of work ahead of us.

For the record, I'd just as soon throw 2009 in the trash can, but that's just one man's opinion. When it comes to the environment, however, a year is the veritable drop in the bucket. Even decades seem too insignificant when things like the Hudson River have been around for thousands of years.

A federal review panel issued a detailed report endorsing the 800-mile MacKenzie Gas Project.

California's ambitious global-warming law is facing a campaign to keep it from taking effect.

Making the idea acceptable to the general public could be the biggest hurdle, says Cosco's chief executive.

A consulting firm predicts a spike in offshore wind projects over the next decade.

The North American wood pellet industry is thinking optimistically about environmentally minded uses for waste timber.

A deal that would give PetroChina a 60 percent stake in two Alberta oil sands projects is being reviewed by the Canadian government.

The Department of Energy and LG Electronics are facing off over the energy efficiency of some of the company's refrigerators.

New research from the Center for Public Integrity shows that soup makers and venture capitalists are as concerned about the outcome of climate legislation pending in Congress as are conventional energy companies.

Protesters say Danish police used unnecessarily heavy-handed tactics during two weeks of demonstrations earlier this month. The police say they successfully kept the peace.

A series of droughts in China has raised concerns about Hong Kong's water supply.

Despite tumbling prices, creating a so-called floor price for carbon could discredit the market for emissions trading in Europe.

A Phoenix company, Solar Southwest Technology, wants to marry solar energy and a wind farm.

Two solar farms planned in the West would use technology that allow utilities to generate electricity after the sun goes down.

Installing solar panels on pitched roofs often requires rope skills, which is a big reason why some solar companies -- like wind turbine repair companies -- are hiring climbers.

Some rock climbers are figuring out how to earn a living at their hobby -- by scaling wind turbines that need repair.

From stunning habitat photography to close-ups of amazing insects and new species, here is a collection of the best flora and fauna images from the 2009 week in wildlife galleries

10:10 is a campaign to get individuals, companies and institutions to reduce their carbon footprints by 10% during 2010

Calculate the impact of your travel, home and shopping habits with our simple carbon footprint calculatorDuncan ClarkMairead O'Connor

Green living expert Lucy Siegle is shown how to keep chickens in a city garden to collect up to 12 organic free-range eggs a weekRebecca LovellLucy Siegle

Oregon designers receive accreditation from Congress for New Urbanism.

International Energy Code Council considers major overall.

Experts provide legal and financial advice on building green.

Unico announces three Seattle properties earn LEED-EB designation.

Bainbridge Island offers incentives to Living Building Challenge developments.

The build-out of the smart grid holds opportunities for energy savings and a boon to the green building industry, but only if it connects to ‘smart’ buildings.

Green Light cooperative turns development model upside down.

Near downtown Portland, Leftbank Project is looking to build a viable community.

An investment fund focused on energy efficiency launches.

Human health impacts could soon play a bigger role when sizing up building projects.

How do you guide museum visitors through the unseen world of sound? That was the dilemma faced by the designers and builders of the new $125-million Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, scheduled to open this spring.

Dubai has made headlines in recent weeks for its financial woes, and many are saying this once-booming desert metropolis has gone bust. But the emirate does have something to celebrate: The Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building, is due to officially open on January 4.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has changed the way it measures building height.

Now that New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg is remaining in office for a third term, presumably the agenda set out by Amanda Burden, director of the Department of City Planning and chair of the planning commission, will stay its course.

One of the country’s oldest architecture firms has teamed with one of its youngest, betting on expansion while other practices scale back.

Look up from your cellphone and your pixelated field of vision stretches to the skyline.

A tectonic shift took place among winners at this year’s World Architecture Festival (WAF), as projects from developing countries accounted for a significantly larger percent of the honors than they had in the past.

Looking to join such acclaimed museum dining rooms as The Modern at The Museum of Modern Art, and Terzo Piano, atop the Modern Wing of The Art Institute of Chicago, The Wright is the latest destination restaurant with a legacy of art and architecture.

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill has broken ground on the $1.7 billion Digital Media City Landmark Tower in Seoul, South Korea.

Today, the United States Artists Foundation announced the 50 winners of its annual award program.

Each month, the average person in a developed country emits one metric ton of carbon dioxide; a U.S. resident emits that amount every two weeks.

The Dept. of Health and Human Services has awarded $508.5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to build or renovate 85 community health clinics around the country.

The Copenhagen-based architectural firm of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), featured in Record’s Vanguard issue, has expanded its partnership as of December 1.

Construction's unemployment rate continued to to rise in November, climbing to 19.4% from October's 18.7%, while the nation's overall jobless rate declined slightly, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported.

In an effort to accelerate the development of cost-effective, sustainable concrete, Masdar, the developer of the planned carbon and waste-neutral Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, is holding a concrete mix design competition.

In early November, more than 150 representatives of architecture and design organizations came to Chicago to hold the inaugural meeting of the Association of Architecture Organizations (AAO).

Cubellis, a top-earning international architecture and engineering firm headquartered in Boston, has closed.

Architectural photographer Robert C. Lautman, Hon. AIA, died of pancreatic cancer in Washington, D.C., on October 20, 2009.

Long-term exposure to air pollution dramatically increases the risk of pneumonia for older adults, according to a new study. Using air monitoring station data and air pollution models to gauge exposure in different geographical sections of Hamilton, Ontario, researchers found that adults over 65 exposed to nitrogen dioxide — which is closely associated with […]

For decades, fisheries managers have reared hatchery salmon and released them into rivers to supplement declining populations of wild salmon. And for years, a large percentage of hatchery-raised Atlantic salmon have perished in the wild, returning to their native streams far less frequently than wild salmon. Now, researchers at the University of Gothenburg i […]

Every day, NASA’s Earth Observatory publishes images of our world from a perspective rarely seen by human eyes — from satellites high above the planet’s surface. In 2009, these images once again provided an extraordinary view of the powerful forces of nature, of the widening footprint of human civilization, and of the point where they often meet. In February […]

A California senator introduced legislation that would protect more than a million acres in the Mojave Desert, including land eyed by developers for solar and wind energy projects. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a longtime supporter of desert protection, has proposed protecting 1.7 million acres of desert, including a 941,000-acre Mojave Trails National Monumen […]

The bitter battle over health care legislation, fears that global warming legislation could harm the weak U.S. economy, and the failure of the Copenhagen climate summit to set binding CO2 emissions reductions targets will make U.S. Senate passage of a carbon cap-and-trade bill difficult in 2010, according to senators from both parties. Politico reports that […]

Stewart Brand is perhaps best known as the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, the eclectic compendium of environmentally friendly living that became a bible of the counterculture and the back-to-the-land movement in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. But times have changed, and so has Brand. In his new book, Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto, B […]

When the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog embraces nuclear power, genetically engineered crops, and geoengineering schemes to cool the planet, you know things have changed in the environmental movement. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Stewart Brand explains how the passage of four decades — and the advent of global warming — have shifted his thi […]

Federal officials are promoting the use of a chalky residue from coal-burning power plants as a fertilizer on U.S. farms, even as regulators simultaneously consider new rules for the waste, which contains small amounts of toxic metals. During the Bush administration, U.S. officials began promoting the agricultural use of a synthetic form of gypsum, a calcium […]

Reverberations from the disappointing Copenhagen climate summit continued to be felt worldwide, with political leaders blaming each other for the meeting’s outcome, U.S. senators saying that the lack of progress will make it harder for Congress to pass a climate bill, European Union carbon prices falling, and some businesses lamenting the continuing lack of […]

Much was left undone in Copenhagen, and the many loopholes in the climate accord could lead to rising emissions. But the conference averted disaster by keeping the UN climate negotiations alive, and some expressed hope that the growth of renewable energy technology may ultimately save the day. BY FRED PEARCE

The Copenhagen summit turned out to be little more than a charade, as the major nations refused to make firm commitments or even engage in an honest discussion of the consequences of failing to act. BY BILL MCKIBBEN

The Malaysian government will allow logging to take place in a contested area of rainforest on the island of Borneo, rejecting an attempt by local tribesemen to declare part of the forest as a protected “peace park.” Hoping to establish a model of conservation and land management, and draw attention to excessive logging on traditional lands, Penan tribesemen […]

In a last-minute flurry of diplomatic activity, U.S. President Obama managed to piece together a limited agreement on climate change that falls short of even the modest expectations for the 12-day summit meeting in the Danish capital. Rather than emerging with a legally binding treaty to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions — the original goal of the confe […]

Living near wind farms does not pose adverse health effects, according to a new study. The research, conducted by a seven-member panel of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other institutions, was funded by the American and Canadian wind industry associations. The 85-page report says there is no medical basis for concerns that the […]

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton injected new life into the Copenhagen summit Thursday as she told delegates that the U.S. would contribute to a fund designed to raise $100 billion by 2020 to help developing nations adapt to climate change. But Clinton said the U.S. offer was contingent on forging a global climate treaty that requires developing nat […]

Speaking to a gathering of mayors in Copenhagen, London Mayor Boris Johnson announced plans to add 25,000 charging stations for electric cars across the city by 2015, turning London into a center of plug-in vehicle technology. By creating the right conditions, Johnson said the city can encourage a “golden era” of electric cars, and he predicted that every re […]

With only two full days remaining at the Copenhagen climate summit, negotiators said they were close to reaching agreement on a pair of key issues — the size of a fund to help developing nations deal with global warming, and the creation of a program under which industrialized nations would pay developing nations not to log tropical forests. Leaders of the A […]

Increased levels of black soot from air pollution sources across Asia have accelerated the rate of glacial melting on the Tibetan Plateau, exacerbating the effects of global warming in what is home to the planet’s largest non-polar ice masses, researchers say. Temperatures in the region have increased 0.3 Celsius (.5 F) in the last 30 years — twice the globa […]

As the Copenhagen climate summit entered its final four days with wide differences still separating major blocs of countries, the UN’s chief climate negotiator, Yvo de Boer, called on participants to begin making more concessions and step up the pace of the talks. Saying the conference has entered “a very distinct and important moment in the process,” de Boe […]