Currents

Greenpeace International recently surveyed environmental responsibility among consumer electronics companies, and released the findings during last week’s CeBIT information technology fair in Hanover, Germany.

Scientists from the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Hawaii unveiled new research last week showing that steadily warming sea surface waters are causing the least biologically productive swaths of the world’s oceans—so-called "ocean deserts"—to expand at an unprecedented rate.

Not long after the Californian power outages of 2000 to 2001, computer manufacturers Compaq and Hewlett Packard (HP) merged into one company. The companies" histories of careful energy policies did not entirely shield them from the crisis, but helped them manage it. And China is learning from the California model.

Itchy skin, irritated eyes, brittle hair, breathing difficulties—who would sign up for that kind of workout? Yet that is the reality for many who swim in indoor pools.

Last week, federal researchers unveiled the findings of a six-year study on the presence of synthetic pollutants in 20 western national parks.

The dream of famed biologist E.O. Wilson—to put together and freely share a comprehensive database of every species of plant and wildlife known to man—has finally come true (at least in part).

Researchers unveiled the first detailed map of human impacts on the world’s oceans last week, and the news is not good. A team of 20 acclaimed marine scientists from around the world collaborated on the project, finding that humans are having a major impact on marine ecosystems, leaving only four percent of the world’s oceans unaffected by human activities.

The city of London announced last week that it is upping the ante in its effort to reduce congestion by tripling the current charge levied against gas-guzzling cars and SUVs entering the city’s central district.

It was raining hard on August 4, 1913, when Joseph Knowles, a part-time portrait painter, tattooed former Navy man, big-beaked friend of the Sioux and Chippewa Indians and onetime hunting guide, stepped off into the northeastern woods of Maine near the present-day Sugarloaf ski area. His intention was a two-month sojourn in the woods, taking nothing in with him—not even clothes!

As cities like London and Stockholm have shown, congestion pricing works—but New Yorkers are putting up a fierce fight to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan.