Topic: Worldwatch Institute

Change Agent Copenhagen makes an ambitious push to be carbon neutral by 2025

More bicycle lanes, biomass generation, public transit, cooling buildings with seawater – it's all intended to make Copenhagen the world’s first carbon-neutral capital by 2025.

Change Agent The man who stopped the desert

For decades Yacouba Sawadogo has been using a traditional method to replant trees and help stop the Sahara Desert from overtaking Burkina Faso.

Fukushima fallout: time to quit nuclear power altogether

Experience in northern Japan illustrates that even incremental investment in nuclear power threatens human civilization. The Fukushima disaster should once and for all drive global society away from nuclear power, and toward renewable energy.

As world population passes 7 billion, two strategies make for a sustainable future

Ensuring that women make their own choices about child-bearing and cutting waste are two important ways to ease the challenges of a more populous world.

Cell phone banking could lift Africa's farmers

Borrowing and paying via cell phone – no cash involved – opens new possibilities.

Saving monarch butterflies stirs the 'poetical soul' of Homero Aridjis

Homero Aridjis, one of Mexico's top environmentalists and poets, has led the battle to save the habitat of monarch butterflies, Pacific gray whales, and sea turtles.

Japan's nuclear energy debate: some see spur for a renewable revolution

Though Japan appears to be set on a short-term course that includes a significant role for nuclear power, the future is geared toward a revolution in renewables, say advocates.

Could Acacia trees solve Africa's hunger problems?

Decades of food delivery and 'miracle' seeds haven't addressed underlying causes of hunger. But new efforts to replicate Africa's original ecosystems are generating impressive, sustainable results.

Corporate land grabs threaten food security

Wealthy countries are buying up farm land in poorer countries – with global consequences. These controversial land grabs hurt local workers and ecosystems, and dangerously tip the scale of the world's food economy.

Swedish environmental lessons

With help from a climate-conscious nordic town, four U.S. families lessen their carbon footprint.

Sustainable population, minus the control

Empowering women will naturally restore balance.

Amid mass migration to cities, Bolivians learn to adapt to urbanization

Latin America and the Caribbean – where 78 percent of residents live in cities – is the world's most urbanized developing region.

New US office takes fresh approach to carbon

One possibility: Industrial emitters of CO2 partner with landowners to plant forests.

Obama's Labor pick a green-jobs advocate

Barack Obama has tapped Rep. Hilda Solis, a California Democrat, to head the Department of Labor, a sign that creating green jobs will be a top priority in his administration's labor policies.

Report: Climate protests rising

The Worldwatch Institute reports that climate protests are escalating worldwide, as more and more people join movements to block the construction of coal-fired power plants and pressure their governments to mandate greenhouse-gas-emission caps.

New York mayor proposes plastic-bag surcharge

In an effort to curb waste and generate revenue, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has called for a 6-cent fee for every plastic shopping bag given to shoppers.

Report: Illicit urban chicken movement growing in US

The Worldwatch Institute reports that a growing number of US city-dwellers are raising their own chickens, often in defiance of local ordinances.

Study: Privatization could avert fisheries' collapse

Industry group fighting Seattle plastic-bag tax

American Chemistry Council spent $180,625 in August fighting a 20-cent fee on paper and plastic shopping bags.

Report: US bottled water market slowing

After years of steady growth, the US market for bottled water appears to be cooling off, the Worldwatch Institute reported Monday.

Study: Green jobs could spark "explosive growth"

The Chicago-based outplacement consulting firm and workplace-data fountainhead Challenger, Gray & Christmas predicts that job growth in environment, ecology, and alternative energy sectors will "fuel significant growth and job creation over the next decade."

Insurer: Weather disasters becoming more frequent

The number of natural disasters has more than doubled since 1980, mostly because of a worsening of weather-driven catastrophes, according to a German insurance company.

Study: green jobs rising, fossil fuel jobs falling

The Worldwatch Institute released a study Thursday showing that jobs in renewable energy are expanding worldwide, while jobs in coal and natural gas are disappearing.

Brazil defends ethanol in food-versus-fuel fight

President Lula says the largest ethanol exporter makes fuel from sugar, not corn. And there's a sugar surplus.

Brazil defends ethanol in food-versus-fuel fight

President Lula says the largest ethanol exporter makes fuel from sugar, not corn. And there's a sugar surplus.