Environmental

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

Like what you see? Subscribe to the full RSS feed.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 […]

20 Cheap and Simple Ways to Travel Greener

Kimberly Lang and Elizabeth Sanberg explain why traveling green is much easier than you might think.

Dutch Architects Float a New Plan to Deal with Climate Change

Global warming is going to impact countries like the Netherlands earlier than others. In this low-lying country where the roads and the waterways seem to merge at some point sooner or later, close to 20 percent of the country is underwater, and flooding is getting harder to control. Now, according to NPR, city planners have […]

The Great Dark Tourism Round-Up: Awards Time

Amanda Kendle wraps up our series on the various niches of dark tourism with appropriate awards for each.

Doomsday Tourism: Seeing It Before You Can’t

Amanda Kendle explores ‘doomsday tourism’ - traveling to see the natural wonders of the world before they’re gone.

The Cleanest Rainwater in the World, Bottled

Move over Evian, there’s a new stylish bottled water in the market, and it’s sourced from a region even more pristine than the French Alps. Heaven, actually. Tasmanian Rain bottled water is captured from what its manufacturers say are the clearest skies on the planet. That isn’t just advertising hype. According to the […]

Glastonbury Festival Campers to Use Potato Tent Pegs

Music lovers camping at this year’s Glastonbury Festival will leave the area cleaner and safer than in years past. BBC News is reporting that organizers are introducing new potato tent pegs that made of starch. The metal pegs that used in previous years were causing injuries to cows that roam the concert site’s fields, leading to […]

Disaster Tourism: How Soon Is Too Soon After a Natural Disaster?

Amanda Kendle explores the role of tourism in the wake of massive natural disasters around the world.

Vast Grotto Discovered Under Norwegian Glacier

Glacier experts in Norway have reason to rejoice after recently uncovering a sensational new grotto, formed under the Nigard Glacier in Sogn og Fjordane. Experts say they’ve never seen a grotto as large as this one - it’s about 8 meters high, 20-30 meters deep, and a full 20 meters wide. Experts are calling the […]

Beijing Moves Towards a Plastic Free World

China gets a lot of bad press on just about everything – lead tainted products, pollution levels, labor laws, and politics. But National Geographic is reporting that Beijing has taken a welcome initiative in cutting down environmental pollution by banning the use and sale of some plastic bags in the country. The legislation, slated to […]

Going Green with a Vengeance in Tokyo

Tokyo has never been known for its vast parklands. Green space accounts for just four percent of the city, compared to twelve percent in New York. The rapid reconstruction efforts post World War II ensured that Tokyo quickly evolved into a concrete jungle with skyscrapers clogging the city, and every available inch used […]

A Year of Trash: Man Saves Garbage for a Cause

A Berkeley man has saved all of his trash from the past year in an experiment to see how much garbage he - an average human being - could generate. The trash consisted of everything he was wasting in his personal life – the aluminum foil his Burrito came in, empty bags of chips, tissues, plastic […]

Tracking the Whale Hunt with Alaska’s Inupiat Eskimos [Photo Essay]

© Savannah Grandfather Brooklyn based artist Jonathan Harris has created a photo essay of his time spent with an Inupiat Eskimo family in northern Alaska, documenting a whale hunt. Whales are revered by the Inupiat Eskimos, and also form a major source of their food supply. Restricted by international whaling laws to just 22 whales a […]

Australia Finally Gives Thumbs Up to Kyoto Protocol

After years of hedging the issue under former Prime Minister John Howard, Australia under its newly elected Primed Minister and Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd has ratified the Kyoto Protocol. This leaves the US in the uncomfortable position of being the only country that hasn’t ratified the global environmental treaty. According to Rudd, who […]

Batteries: The Greatest Threat to Safe Air Travel!

I received this e-mail yesterday: I’m writing on behalf of SafeTravel, a new DOT initiative founded to respond to lithium battery safety issues in air travel. The initiative’s website also addresses other items which could cause unintentional safety concerns. I’m writing to request Vagabondish’s help in spreading the word about this travel safety resource. Today’s travel enthusiast […]

Not Quite Gilligan’s Island: Man (Re)Builds Island Paradise on 250,000 Recycled Plastic Bottles

When Richie Sowa’s tropical island paradise was destroyed in Hurricane Emily in 2005, it contained a two-story house, a self composting toilet, solar oven and three beautiful beaches. Pretty modest as far as private islands go, you think, except that Richie’s island was floated on plastic bottles - 250,000 of them to be exact. […]

Recycling or Simply Overseas Pollution?

A child sifts through e-waste in New Delhi / © Wikipedia The green environmental movement is encouraging Americans to increasingly recycle their used electronics, giving away old computers and televisions when new ones are purchased. It not only reduces waste and preserves the local environment, but also enables others to make use of old but […]

Mount Everest Explorers: “Can You Hear Me Now?”

China Mobile, Asia’s largest mobile phone company, has successfully tested a mobile phone base on Mount Everest.

African Pygmies Adopt GPS Technology; World to End Tomorrow at Noon

Yes, the end of the world draws nigh. Animal and plant species continue to disappear at an alarming rate; top rating TV shows feature B-list celebrities doing the cha-cha; and now pygmies are using handheld GPS systems. Yes, that’s right – pygmies. The 4’11” and under tribes of African folks - known more for their […]

A Year on Ice: Life in Antarctica

YouTube user Anthony Powell (a.k.a. “Antzarctica“) has captured over 1,000,000 photos of Antarctica while living at McMurdo Station and Scott Base over the past five years. This video captures the dichotomy of the Antarctic summer and winter through stark, fascinating time-lapse photographic imagery. It’s striking how active it is down there - many more people […]

Study: Ships Pollute More Than Planes

Via The Register: Ships pump out twice as much carbon dioxide as planes, according to new figures from the maritime industry body Intertanko. Previous studies from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) have shown that ships emitted levels of CO2 similar to those from the aviation industry. But Intertanko says emissions have risen steeply over the last six […]

Photo of the Moment: Tungurahua Volcano Erupts

Explained via the NASA website: Volcano Tungurahua erupted spectacularly last year. Pictured above, molten rock so hot it glows visibly pours down the sides of the 5,000-meter high Tungurahua, while a cloud of dark ash is seen being ejected toward the left. Wispy white clouds flow around the lava-lit peak, while a star-lit sky shines in […]

75% Off Sale On Mount Everest Expeditions! Call NOW!

Evidently, Mount Everest’s destruction by tourism can’t come fast enough for the Nepalese government. According to CNN: Nepal will slash climbing fees for Mount Everest in the off-season to lure mountaineers to the world’s tallest peak and boost tourism hit by years of a Maoist conflict. … the giant mountain remains virtually deserted in the […]

Walking Worse For The Environment Than Driving

Thinking of hoofing it around the country for your next backpacking holiday? Here’s an odd theory. Via TimesOnline.co.uk: Food production is now so energy-intensive that more carbon is emitted providing a person with enough calories to walk to the shops than a car would emit over the same distance. The climate could benefit if people avoided […]

What Do 11,000 Jet Trails Look Like?

Via The Morning News: Chris Jordan makes beautiful photographs he hopes will disgust you. His work, on display through July 31 at the Von Lintel Gallery in New York City, takes reports of large-scale waste and consumption out of the realm of statistics and places them squarely in front of our faces. Statistics are one thing but […]

Dubailand: Environmental Destruction of Walt Disney World Proportions

“Go Big or Go Home.” That’s the unofficial Texas motto. And, with the immense tourism projects cropping up in the Middle East lately, it’s evident Dubai is taking a page out of the Lonestar State’s play book. Via Middle East Times: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Widely touted as the Middle East’s very own […]