The Diplomat, an international current affairs magazine for the Asia-Pacific region, has announced the launch of its 2010 Essay Competition. The contest invites university students to write a short piece exploring sustainable development in the region, with the chance of winning a trip to Tokyo to report on the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit.…

The study of ancient climates and oceanic temperatures can lend clues as to how future climate changes might happen. An international team of researchers, led by the members of the Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), has published studies of the evolution of Northern Pacific and Southern…

The CEO of the world’s largest publicly traded oil company told a Congressional panel last week that the oil industry is “not well equipped” to deal with deep water spills like that now ravaging the Gulf of Mexico. Rex Tillerson, an engineer who rose to the CEO chair during his 35 years at ExxonMobil, told…

Arsenic is an extremely potent carcinogen and toxic to vital organs such as the liver, skin, kidney, and cardiovascular system. A common pathway of human exposure is through drinking water. Previous studies that assessed the long-term exposure to arsenic in drinking water have lacked resolution and rely too heavily on retrospective analysis. However, a 10-year…

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has sent a letter to Congress in support of reinstating the old and lapsed Superfund polluter pays taxes. Superfund is the federal government’s program that investigates and cleans up the nation’s most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites. If reinstated, the Superfund tax would provide a stable, dedicated…

Oil services companies were waiting on Tuesday to see if their legal bid would succeed in overturning a six-month ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico as more fishing areas were closed in response to the worst oil spill in U.S. history. The ban by President Barack Obama’s administration was imposed in response…

It all depends on where you are. When weather patterns change rainfall will increase some places and decrease in other places. What has the most impact is those river systems that many people depend on. Two of Asia’s major rivers are the the Brahmaputra and Indus river basins that descend from the Himalayas into India.…

There is plenty of sun in deserts and the Sahara is one of the biggest deserts in the world. Europe intends to import its first solar generated electricity from North Africa within the next five years, European Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said in an interview on Sunday. The European Union is backing projects to turn…

North America’s largest organic cereal brand, Nature’s Path Organic, has unleashed its first integrated multi-channel consumer campaign, and yielded impressive sales results while fomenting cultural change. Nature’s Path is serving its cereal with a generous and delicious topping of sustainability. Read about their breakthrough sustainable brand campaign.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced that 20 communities have been selected for more than $60 million in funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to implement local energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. Local governments, nonprofit organizations and quasi-governmental organizations are among the recipients for the competitive grants, administered under the Department of…