environment

You're at a restaurant and want to order the tiger shrimp. Sounds tasty, but is it an ethical choice from a marine conservation point of view?

Not if it's imported and caught in the wild, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's new Seafood Watch app for Android.

Tiger prawns, black tiger shrimp, white shrimp, and ebi that have been caught by trawling--pulling large nets behind boats--should be avoided because the trawling "catches and kills more than 1.8 million tons of marine life each year, including turtles, sharks and other animals, accounting for more than 25 … Read more

WASHINGTON--Scientific research, environmental protection and other priorities of the Obama administration would face steep cuts under a congressional Republican spending plan released today.

More than 60 programs would be eliminated entirely, including Obama's effort to build a network of high-speed passenger trains.

Birth control funding, the Americorps volunteer program, public broadcasting, the community-oriented policing program, and a "weatherization" program to insulate homes and office buildings also would be eliminated.

The proposal has virtually no chance of becoming law because President Barack Obama and the Democrats who control the Senate are certain to oppose it.

But it will … Read more

Is this the beginning of carbon-neutral clothing? The London College of Fashion, University of Sheffield, and University of Ulster have collaborated on a unique dress that they say could do its small part to save the earth.

The highly experimental prototype dress, called Herself, is sprayed with a mixture containing titanium dioxide. In sunlight, the chemical absorbs pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide. According to the inventors, 40 people wearing such a dress and standing in a 3-foot area could purify about 6.5 feet of airspace in just one minute. We're not exactly fashion experts here at Crave, but that certainly gives new meaning to the term "breathable fabrics." … Read more

Wi-Fi may not be a tree killer after all.

Or it might be.

In any case, recent headlines about a connection between Wi-Fi signals and an increase in tree sickness were apparently not the place to look for an answer.

According to a story in The Wall Street Journal, Dutch researchers have called into question data that prompted the widespread reports that Wi-Fi signals were to blame for a jump in poor-health indicators among urban trees in the Netherlands and perhaps elsewhere.

The people behind an investigation in the Dutch city of Alphen aan den Rijn say that numbers involved … Read more

FEBE stands for Firefox Environment Backup Extension. It's a free add-on that can back up, save, and restore everything from add-ons and themes to, well, everything in Firefox: bookmarks, passwords, preferences, saved forms, and more--even your entire profile. You can schedule automatic backups or start them any time, and even upload saved results. It's got some extras, too.

FEBE installs like any Firefox add-in but also adds its own entry on the Tools menu, with choices to make backups, restore items or profiles, and access FEBE's options; we also accessed the options from the Firefox add-ons manager. … Read more

Republican gains in the next Congress will likely curtail spending on green construction projects, but the sector promises to be a source of job growth for an economy that sorely needs it, advocates said on Tuesday.

"America needs 30 million jobs. Our mission ought to be to make those green jobs," David Foster, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of nine labor unions and four environmental groups, told the Greenbuild Expo in Chicago.

Foster predicted that Republican gains in the November 2 election mean there will be little government investment in green projects next year. But … Read more

analysis Republicans in the new Congress will pose a greater threat to the Obama administration's strategy to regulate greenhouse gas polluters than a plethora of industry lawsuits.

The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, is marching ahead with rules requiring big polluters like coal-fired power plants, oil refiners, and cement manufacturers to get permits starting January 2 to emit gases blamed for warming the planet.

President Barack Obama has always said the EPA would regulate carbon emitters if lawmakers failed to pass a climate bill.

Republicans, who will control the House of Representatives in January after winning some 60 seats … Read more

Facebook on Thursday unveiled "Green on Facebook," a page dedicated to spreading environmental awareness and other "green" news, and in tandem announced its participation in the Digital Energy Solutions Campaign (DESC), a nonprofit coalition of large technology companies and trade groups designed to solving the problems of environmental degradation and energy consumption. It's organized by the Information Technology Industry Council.

Existing members of DESC include co-chairs Intel and Verizon, Sony Electronics, Cisco, AMD, Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard. This is Facebook's first major corporate "green" initiative: It's growing fast, and the energy consumption of its servers and data centers … Read more

Tech firms proved dominant in Newsweek's rankings of the greenest companies around the world, with Dell, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard among those singled out.

Out today, Newsweek's rankings looked at the most environmentally friendly companies in the U.S. alone and throughout the world. The goal of the study was to zero in on three factors: environmental impact, policies, and reputation.

Among the 500 public companies tracked in the U.S., Dell came out on top. The PC maker was lauded by Newsweek for its environmental policies, such as free product recycling and a ban on the export of … Read more