Environmental

Tigers Attack Tourist Bus in China

Bengal Tiger ©Paul Mannix A group of tourists visiting Jinan Wildlife World in eastern China narrowly escaped after Bengal tigers attacked their bus. The incident occurred when the worker in charge of the enclosure was on his lunch break. While visitors hid under their bus seats and attempted to call emergency services, eight tigers circled [...]

U.S. National Parks Free This Weekend

Visitors on Boardwalk Mammoth Springs ©Bernt Rostad In an effort to get more people to America’s national parks — and to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. — the National Park Service (NPS) is waiving admission fees this weekend, Jan. 14–16. This free weekend is part of the fee-free program which grants free admission to all [...]

Village Builds Snow Church in Bavaria

Snow Church ©AFP/Getty Images Kids now-a-days… occupying Wall Street, toppling Middle Eastern governments. Back in the good-old-bavarian-days people in the village of Mitterfirmiansreut took a stand by building a church out of snow. That’s right, they constructed a church made entirely of snow to protest the fact that there was not a traditional church in [...]

Snakes (almost) on a Plane!

snake ©calebdzahnd Buenos Aires International Airport in Argentina intercepted what could have been a disastrous (or action packed) airplane incident when they detained a Czech man trying to board a plane with almost 250 poisonous snakes and endangered reptiles in his baggage. Karel Abelovsky, 51, was en route to Spain when airport officials made him [...]

US Teen Becomes the Youngest to Climb the World’s Tallest Mountains

Mount Elbrus ©Hombit Today in news that will make you feel like a complete and utter failure who hasn’t done anything with your life, a teenager from California has become the youngest person to successfully climb the highest mountain in each of the world’s seven continents. Instead hanging out at the mall slurping an Orange [...]

Rome Declares War on Chewing Gum

The Colosseum, Rome, Italy ©jonrawlinson This Tuesday a few fearless volunteers teamed up with the city of Rome to de-gumify their ancient city. The clean-up is part of a larger campaign to clean off sticky chewing gum from Rome’s priceless archaeological sites and cobblestone streets. Even with the help of the volunteers, who came from [...]

UFO Inspired Hotel Takes Off in Sweden

Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói ©Rodrigo_Soldon Beam yourself up to a UFO-inspired hotel in the mountains of Sweden. The new spaceship-in-a-tree hotel was built by Treehotel–a hotel company renowned for its innovative designs. And the aliens aren’t the only things that are green. The hotel is cast in durable compost material and features environmentally [...]

The World’s Strangest Natural Optical Illusions

Magnetic Hill ©Kartikeya Kaul Do you have do see something to believe it? Maybe not, with these 10 extraordinary natural mirages, compiled by the BBC, you might just be left disbelieving your own eyes. Making an appearance on the list is the magnetic hill in Ladakh, India where vehicles left out of gear appear roll [...]

Pop Up Hotels Next Big Thing in Travel

Tropical Cabana ©jonrawlinson The pop up phenomena has become a staple of the restaurant business. A temporary restaurant, usually centered around some kind of event provides the opportunity for young renegade cooks or very successful mainstream chefs to experiment and create without the need for huge financial backing or the fear of bankruptcy. Inspired by [...]

Eiffel Tower Won’t Go “Green”

Eiffel Tower ©Omarukai French authorities have denied reports that the tower will be transformed into the world’s largest tree. The denial comes on the tails of a story published by France’s Le Figaro newspaper reporting that the iconic Eiffel tower was considering a 72 million euro ($A96.09 million) project that would see 600,000 plants hung [...]

Crumbling Foundations Could Cause Taj Mahal to Collapse

Taj Mahal © laszlo-photo The Taj Mahal’s foundations are crumbling and experts estimate that unless urgent action is taken to shore them up the monument will collapse in the next five years. The Daily Mail reports, Professor Ram Nath, a historian who is one of the world’s leading authorities on the Taj, said: ‘The Taj [...]

Juneau’s Receding Glaciers [Video]

Beautiful. And heartbreaking.

The World’s Most Bizarre Spots to Scuba Dive

Scuba Diving ©Ilse Reijs and Jan-Noud Hutten If you are bored of diving in ordinary coral reefs and swimming with colorful tropical fish, add these wacky diving sites to your next travel itinerary. In Iceland you can swim in a crack in the earth caused by two continental plates moving away from each other, the [...]

New Heli-Hiking Tours Take Off

Mountain & Helicopter © snappa2006 The newest trend in hiking and camping, called heli-hiking or heli-camping, is taking intrepid trekkers to new heights. MSNBC explains: Adventurous hikers and campers simply hitch a ride on a helicopter to a remote location that would otherwise take days to reach. At the top of a mountain, the helicopter [...]

Historic Danish City Square Built on Old Poop

Kultorvet Square © bloedoere A large subway expansion project in the Danish capital of Copenhagen has led to a very stinky discovery. Archeologists dug up two very full 18th century outhouses in Kultorvet Square. Gadling writes, Kultorvet means “Coal Square” and was where people bought and sold coal. Now it’s a popular meeting place full [...]

Explore New Depths with Snuba Diving

Underwater © Flutterbright Check out the newest innovation in underwater recreation: Snuba. No really, we’re not making this up. A cross between scuba diving and snorkeling, Snuba divers can explore up to 7 meters underwater by breathing through a hose that supplies air from a raft on the surface. The appeal of Snuba? It doesn’t [...]

Cancerous Galactic Cosmic Rays are a Threat to Frequent Fliers

Airplane © Sean MacEntee British scientist Mike Lockwood claims that fliers on long-haul flights are facing a greater risk of cancer due to an increase in the number of solar energetic particles and galactic cosmic rays. While it sounds like something out of a Star Trek episode, Lockwood appears to be ligit. He writes in [...]

The Coldest Places in the World

Charlotte Pass © flyingpurplemonkeys Summer heat starting to get to you? Crank up the AC, pour yourself an ice cold drink and start planning your vacation to the coldest places on each continent. If you are looking for bone chilling temperatures you might want to pass up Oceania. Australia’s best is a meager -9.4 Fahrenheit [...]

United States of the Environment [Infographic]

The Mother Nature Network brings us a nifty infographic revealing each state’s strengths and weaknesses.

How to Chase Polar Bears Across the Canadian Subarctic – Final Day on the Tundra

Vagabondish.com editor, Mike Richard, spends five days on the Canadian tundra with adventure outfitters Natural Habitat Adventures in search of the Arctic’s greatest predator – the polar bear.

How to Chase Polar Bears Across the Canadian Subarctic – Part 2

After a quick breakfast at the Northern Nights Lodge, we set out before dawn to be the first rover out on the tundra. It’s a cooperative environment among fellow rover drivers to be sure, but there’s always a bit of unspoken competition. Baz is chomping at the bit when we arrive. I barely make the [...]

How (Not) to Chase Polar Bears Across the Canadian Subarctic – Part 1

Vagabondish.com editor, Mike Richard, spends five days on the Canadian tundra with adventure outfitters Natural Habitat Adventures in search of the Arctic’s greatest predator – the polar bear.

Spectacular Glacier Photos Document Earth’s Disappearing Landscape

© GeoEye/NASA, 2005 via Wired The folks at Wired have collected thirteen pictures of various glaciers from around the globe, all shot from space and all of them amazing. The conceit of the article is that glaciers are a veritable blur of geological activity, moving, flowing, and breaking apart fast enough for us to actually [...]

Terrific: Giant Snakes Invading US Ecosystems, Destroying Endangered Species

© Karunakar Rayker The headline sounds scary enough: “Invading giant snakes threaten U.S. wilderness areas.” And it is pretty scary. A new report describes how five giant non-native snake species are destroying the south Florida ecosystem, having been released into the wild by the incandescently stupid pet owners who tried to raise them. Several of [...]

President Bush Creates Three New Marine Preserves

Barracuda Storm © JennyHuang On January 6th, President Bush established three new marine preserves. The new preserves are: The Marianas Trench Marine National Monument Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument Rose Atoll Marine National Monument Rose Atoll is part of American Samoa. The Marianas Trench is near Guam and is the deepest part of the [...]

Massive Jellyfish Swarms Disrupting Tourism Worldwide

Jellyfish Swarm in Monterey, California © michale According to a report from the National Science Foundation (NSF), called Jellyfish Gone Wild, jellyfish swarms are becoming larger and more common. A single swarm can cover hundreds of square miles, often overrunning beaches and fish habitats. These jellyfish swarms cause several problems, including: Decimating fish populations by [...]

Paris to New York Via the Bering Strait

Transcontinental excursions are typically regulated to massive Russian tundras and African safaris. Adventurer Matthias Jeschke doesn’t think so: He’s planning a route from Paris, France to New York City using the Bering Strait which ancient humans used to migrate. Conceptually, this is to bring attention to global warming as the Bering Strait would no longer [...]

7 Unrivaled Earth Day Events Around the World

Kimberly Lang and Elizabeth Sanberg reveal the seven can’t-miss Earth Day celebrations this year.

World’s Oldest Tree (8,000 Years Young) Found in Sweden

Scientists have identified a cluster of spruce trees in the Dalarna Province of Sweden as being the oldest in the world. The Norway spruce trees were found in a mountainous region in Western Sweden. Carbon dating tests have revealed one of the trees to have taken root around 8000 years ago, which officially makes it [...]