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Yet, in the southeastern U.S., the massive fuel needs of these energy companies could double logging rates and increase carbon emissions significantly –- contributing to climate change at a time when we need to be rapidly cutting our carbon pollution

Burning whole trees is worse than burning coal

Our southern forests are exported to produce electricity overseas

Tungsten, in particular, is in high demand.

The dark, heat-resistant and super-hard metal is inside the engines of some of the most popular cars in the world. It’s used for screens of computers, phones, tablets and televisions. It helps mobile phones vibrate when they ring. Semiconductor makers use the metal to provide insulation between microscopic layers of circuitry.

Tiger Hill rises above the rain forest in an area ruled by armed FARC fighters more than 220 kilometers (137 miles) from the nearest road, town or police station.

This is an environmental issue, but it is a consumer-driven issue. Palm oil is being produce because consumers are purchasing items with palm oil in them

the El Paso Zoo and El Paso Zoological Society have developed a scanning app that allows people to make informed choices about the products they buy."

The El Paso Zoo launched a free national smartphone application Thursday that scans the product's bar code on the back of the item to help consumers identify which ones use palm oil.

Ford and Microsoft were among investors in a $1 billion green bond launched last week to support "climate smart" investments in emerging markets.

Proceeds of IFC green bonds are used for private sector investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency and other areas that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as installing solar and wind power capacity and providing financing for technology that helps produce energy more efficiently.

IFC said in a statement that the bond transaction, jointly led by BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Crédit Agricole CIB and SEB, was heavily oversubscribed and sized to address the demand from "an increasing number of investors interested in climate-related opportunities."

A new study from the Colorado-based Climate Accountability Institute suggests that 90 companies are responsible for almost two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

The top 90 emitters include 50 investor-owned energy companies like BP, ExxonMobil and Shell, along with 31 state-owned companies and some nation-states themselves. 83 of the 90 are coal, oil and gas producers and the remaining seven are cement manufacturers.

Based on studies published during the past several years, the IPCC found that in order to have at least a 66 percent chance of limiting global warming to, or below, 3.6°F above pre-industrial levels, no more than 1 trillion tonnes of carbon can be released into the atmosphere from the beginning of the industrial era through the end of this century.

recycling most materials from municipal solid waste saves on average three to five times more energy than does burning them for electricity.

As it turns out, countries with the highest rates of garbage incineration — Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, for example, all incinerate at least 50 percent of their waste — also tend to have high rates of recycling and composting of organic materials and food waste. But zero-wasters argue that were it not for large-scale incineration, these environmentally Zero-waste advocates say a major problem is the long-term contracts that waste-to-energy plants are locked into.conscious countries would have even higher rates of recycling. Germany, for example, incinerates 37 percent of its waste and recycles 45 percent — a considerably better recycling rate than the 30-plus percent of Scandinavian countries.

(In the United States, more than half of all waste is dumped in landfills, and about 12 percent burned, of which only a portion is used to produce energy.)

Los Angeles is considering banning the cultivation and sale of genetically modified organisms. If it does, the second-largest U.S. city would become the country's largest GMO-free zone.

Two LA city councilmen on Friday introduced a motion that would ban the growth, sale and distribution of genetically engineered seeds and plants.

The motion would not affect the sale of food containing genetically modified ingredients.

Today, McDonald’s announces that it will begin purchasing verified sustainable beef in 2016, the first step on a quest to purchase sustainable beef for all of its burgers worldwide.

The land management initiative led the company to commit to source-only palm oil certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil by 2015. All of its fish worldwide come from fisheries certified by the Marine Stewardship Council. McDonald’s requires its suppliers to source 100 percent Rainforest Alliance certified coffee for its espresso in the United States, for all of its coffee in Australia and New Zealand and all of it in Europe except for decaf.

Langert says McDonald’s isn’t yet ready to commit to a specific quantity it would purchase in 2016, or when it might achieve its “aspirational goal” of buying 100 percent of its beef from “verified sustainable sources.” (The company only will say, “We will focus on increasing the annual amount each year.”) Realistically, it could take a decade or more to achieve the 100-percent goal.