From the world’s largest Christmas star that now hovers above the A9 Autobahn near Munich’s northern gateway–after a year of engineering, modeling, and trials–to the renaming of the world’s tallest waterfall–deep within the Venezuelan jungle–a lot happened this week in green. New research reveals that excessive use of disinfectants could be spawning mutant bacteria capable of resisting the strongest antibiotics, readers sent in the green New Year’s resolutions for our weekly slideshow, and we continued to round out the year with our Decade in Review and Best and Worst of 2009. Find out what else happened in the world of…Read the full story on TreeHugger

photo via WCS

Most people when they think back on 2009 might not think of it as the quadricentennial of Henry Hudson’s famous voyage of 1609, but for fans of the Mannahatta Project, it has been a year to celebrate. Mannahatta, the book was a big hit, mentioned on many holiday-round up lists, including an Editor’s Choice from Barnes & Noble and Planetizen‘s list of best urban design books. There were also wonderful exhibitions at the Mus…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photos via AFP

Japanese researchers have produced a new species of goldfish with see-through skin. You can see the fish’s beating heart, brain, and other internal organs, right through its invisible scales. And that’s precisely the point–the scientists created the fish to eliminate the need for dissections, which are getting ever more controversial…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Are fireworks green? Photo by Kev Gibbo via Flickr

A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other, as the saying goes. So start by staying home tonight and watch Earthcam to see New Year’s Eve celebrations in 35 locations around the world. Earthcam will webcast the LED ball drop in Times Square from various viewpoints among the crowd of one million gathered for the world’s largest party. So save fuel…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo via IndoSpectrum

As early as last month, there were estimated to be at least 1500 sea lions off of San Francisco‘s famous Pier 39. Now, most appear to have all but vanished. A few stragglers lounge on piers where hundreds of sea lions used to lay in massive stacks–so where did the famous mammals go?…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo via Climate Ground Zero

In what could turn out to be a violation of their constitutional rights, 4 climate activists were arrested and taken to jail last Tuesday for trespassing. Specifically, they were charged for hanging up a banner that read “Yes, Coal is Killing West Virginia’s Communities” during a peaceful demonstration on October 10th. But the activists have been held in jail for 2 days now on that charge–a charge that is typically handled by a summons by mail, and for which the maximum fine is a scant $100. And it looks like they’ll be sp…Read the full story on TreeHugger

In another week, it’s out with the old and in with the new, but what about that old? Now’s the time to reflect on the big events, the changes to the world as we know it. Over the next two weeks, we will dish up a total of 14 slideshows, focusing on subjects including wild and weird new species that first showed their scaly, slimy, and sometime furry heads in 2009; some unbelievable green tech concepts (solar powered headphones, anyone?); the good, the bad, the ugly, and the downright crazy lobbying efforts (yes, that forged letter incident made the cut); the year in cars, the year in Digg and Stumble Upon stories, and much more.

We…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Revelers rejoice at the greenz.jp Christmas party in Tokyo.

It’s time when everybody thinks how they can spend a fun, entertaining and warm time with friends and families. But it’s also a time to re-think how fortunate we are to be able to celebrate this happiness. So we decided to throw not just an ordinary Christmas party but something that would be meaningful and fulfilling to many people. At greenz.jp, we held the green drinks Tokyo Xmas Special kindly supported by Sanyo Electric’s eneloop…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo via the Portland Mercury

Yup, the aughts or naughts or naughties or whatever you want to call them have been confirmed to be the hottest decade in recorded history–a full 0.2 degrees C warmer than the nineties. And now, as Joe Romm puts it, “the hottest decade begins.” So were do we stand?…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Image Source: “Mr Magoo ICU”

Dear Pablo: What is the environmental impact of fireworks? It seems like it must create a lot of greenhouse gas emissions.

That is a very popular question around the 4^th of July and New Year’s Eve. In fact I have answered this question before. The following answer originally appeared on Salon.com in June of 2008.

Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association, estimates that 18,000 fireworks shows occur across the nation on July 4 alone. Totals …Read the full story on TreeHugger