You might want to go green, but how do you know what you're buying is truly ethical? Greenwash -- the ignoble art of misleading consumers about a product's true green worth -- is on the rise. But thanks to the work of increasingly vigilant regulators, some of the more curious and downright spurious claims are being weeded out.
This month, Just Imagine focused on the future of nature and the ways in which it can inspire solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing humanity today.
In the stylishly minimal surroundings of Singapore's Red Dot design museum, architect and innovative-thinker Cameron Sinclair opened the second Principal Voices debate of 2008 with a clear statement: "There is a lot of 'design for bad' out there."
Co-founder and executive director of Architecture for Humanity, Cameron Sinclair opened the second Principal Voices debate on Design for Good by outlining just what the term means to him, but also what it means to the communities his design solutions are aimed at.
Director of Arup, Peter Head is leading the company's new department of Planning and Integrated Urbanism.
It's not exactly Tony serenading Maria in "West Side Story," but for all their homeliness toadfish also sing to attract mates.
With climate change increasingly threatening the survival of plants and animals, scientists say it may become necessary to move some species to save them.
A high-profile push by business groups to double the number of U.S. bachelor's degrees awarded in science, math and engineering by 2015 is falling way behind target, a new report says.
The experts at London's Natural History Museum pride themselves on being able to classify and display thousands of species -- from birds and mammals to insects, dinosaurs and snakes -- and are confident they can identify most living things on the planet.
You might want to go green, but how do you know what you're buying is truly ethical? Greenwash -- the ignoble art of misleading consumers about a product's true green worth -- is on the rise. But thanks to the work of increasingly vigilant regulators, some of the more curious and downright spurious claims are being weeded out.
This month, Just Imagine focused on the future of nature and the ways in which it can inspire solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing humanity today.
In the stylishly minimal surroundings of Singapore's Red Dot design museum, architect and innovative-thinker Cameron Sinclair opened the second Principal Voices debate of 2008 with a clear statement: "There is a lot of 'design for bad' out there."
Co-founder and executive director of Architecture for Humanity, Cameron Sinclair opened the second Principal Voices debate on Design for Good by outlining just what the term means to him, but also what it means to the communities his design solutions are aimed at.
Director of Arup, Peter Head is leading the company's new department of Planning and Integrated Urbanism.
It's not exactly Tony serenading Maria in "West Side Story," but for all their homeliness toadfish also sing to attract mates.
With climate change increasingly threatening the survival of plants and animals, scientists say it may become necessary to move some species to save them.
A high-profile push by business groups to double the number of U.S. bachelor's degrees awarded in science, math and engineering by 2015 is falling way behind target, a new report says.
The experts at London's Natural History Museum pride themselves on being able to classify and display thousands of species -- from birds and mammals to insects, dinosaurs and snakes -- and are confident they can identify most living things on the planet.
It may look like an air mattress you might see lying around next to a swimming pool but in reality its function couldn't be less trivial.
Russian scientists are evacuating a research station built on an ice floe drifting in the western Arctic Ocean because global warming is melting the ice early, a spokesman said.
The apocalyptic tales of nature's impending demise are as well worn as they are numerous.
A fishing vessel rescued 10 people after a volcano erupted, sending rocks and ash down on a cattle ranch on a remote island in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.
The apocalyptic tales of nature's impending demise are as well worn as they are numerous.
The concept may be radical, but it might just have to be if the worst predictions of climate change are realized.
Sim Van der Ryn has been a leader in sustainable architecture for over 40 years. As well as creating a portfolio of inspiring green designs -- notably the 1977 Bateson Building in Sacramento -- he is also a teacher and an author. His most recent book "Design for Life" traces his ancestral and ecological design roots. Principal Voices talked to Van der Ryn about the passion which continues to consume his life.
Peter Head is a Director of Arup, a global firm of designers, engineers, planners and business consultants. He's playing a leading role in the planning and building of China's first eco-cities -- Dongtan and Wanzhuang.
This is the time of year that Anette Hosoi starts collecting snails again.
A 14,500-year-old woolly mammoth skeleton dug up in 1994 has been unveiled at the Milwaukee Public Museum, giving locals a glimpse of perhaps the most intact specimen discovered in North America.
Medicine has much to learn from nature. There are literally millions of medical compounds out there that could cure diseases, help improve treatment and even protect us from some types of bacteria.
Global warming is shrinking glaciers all over the world, but the seven tongues of ice creeping down Mount Shasta's flanks are a rare exception: They are the only known glaciers in the continental U.S. that are growing.
Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is putting his clout behind renewable energy sources like wind power.
Almost half the coral reef ecosystems in United States territory are in poor or fair condition, mostly because of rising ocean temperatures, according to a government report released Monday.
"Doing it nature's way has the potential to change the way we grow food, make materials, harness energy, heal ourselves, store information, and conduct business." Janine Benyus
Janine Benyus is a pioneer and champion of the Biomimicry movement and author of the influential 1997 book "Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature". Benyus draws her design inspiration from nature's wisdom and believes that we can use nature's best ideas and processes to solve human problems.
Living in Hong Kong I'm confronted each day by the delights and the diversity that architecture can inspire. The spectacular skyline of central Hong Kong encapsulates all the power, wealth and initiative that the city is built upon; I can take a walk through the concrete canyons of Kowloon and the high-density towers drip with life, stories and intrigue.
It all started with a farmer, a photo and a claim -- a sighting of a rare tiger in the local woods, curled up and staring right at the camera.
Forget the "Bird's Nest" and the "Water Cube". If you're traveling to China this summer, or even if you are watching the Olympics on television, make sure you look out for a glittering new landmark structure in Beijing.
It produced a blast hundreds of times stronger than the Hiroshima bomb, was seen hundreds of miles away and narrowly missed obliterating an entire city -- but 100 years to the week after the mysterious explosion in Siberia, no one is any closer to understanding what caused it.
From climate change to volcanoes and earthquakes, the world's growing challenges have leaders in earth science proposing a merger of agencies that study the planet.
As far as modes of transport go, it has to be one of the most environmentally friendly: a cardboard bike that can be recycled, in all senses of the word.
Imagine every time you closed your curtains, you were capturing enough solar energy to power your laptop. The technology is available, but no one's packaged it up in a handy DIY kit at your local hardware store.
There's no point in having a debate without varied points of view. We welcome all your comments.
During the European heat wave of 2003 that killed tens of thousands, the temperature in parts of France hit 104 degrees.
The dwindling march of the penguins is signaling that the world's oceans are in trouble, scientists now say.
Toney Dixon's fascination with dead bodies goes back to her childhood, when she would sneak around her uncle's funeral home and watch him prepare bodies.
Scientists were fascinated by the ghostly find: a human skeleton buried in an Aztec temple with a clay, skull-shaped whistle in each bony hand.
Oliver Smithies speaks fondly of Danish potatoes and beautiful equations. More on the potatoes later. Smithies is credited with helping to revolutionize genetic studies. For more than half a century his passion for science and tireless experimentation have revealed some of DNA's best-kept secrets and he's not about to stop.
U.S. government scientists are launching a five-year project aimed at safeguarding the world's chocolate supply by dissecting the genome of the cocoa bean.
Faced with global warming, plants are heading for the hills.
If your neighbor mentions their green roof you might think they have a moss problem. Maybe they are simply referring to the color. But you're unlikely to think that they have just had a mini ecosystem installed.
Oxfam's new book "From Poverty to Power: How Active Citizens and Effective States Can Change the World" is a detailed and vivid account of poverty, its effects and how it can be eradicated. Principal Voices spoke to the book's author and Head of Research at Oxfam GB, Duncan Green about the charity's prescription for change.
Plans to rejuvenate a dilapidated London icon -- known worldwide to movie and music fans -- were unveiled last week.
We rely on it to power our everyday lives, and it drives the economy worldwide, but oil faces an uncertain future in the 21st century. Black gold is increasingly expensive, environmentally damaging and, in the view of some experts, increasingly scarce.
Scientists unearthed a skull of the most primitive four-legged creature in Earth's history, which should help them better understand the evolution of fish to advanced animals that walk on land.
The underwater world and the underworld have at least one thing in common -- lots of aliases.
Using clues from star and sun positions mentioned by the ancient Greek poet Homer, scholars think they have determined the date when King Odysseus returned from the Trojan War and slaughtered a group of suitors who had been pressing his wife to marry one of them.
Exactly 20 years after warning America about global warming, a top NASA scientist said the situation has gotten so bad that the world's only hope is drastic action.
Ron Forman wants to change grown-ups' views of bugs and spiders from "ewww!" to "cool!"
Want to know how the choices you make in your everyday life might be affecting the planet? Well take a look at a new survey by the National Geographic Society compiled in partnership with the polling company Globescan.
Whilst the energy grids we rely on to provide us with cheap and reliable electricity may have been fit for purpose in the 20th century, it is now abundantly clear that the design of 21st century energy networks will have to be very different. In Europe, the foundations for a secure, flexible and more energy efficient future are already being laid.
A cyclone wrecks coastal Myanmar, spawning outbreaks of malaria, cholera and dengue fever. Flooding inundates Iowa, raising an array of public health concerns.
As a product designer, Agustin Otegui's has to "think big" about the objects he creates. From novel portable chairs made out of shovels to chrome radiators that look like modern works of art, he recasts the mundane in a modernist and functional new light.
The tradition of farming the land in northern New Mexico's Espanola Valley had been passed down from Don Bustos' Spanish ancestors, who tilled the same soil centuries before.
Parts of a rare mummified dinosaur that has attracted worldwide interest went on display in North Dakota's state museum.
It wasn't so long ago that biofuels were being heralded as the savior of the planet and a thoroughly green solution to our climate woes. But fair winds have been replaced by persistent storms of criticism. But is it justified? Principal Voices has spoken to three people -- an economist, a scientist and an environmental campaigner -- at the heart of the biofuels debate. Here, they have their say on biofuels. Have yours at bottom of the page.
Joseph Rykwert is one of the world's leading architectural historians. He is currently Paul Philippe Cret Professor of Architecture Emeritus and Professor of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also authored several highly influential books including "The Idea of a Town" (1963) and "The Seduction of Place" (2000).
Conservationists raised the alarm Thursday that lions in Kenya's Amboseli National Park face extinction within a few years unless action is taken to help them.
If climate change were a small house fire, current policy in the European Union and the United Kingdom would ensure that it would destroy not just the house but the entire suburb.
This year we thought we'd move the focus from the stage to the floor to give audience members another opportunity to participate in the discussion.
London's Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew recently opened an attraction that gives visitors the chance to walk among the treetops and examine tree canopies from a new perspective.
Whaling fleets nearly wiped out North Atlantic right whales last century. Now these huge mammals are threatened by other human behavior: big ships, fishing gear and entanglement in federal bureaucracy.
The merits of increasing biofuel production in the middle of a crisis over skyrocketing food prices is being hotly debated at a United Nations summit, but the top U.S. delegate says consensus on the issue is possible.
Leaders gathered at a summit on the world's food crisis quickly laid out their disagreements on a key issue: how much the rush for environmentally friendly biofuels is contributing to soaring prices that are causing hunger and unrest worldwide.
Polar bears will now be listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act.
Nowhere is the need for cheaper, renewable energy more apparent than Africa. There, the poorest villagers huddle around candles because even kerosene is too expensive.
At the age of just 36, Hesham Al Emadi is at the helm of an ambitious plan to create up to ten "Energy Cities" around the world.
Icelandic President Olafur Grimsson opened the Doha debate by naming energy as the most fundamental question of the 21st Century.
Jyoti is the Hindi word for light. It's something Pranav Mehta has never had to live without. And he is lucky. Near where he lives in Gujarat -- one of the most prosperous states in India -- thousands of rural villages lack electricity or struggle with an intermittent supply at best.
Jyoti is the Hindi word for light. It's something Pranav Mehta has never had to live without. And he is lucky. Near where he lives in Gujarat, one of the most prosperous states in India, thousands of rural villages lack electricity or struggle with an intermittent supply at best.
One look outside the window gives a glimpse of the "economics of energy" in Doha, Qatar. Cranes dot the tops of half-finished towers, a monumental work in progress; the result of vast energy wealth being pumped out of the ground and poured into project after project.
England's enigmatic Stonehenge served as a burial ground from its earliest beginnings and for several hundred years thereafter, new research indicates.
Scientists have trained a group of monkeys to feed themselves marshmallows using a robot arm controlled by sensors implanted in their brains, a feat that could one day help paralyzed people operate prosthetic limbs on their own, according to a study out Thursday.
Later this summer, a motor rally will make its way across Europe. Nothing strange in that you might think. But this is a race with a difference -- a "banger rally" if you like -- and one with a well-tuned environmental message.
Parkersburg, Iowa, is mourning its dead and cleaning up the colossal mess left by a powerful tornado that tore through the town on Sunday night.
Robotic rovers have patrolled deep space and the deepest seas, but scientists are still struggling to create drones that can overcome the multiple challenges of exploring Antarctica.
A panel of marine scientists is warning that the Pacific coast's increasing acidity could disrupt food chains and threaten the Pacific Northwest's shellfish industry.
Last month's botched landing of a Russian capsule returning from the international space station was caused by the failure of an equipment module to separate from the capsule on time, a Russian space official said Wednesday.
Willis E. Lamb Jr., a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose work on the electron structure of the hydrogen atom revolutionized the quantum theory of matter, has died. He was 94.
Marine scientists surveying a large undersea mountain chain were amazed to find millions of tiny starfish swirling their arms to capture food in the undersea current.
Indiana Jones managed to retrieve the trinket he was after in the opening moments of "Raiders of the Lost Ark." He pretty much wrecked everything else in the ancient South American temple where the little gold idol had rested for millennia.
Koalas are threatened by the rising level of carbon dioxide pollution in the atmosphere because it saps nutrients from the eucalyptus leaves they feed on, a researcher said Wednesday.
She has been named Beauty, though this eagle is anything but.
For eight years, Tony and Sam Bayaoa have grown thousands of bright red, yellow and pink protea flowers on their farm. Then in March, Kilauea volcano opened a new vent and began spewing double the usual amount of toxic gas.
It's a tale of homeland security concerns blocking wildlife management, and the hue and cry that ensues.
One gray squirrel, its bushy tail twitching, barked a warning as another scrounged for food nearby.
The New York Botanical Garden may be best known for its orchid shows and colorful blossoms, but its researchers are about to lead a global effort to capture DNA from thousands of tree species from around the world.
Experts are mystified by a "swarm" of earthquakes hitting Reno, Nevada.
A pile of dinosaur dung 130 million years old sold at a New York auction Wednesday for nearly $1,000.
Scientists studying the carcass of what they call the heaviest squid ever found have discovered it has eyes as big as soccer balls -- reportedly the largest in the world.
A federal judge has ordered the government to decide within 16 days whether polar bears should be listed as a threatened species because of global warming.
Federal researchers say they have developed a human identification test that's faster and possibly cheaper than DNA testing.
What's black and white and warm all over? A penguin in a wetsuit, naturally.
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