A report found that bottles have surpassed bags and straws when it comes to prevalence in freshwater rivers.

Removal of the 118-foot-high dam in France will free the Sélune River, bringing wildlife back to the waterway and the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel.

Though it was announced over two weeks ago, perhaps because of Exxon's backing of Synthetic Genomics, Dow Chemical's backing of Algenol Biofuels is getting a bit more play. Together they will develop a pilot-scale algae

If there's a holy grail of liquid renewable fuels it might look something like this: High yield per acre, doesn't negatively impact water supplies, doesn't compete with food crops, and is cost-competitive with fossil

Photo from Eco-Rally USA Eco-Rally USA, a grassroots transportation group, is launching a trip across the United States aimed at helping to accelerate clean energy vehicles to become the standard for automobiles rather than the exception. The tour start

A new article published in the online journal PLoS ONE takes on the issue of energy sprawl -- namely how much land is required to produce energy from different sources -- under different potential US energy and climate policies in 2030.

It's been a while since a good poo-power story has come down the pipe, but here's an interesting one: Massachusetts-based biofuels company Qteros and wastewater recyclers Applied Clean Tech have announced that they

Can we just all put palm oil biodiesel produced on deforested peatlands to rest already: A new report from the United Nations Environment Programme shows that biodiesel production under these

Jewish leaders met at the beginning of this month in San Francisco for the first conference dedicated to

Image: Casajuntoalrio Willie Smits long ago abandoned the customary role of the microbiologist. After working in the Indonesian rainforest for three decades (and marrying a tribal queen), he has taken it upon himself to regrow the delicate ecosystems

The 107 million tons of grain that went to U.S. ethanol distilleries in 2009 was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels. More than a quarter of the total U.S. grain crop was turned into ethanol to fuel cars

New Environmental Protection Agency requirements for its Renewable Fuel Standards program have been released which raise an issue which has sat dormant for a little while: How to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions of a

At a time when excessive pressures on the earth's land and water resources are of growing concern, there is a massive new demand emerging for cropland to produce fuel for cars--one that threatens world food

French tire giant Michelin recently held its 10th Challenge Bibendum, this time in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event is a chance for Michelin to rally industry players around the flag of sustainable mobility and the future of the automobile. Here's me loo

This year, French tire giant Michelin (yes, the Michelin that made the tires on your car) held its 10th Challenge Bibendum event, this time in Rio de Janeiro. If you've never heard of this thing, don't kick yourself,

Two new pieces in NRDC's Switchboard blog remind us that the debate over corn ethanol subsidies is alive and well; and illustrate, through two new reports, the benefits of ditching Federal support altogether. The first, from the

This week USEPA announced that the maximum ethanol content of motor fuel sold in the USA would be allowed to rise from 10% to 15%. Positives of the Agency's decision are: reduced dependence on foreign

After several decades of Lrapid rise in world grain yields, it is now becoming more difficult to raise land productivity fast enough to keep up with the demands of a growing, increasingly affluent, population.

Photo: World Economic Forum, Flickr, CC BY-SA Corn ethanol has turned out to be a bad idea -- there's little disagreement about that, especially in environmental circles. For starters, it's an inefficient fuel source, consuming tons of water to produce

The first large-scale commercial operation to produce cellulosic ethanol (the kind of ethanol made not from corn or other grown crops, but from organic waste) in the US just got major backing from the oil industry, and will be online in 2013. The New

Germans rate respect for having a national identity as eco-conscious people. Should it therefore come as a surprise that Germans are not embracing the advent of E10, a 10% ethanol-gasoline mixture, which has

Photo: Stephanie Says, Flickr, CC Turning Food into Fuel is Not the Solution The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) has released a warning that U.S. and European policy to increase the production of biofuels could lead to almost

Few industrialists in recent times have done more to imperil environmental protections and public health than the Koch brothers. The force behind Americans for Prosperity and Koch Industries have galvanized

A measure that would remove roughly $6 billion in annual ethanol subsidies just passed the U.S. Senate, signaling, among other things, a shift in public attitude towards the once-heralded alternative fuel. It

If it seems like you've read a variation of the above headline before you're not wrong, and as much as anything it's a sign of the rock road cellulosic ethanol and biofuels in general have had in the past few years. The details: The Department of

Kidney failure is killing sugarcane workers in Central America who supply sugar for both our sweet tooth and demand for ethanol.

Is the conventional wisdom that we need not worry about tailpipe emissions in biofuel-powered vehicles, because the plants had been absorbing carbon while growing, grossly misguided?

The massive diversion of grain to fuel cars has helped drive up food prices, leaving low-income consumers everywhere to suffer some of the most severe food price inflation in history.

An ethanol production mandate could be in conflict with efforts to reduce the Gulf Coast dead zone.

There's no mystery why gas mileage is not as good in the winter, but there are some things you can do to make it better.

There is an election coming up and the farm vote matters.

The rare metal is now worth US $1,700 an ounce.

This poetic, one-of-a-kind urn floats on the water while slowly returning cremated remains to nature.

The fast food chain will also take old plastic toys and melt them down for repurposing.

Go Box founder Laura Weiss has worked hard to make Portland (foodie paradise) just a little more sustainable, waste wise, with her system of reusable to go containers.

There is a day for everything, and today we celebrate ride sharing.

Your phone makes it easier and safer.

What if we started approaching life from a cloud-computing perspective? What if we saw our homes like netbooks or tablet computers? Technology is making it possible to live in the cloud.

We often ask the question "Why buy when you can rent?" but we never thought of this.

According to Forbes, revenue from the sharing economy will surpass $3.5 billion this year.

For years we've been talking about renting or borrowing rather than owning. There are so many things that people own but rarely use...

Well, this is pretty clever. If you're enticed by the idea of having fresh eggs straight from the backyard, but are not sure if you're ready to commit, RentTheChicken.com lets you rent some chickens!

Why own a fondue pot when you can borrow one?

While AirBnB allows people to rent out lodging, from the smallest room to the biggest Irish castle, AirPnP has a smaller, though not less useful, ambition.

There is sharing, there is abuse, and there is theft. Susie Cagle takes a tough look at the subject.

Copper Lane, a cohousing project in London, shows how design by committee doesn't have to look like a camel.

Commercial kitchens are really expensive to build. Why not share?

There are reasonable limits on what people can do on their properties. But this goes too far.

That was the advice of Shakespeare's Polonius, but then there is the sharing economy. Which is it?

This is not your usual trading site; it is much more of a community.