Sustainability

China became a mostly urban country in 2011, the service sector became the biggest in 2013, and in 2015 Chinese cities will try to reverse negative trends of sprawl and pollution.

While terms like "smart grid" and "smart economy" are hard to peg down, we can at least say that for "smart mobility" we're starting to see some of the bluster turning into reality.

Looking back at 2014 through the prism of renewable energy, it's hard not to get bombastic. So many records were broken, corners turned, and with costs declining, it's hard not to wonder if 2015 will see renewable energy become nothing more than a fully competitive energy source, capturing more and more market share.

Is it Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, or Dubai International? Both apparently. But it depends on the metric. If you go by number of flights, then O'Hare is the world's busiest airport (881,933 flights in 2014), dethroning Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (868,359) after 10 years at the top - by this way of measuring.

Forget alternative fuels: the next big change for cars lies in information technology and automation, which will lead to new designs and are the best hope for the widespread adoption of all-electric vehicles

As 2015 begins, the road to the crucial COP-21 summit here in Paris (where I am based) is being outlined by the French government, the UN, and a huge number of other actors and NGOs.

How cities get built may determine how bad global warming becomes

Today Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), brain-child of famed energy thinker Amory Lovins, and Carbon War Room (CWR), the five-year old climate change outfit of Sir Richard Branson, merged to create a new alliance dedicated to the acceleration of a low carbon energy future.

Researchers estimated alcohol consumption at a senior center by putting out recycling bins and counting the bottle contents. Karen Hopkin reports

 

For this #MapMonday we return to Yale's Environmental Performance group, featured previously here on #MapMonday. The newly released biodiversity map brings together a whopping amount of data to detail the state (quality not just quantity) of species around the world, and while the staggering diversity of life on our planet is breathtaking (and sometimes pretty [...]

It seems you can't read an article about new mobility or the sharing economy without stumbling across Uber; the mobility service that sprung up in 2009 to only five years later become valued at more than Avis, Hertz, or Sony.

Her Deepness. The Sturgeon General. And now: Glamour Girl. On Monday night, renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle earned a new moniker when she joined eight others in receiving a 2014 Glamour Woman of the Year Award at a celebrity-packed Carnegie Hall.