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Blockbuster movies have big potential to change the conversation about climate change.  with a public that holds views on climate change that largely align with political affiliation, Hollywood might offer a rare opportunity to cut across these lines with a message that is both entertaining and eye-opening. Indeed, there is already evidence that movies such as "The Day After Tomorrow" can change consumer attitudes and beliefs about climate change.

Vegas still prides itself on selling unfettered indulgence. Round-the-clock gambling, high-end nightclubs and decadent restaurants are not going away. Yet the opening of the Strip's first green space last month is further evidence that, regarding its relationship to the environment, Sin City is turning a new leaf. Featuring native Southwestern plants, recycled metal furniture and fountains built with locally sourced quartz, The Park, as it's called, is designed to create a sustainable microcosm of the surrounding desert landscape and provide a leafy path away from the Strip's tourist-choked sidewalks. It's a bold move away from fabulist themes that ignore the local ecosystem.

New analysis reveals troubling evidence of tree cover loss within Alliance for Zero Extinction sites (AZE sites), areas that house species that are endangered and endemic. From 2001 to 2013, AZE sites lost 1.2 million hectares (3 million acres) of tree cover, an area roughly the size of Connecticut. While this is a relatively small amount of tree cover loss compared to global averages, for species in AZE sites, losing even a small area of tree cover can mean life or death.

Global cloud patterns have changed since the 1980s, and scientists have found these shifts are consistent with predictions from climate model simulations.

Global carbon dioxide emissions were flat for the second consecutive year in 2015 due, in part, to renewables, according to the International Energy Agency. The report said that renewables accounted for about 90% new installed capacity last year, and wind represented at least half of that total. Meanwhile, the world's economy jumped about 3% last year, "offering further evidence that the link between economic growth and emissions growth is weakening," said the report.

Exposure to lead, mercury and organophosphate pesticides has led Americans to lose a collective 41 million IQ points, according to a study by a Harvard neurologist, and other common chemicals could be responsible for everything from ADHD to autism-spectrum disorders. Researchers compare the problem to climate change and say it's important for regulators to act even before the development of clear scientific evidence for safe exposure levels. "We don't have the luxury to sit back and wait until science figures out what's really going on," says environmental health researcher Philippe Grandjean

As evidence mounts that excessive use of light is harming wildlife and adversely affecting human health, new initiatives in France and elsewhere are seeking to turn down the lights that flood an ever-growing part of the planet

mounts that excessive use of light is harming wildlife and adversely affecting human health, new initiatives in France and elsewhere are seeking to turn down the lights that flood an ever-growing part of the planet.

CEH filed lawsuits against four personal care product manufacturers after it found evidence of a toxic substance, cocamide Diethanolamine (cocamide DEA) in their shampoos, soaps and other personal care products. The nonprofit firm also sent letters to approximately 100 firms whose products also tested positive.

There is increasing recognition among both travel professionals and consumers of the importance of responsible travel and "strong evidence" that responsible travel is good for the economic bottom line, according to analysis by Center for Responsible Travel.

A study by the University of Edinburgh highlights evidence that the rapid acidification of oceans 252 million years ago caused the greatest extinction of all time.

Since 1994, the researchers have found increasing amounts of evidence suggesting that lion bones are starting to replace tiger bones in certain tonics and cure-alls. Records show the industry forming in fits and starts-a skeleton here, a live lion there. The real action, though, began in 2007, after the international community adopted stricter measures to protect tigers and other big cats in Asia. The following year, South Africa issued permits for the export of 50 lion skeletons. By 2011, that number had jumped to 573 skeletons.

The main reason soaring greenhouse gas emissions have not caused air temperatures to rise more rapidly is that oceans have soaked up much of the heat. But new evidence suggests the oceans' heat-buffering ability may be weakening.

This year's World Economic Forum's Global Risk Report lists water as the number one risk in terms of impact. The impact of water can already be seen and felt across different parts of society, especially recent droughts in the western United States and Brazil, which have made international headlines, and are evidence of an underlying problem.

HSBC is launching an investigation into Noble Plantations, an Indonesian company, after claims that the company plans to clear 69.5 square miles of rainforest in Papua, Indonesia. The investigation comes after Greenpeace and the Environmental Investigation Agency presented evidence of the company's plans to clear the land for palm oil plantations.

With grand speeches, new climate strategies, the offloading of carbon intensive assets and even changes in executive pay structures, the last few weeks have provided some intriguing evidence that oil firms  finally may be starting to take the climate threat seriously.

The organizations cite research undertaken by universities, government agencies, laboratories, plastic trade associations and NGOs that have concluded oxo-degradable plastics are not suited for long-term reuse, recycling or composting. Instead, evidence has shown that these plastics often fragment into small pieces often not visible to the naked eye; those microplastic particles in turn often end up in both soil and oceans.

Emerging evidence suggests oxo-degradable packaging could be more harmful than previously realized.

CertiChem and its founder, George Bittner, who is also a professor of neurobiology at the University of Texas-Austin, had recently coauthored a paper in the NIH journal Environmental Health Perspectives. It reported that "almost all" commercially available plastics that were tested leached synthetic estrogens-even when they weren't exposed to conditions known to unlock potentially harmful chemicals, such as the heat of a microwave, the steam of a dishwasher, or the sun's ultraviolet rays. According to Bittner's research, some BPA-free products actually released synthetic estrogens that were more potent than BPA.

Brands in Unilever's sustainable living lineup, which include Hellmann's and Ben & Jerry's, fueled 60% of the company's growth last year, and are growing 50% faster than Unilever's other brands. "Our results show that sustainability is good for business, with increasing evidence that our 'sustainable living brands' do better," said CEO Paul Polman.