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"Taiwan's government on Friday urged the public to stop burning incense sticks and ritual money in honour of the dead and opt instead for online worshipping to better protect the environment. The practice not only worsens the island's air pollution but could also cause fires, warned the cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration."

"The Galapagos fur seal's move into a new habitat suggests swifts changes are occurring in the Earth's environment, with or without El Nino."

"A new study from the Center for the Built Environment at the University of California, Berkeley, confirms what everyone probably knew intuitively: If you give people control of their own environment they use less energy. According to the New Scientist, by installing individual vents and controls for each worker (which automatically turn off when the desk is vacant) instead of cooling the whole office to one temperature, it can cut the energy consumed for cooling in half. It was particularly effective in hot, humid climates; they modeled it on Singapor and concluded that 'In an environment like Singapore, it's pretty clear that these systems would pay for themselves in energy savings.'"

"The Pentagon released (1 February 2010), its Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) for 2010 [PDF] , stating that crafting a strategic approach to climate and energy are a priority. The QDR states, "Climate change and energy are two key issues that will play a significant role in shaping the future security environment. Although they produce distinct types of challenges, climate change, energy security, and economic stability are inextricably linked.""

"Scientists say that it is possible to produce a new class of plastics that will not degrade as quickly when recycled, according to a paper published in the journal Macromolecules."

"Analysis of damage done leaves Obama no choice but to ban the highly destructive practice, say the authors of a new study."

"I believe the green economy is coming. That's not a question of if it's going to happen, it's just when it's going to happen. The sooner the better for me, because the jobs of the future lie in energy independence and cleaning up the environment…. Why can't America have the cleanest air?"

As the world weighs how to deal with warming, the idea of human manipulation of climate systems is gaining attention.  Yet beyond the environmental and technical questions looms a more practical issue: How could governments really commit to supervising geoengineering schemes for centuries?

"Our ecological footprint - what we take out of the planet - is now 1.3 times the biological capacity of the Earth. In the words of Professor Bob Watson, Defra's chief scientific adviser and former chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we are in danger of approaching "a point of no return". So the action we take in the... See More next couple of decades will determine whether the stable environment on which human civilization has depended since the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago will continue. "

"Today, Target became the first major US retailer to stop selling farmed salmon products! Salmon consumption in the United States is a huge market for retailers. Aquaculture (farming fish) is often called the future of the seafood industry, but some types of aquaculture - such as conventional open-net salmon farming - can cause tremendous damage to the environment. Parasite infestations, concentrated fish waste, the uncontrolled spread of genetic material, and the unsustainable use of wild fish to feed farmed animals all pose significant threats to the sanctity of our marine ecosystems."

Concerns grow over dramatic drop in numbers of mysterious creatures that migrate across the Atlantic

The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it will investigate the impact of the chemical Bisphenol-A on the U.S. water supply and other parts of the environment. Federal regulators have been ramping up their scrutiny of the controversial plastic-hardener at the behest of scientists and activists who say it can interfere with infant growth and development.

"One in six mangrove species faces extinction as coastal ecosystems are being destroyed or damaged by development, aquaculture, logging, and climate change, according to a new study. On the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Central America, as many as 40 percent of mangrove species are threatened, the report said."

Nestlé officials last year said they would refuse to buy palm oil that was not sustainably harvested. Palm oil, which is used in an increasing number of products, from cosmetics to food, has grown into a $20-billion industry worldwide.

The world's coral reefs are in danger of dying out in the next 20 years unless carbon emissions are cut drastically, warns a coalition of scientists led by Sir David Attenborough.

"Take, for example, the Caribbean nation of Belize. A recent analysis by several of my colleagues concluded that the country's coral reefs contribute the equivalent to 10 to 15 per cent of the nation's GDP, primarily through tourism and fisheries. Likewise, the avoided damage to buildings and infrastructure that reefs provide by serving as a "speed bump" for tropical storms equates to the same GDP percentage."

Preserving a species of weed-eating fish may be the key to saving the world's coral reefs from being engulfed by weed as human and climate impacts grow. A new study by the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) has found that weed-eaters like parrotfish and surgeonfish can keep coral reefs clear of weed up to a point.