Replacing traditional stoves in Africa and Asia with low-soot varieties would buy time in the fight against climate change. But the acceptability of such new stoves to the rural poor is an obstacle. Black carbon has newly emerged as the second biggest contributor to climate change. It is responsible for an estimated 18 per cent [...]

Water management programmes across the developing world are based on the mistaken belief that trees increase the available water in an area. Forests tend to diminish water supplies because they lose more water through evaporation than other vegetation, say the researchers. In wet climates, this is because of the ‘clothesline’ effect: just as wet clothes [...]

Preparing for cyclones can save lives, but to save livelihoods nations must also help people adapt to cyclones’ impacts. This is particularly true for countries affected by tropical cyclones. While climate change does not necessarily lead to more cyclones forming, the evidence is very strong now that the rising temperatures of the sea surface will [...]

A remote Chinese island is installing a power station that will harness the wind, sun and waves to produce energy and fresh water. Situated on Dangan Island in the South China Sea, the station should provide 80 per cent of the energy requirements of its 300 inhabitants. A desalination facility will provide 10,000 tons of [...]

Five developing countries have received US$18 million in funding to plan how to implement a proposed scheme to reward countries that protect forests and reduce deforestation. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania and Vietnam will share the funds, which will enable them to prepare national action plans to take part in [...]

This report, prepared by the World Water Assessment Programme under UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), assesses global freshwater resources including what drives the pressures facing them, how water is used, climate change’s future effects on water supplies and options for improving water management for sustainable development. The authors highlight the increasing demand for [...]

The forest ecosystems occupy currently up to 3,866 million hectares, almost a third part of the lands emerged of the planet, what equals halfway of the surface that occupied some 8,000 years ago. Of what remains us of original forest surface, only the fifth part has arrived to our days in a state of favorable [...]

Whole System Design The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) take pride in helping to design energy-efficient buildings that cost less than wasteful ones. The 3600-sq.-ft. Hawaii Gateway Energy Center in Kailu-Kona is a net-zero energy facility. The building forms a termal chimney: Sun-heated air flows up and out stacks in the sloped roof, pulling air that´s [...]

It all began in 1903 when Florida´s three-and-a-half-acre Pelican Island became the first national wildlife refuge. The movement reached a milestone last October when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dedicated the 500th refuge – a Canada-like slice of West Virgina called Canaan Valley. From valley wetlands 3,200 feet above sea level to mountain ridges [...]

Since the 1960s the U.S. Navy has maintained an elite team of bottlenose dolphins for both research and hazardous duty such as locating mines underwater. Until recently about a hundred dolphins lived at Navy facilities in Hawaii and San Diego, where trainer Lauryn Crosthwaite exercises one of her troops. But Defense Department cuts have reached [...]