photo: Rodrigo Soldon via flick Brazil is renowned for being a world leader in ethanol use and this telling statistic bears that out: According to Petrobras CFO Almir Barbassa ethanol now powers more than 50% of all the light vehicles in the nation. Biofuels Digest quotes Barbassa as saying that gasoline has now become "the alte... ...

Park your plug-in hybrid under Phat Energy's carport. Photos by RCruger Day two at the Dwell on Design Show in downtown Los Angeles was open to the public who came in droves, filled showroom aisles to peruse eco-friendly, modern furnishings, and listen to speakers on a variety of topics from sustainable design to the garage of the future and ideal...

Photo via: Laughing Shaman The Bhut Jolokia (a.k.a. Ghost chili), the India version of the hot pepper, might be coming to a riot near you...... ...

Photo via: Azrainman, Freaking News Why might the O'administration feel the need to sit on a EPA certified report on global warming? One could think of over a $billion reasons, implies CEI (Competitive Enterprise Institute). It is all part of the game of global warming hide-and-go-seek...... ...

Image: Flickr, Between a Rock Twitter House aka Twitter Cottage Prepare for a case of job-title envy. Engineer Andy Stanford-Clark works on the kind of projects that usually appear first in advertisements that anecdotally demonstrate a company's forward thinking. He is a "Master Inventor" for IBM. But IBM is not tooting its own horn: news of Andy'...

Photo via: Amagill While not often a target of environmental groups due to the increased preparation and safety it promotes, a firefighters training regiment is anything but green. Such training often involves the controlled burning of vehicles, hay, and wood structures. The byproduct of such a rigorous training schedule results in thick, black, b...

Turkey's national energy grid. Image via Global Energy Network Institute Although only a paltry 1 percent of Turkey's power is currently provided by renewable sources, the country's sunny and strategic location, large surface area, and young population give it great potential as a "leading green power nation," Levent Bas writes this week on ...

Is Harvesting Energy from Passing Cars "Free"? Whether it's delivering produce by barge, or turning waste food into electricity, UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's has certainly pushed the envelope when it comes to green initiatives. Their distribution center was even featured in our slideshow of urban wind turbines. As part of thei... ...

The U.N. has launched a social media site to inspire international leaders to create a meaningful climate treaty in Copenhagen this December.  The site called Hopenhagen, allows people around the world to create a Twitter-like post (45 characters max) answering the question "What gives you hope for a better planet?" The site reads: On December 7, ...

Waste-to-energy facility in Broward County, Florida, situated at the Central landfill that also has a landfill gas to energy facility. Image credit:Waste Management Last week mayors from across the United States gathered in Providence, Rhode Island for the annual meeting (pdf) of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. From the many resolutions heard prop...

Germany gives its national treasure, the Zugspitze, the deep freeze. Photo via flickr by Stephen A A couple weeks ago, Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze, got dressed in a sun shield to protect its melting glacier during summer. The mountain's ski resort, Bayerische Zugspitzbahn, covered the north side with reflective tarps to reduce the am...

Photo via Randy Son of Robert @ flickr There's a lot to know about the world's water crisis--as you can tell from the month of posts we've been doing on just this one topic. But if you're new to the discussion, catch up in one weekend with these five documentaries. From in-depth background on the political, social, and economic factors that are ca...

Image: Green Turtle Face, by Sharon Deem, courtesy of WCS Sad Green Turtle If this Green Turtle appears sad, perhaps it is pondering the newest threat to its endangered species. Green turtles belong to the groups of marine denizens known to suffer from high levels of cancer in the wild. Cancer kills about one in every ten humans; now a new study ...

More images below Now here’s something happy for rainy days: the Spud Raincoat, made from potatoes and designed by the guys from Good for Environment! Under the brand name Equilicuá, they make thought provoking products such as the Econo, a water saving device for potted plants. The Spud Raincoat is for times when plenty of water is falling fro...

Photo via Chem1 A worldwide water crisis is a-comin'. Don't believe me? Violence over water rights is already breaking out in regions of the world where water is scarce. Along with political tensions--and maybe wars--we're going to see food production affected, and more people flat out hungry and thirsty. And it's all because we'... ...

Makes sense to combine technologies like solar with LED to get the greatest bang for the buck, which is exactly what Visible Light Solar is doing. Even if the lighting works for unsexy things like exterior building lights around business parks, saving up to 85% on your energy usage sounds pretty sexy indeed.... ...

Photo via pfly @ flickr Fake plants generally don’t give off huge environmental benefits—especially when they’re the plastic kind that just barely cheer up offices and waiting rooms. But a synthetic tree now in development may be better for the environment than its natural counterparts; click through to see why.... ...

Photo via stock.xchng by ortonesque Let’s clear up one issue: There is no such thing as local vs. organic. When it comes to consumer choice, we should be buying local and organic, though for mostly different reasons.... ...

Flickr user ben_keller Bonnaroo's cup runneth over with music, but chances were that the cup was biodegradable. Or rather it was a reusable water bottle, refilled at one of the festival's water stations. As we noted earlier, water was this year's major theme. The non-profit Global Water Challenge, one o... ...

Throw all this away?! There are electronics in there, let alone all that plastic! 15 days ago we posted about iRobot's shoddy recycling policies. They've responded. Click through to read the progress made on iRobot's practices after they saw this post.... ...