When Bike Sharing Falters (and Why We Can’t Let It)
Photo credit by batega via flickr.
In its early days, Barcelona’s Bicing seemed like an unparalleled success. With 400 stations and 3,000 of the squat, burly red-and-white bikes stationed around the city, Bicing quickly became part of Barcelona’s big city atmosphere and was enthusiastically received by inhabitants.
But after five years, something scary started to happen, in addition to the vandalism and <a href="http://www.elperiodico.com/es/noticias/barcelona/20100820/area-metropolitana-acumula-u…Read the full story on TreeHugger
The Problem With ‘Shoot to Kill’ Conservation
Image credit: Mister-E/Flickr
As the value of endangered animal parts on the black market has increased, poachers have been able to upgrade and expand their operations. Now, gangs, armed with helicopters and weapons—and financed by foreign cartels—perform stealth raids that <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/07/poachers-kill-last-female-white-rhino-south-african-reserve.p…Read the full story on TreeHugger
How Bad Is Overfishing & What Can Be Done to Stop It?
photo: Jim G via flickr
By now you’d have to have been living on a desert island by yourself with an imaginary coconut companion to not know that overfishing is a serious problem for all the world’s oceans. The good news is, though the future for fish looks pretty dire if we keep up how we’ve been fishing, we already have seen conservation successes to show the way forward and stop overfishing….Read the full story on TreeHugger
Animal Eyes, Up Close and Personal (Slideshow)
Photo via Furryscaly @ Flickr
In people, they say the eyes are the windows to the soul — and perhaps that is also true for animals. From the rainbow-colored compact lens of a horsefly and the gentle eyes of a giraffe to the tiny beads on an elephant and the thoughtful look of an owl, these closeups offer a rare look at the personality of animals all over the world.
Here’s looking at you, kid.
<img alt="Animal Eyes, Up Close and Personal slideshow" src="http://www.treehugger…Read the full story on TreeHugger
CO2 Linked To Ice Ages & Past Global Climate Changes
photo: Dominic Alves via flickr
Taking a look back to past global climate changes, researchers led by Timothy Herbert of Brown University have determined that for at least the past 2.7 million years tropical temperatures have “changed in lockstep” with the cyclical spread and retreat of ice sheets, and that CO2 has been the main factor dictating global climate patterns. …Read the full story on TreeHugger
Biking And Walking Get More Bucks, Keep Going Up
Photo by rkimpeljr via flickr.
It may seem like an, “Oh, duh,” with the government the last to confirm the news, but a 15-year report released by the U.S. Department of Transporation and the Federal Highway Administration shows a 25% increase in trips by bike and walking since 2001. The National Bicycling and Walking Study: 15-Year Status Report has been following the action since 1994, and the news is (mostly) good – in the U.S. we’ve reversed a trend of decreasing trips by biking and walking. And the Obama Administration spent $1.2 billion on bike and walk programs in 2009…Read the full story on TreeHugger
10 Really Great Animal Dads (Slideshow)
Olive baboons in Tanzania. Photo by Andrew Ross via Flickr.
While many male birds make proper “Mr. Moms,” sharing duties with their mates, fewer than 5 percent of all male mammals play any role in directly tending infants of the species — leaving a lot of deadbeat animal dads out there.
With <a href="http://www.treehugger…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Voluntary Carbon Market Value Slashed in Half by 2009 Recession
photo: Eric Schmuttenmaer via flickr
We know that the Great Recession of 2008 & 2009 helped many nations slash their carbon emissions and lower deforestation rates–decidedly good things–but it also slashed in half the value of the voluntary carbon market, a new report by Ecosystem Marketplace shows….Read the full story on TreeHugger
Is the BP Oil Spill the 9/11 of Energy Policy for the US?
photo: slagheap via flickr
If you’ve paid attention at all to the headlines today, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that during his latest trip to view the BP oil spill clean-up efforts President Obama likened the changes this disaster could have in energy policy to the way 9/11 changed US security policy. I’ve been sitting with this comment all day, wondering if it’s accurate or just evocative rhetoric. The thing is, transforming the way we use energy is even more complex than changi…Read the full story on TreeHugger
New Study: Biomass Worse Than Coal
photo via flickr
Massachusetts has a law mandating a portfolio of renewable energy, including energy derived from wind, solar, and biomass. But a new study says that replacing coal power with biomass will actually increase the amount of CO2 emitted, throwing a wrench in the state’s plan and casting some doubt over the utility of using biomass on national scale and the inclusion of biomass titles in the energy bills now being negotiated in Congress….Read the full story on TreeHugger
