James Gerken

Will sustained global economic growth intensify the effects of climate change? A new study from the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research suggests that a transformation of the world's economies or a limit to economic growth may be needed to curb the rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.

Experts predict that the effects of climate change may have the greatest impact on low-lying, and often developing nations, but countries like the United States are not immune.

The low-lying city of Norfolk, Virginia, located at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, is not only susceptible to sea...

"Usually, people who care about the community, who care about the Earth, think that they're by themselves," Rebuild the Dream's founder Van Jones told The Huffington Post at New York City's first Green Festival.

But the festival staged at the Javits Center this past weekend to celebrate Earth Day...

What is the true cost of the water we use everyday?

As the short video above explains, much of our water usage can come from the "hidden water" that we may not even think about. Participant Media ("An Inconvenient Truth," "The Cove") created the clip in anticipation of the...

While the true extent of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill was not known for about 4 years, as Al Jazeera notes in the video above, the repercussions of BP's 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico may become apparent more quickly.

Discovering eyeless shrimp, lesioned...

AOL's Translogic recently visited Paris to test out the city's two vehicle sharing programs, and as host Bradley Hasemeyer explains, "It's a great thing."

The city's bike sharing system, Vélib', gives Parisians and visitors the ability to easily and economically navigate Paris without having to own...

Actor and director Mark Ruffalo recently joined Stephen Colbert to discuss an issue that continues to divide many Americans.

Appearing on the "Colbert Report" this week, Ruffalo discussed what he sees as one of the biggest problems associated with fracking, mountaintop removal coal mining and the...

COUNTDOWN TO EARTH HOUR (ET):

At 8:30 PM Saturday, some of the world's most famous landmarks will go dark for Earth Hour 2012. From the Empire State Building to the Great Wall of China, non-essential lighting will be turned off at important locations around the globe.

Earth Hour, a global initiative led by World Wildlife Fund, encourages individuals around the world to shut off their lights on Saturday March 31 for one hour, beginning at 8:30 PM in each time zone.

The event, according to its organizers, is meant to raise awareness for climate change and to encourage "support for environmentally sustainable action."

Andy Ridley, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Earth Hour, said in a press release, “In 2012, Earth Hour is reaching further and wider than ever before and these landmarks will provide a visually spectacular reminder of what can be done when individuals, organisations and governments act together.

In addition to buildings, landmarks and individuals, the International Space Station will also participate in Earth Hour, as its crew watches the world's lights dim from above.

Even the National Hockey League will be taking part in Earth Hour. All 30 NHL teams have pledged to dim the lights on Saturday, including the 20 clubs that will be on the ice that evening. Bernadette Mansur, SVP of NHL Green, said in a press release, "For the NHL, the success of this event is about more than turning the lights off for one hour. It is about changing the way our sport approaches energy consumption."

As HuffPost blogger Maggie Koerth-Baker notes, Earth Hour isn't about rejecting modern technology or tallying the energy saved from one hour per year.

"The problem isn't individual choices," she argues. Rather, it is "infrastructures that often limit our energy choices and incentivize wasting energy rather than conserving it."

Earth Hour began in Sydney, Australia in 2007 and has grown in subsequent years. According to the initiative's website, 2011's Earth Hour was observed in over 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries. Earth Hour's website reported Friday that a record 147 countries and territories are preparing to take part in the event.

[Check out images from last year's Earth Hour and 2010's global observance.]

When observing Earth Hour, it is important to think about the ways you can save energy year-round. According to the EPA, in 2011, 41 percent of all U.S. carbon emissions came from electricity generation.

Overall domestic energy usage in the U.S. has decreased slightly in the past three decades, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, but the percentage of electricity used by "appliances and electronics in U.S. homes has nearly doubled from 17 percent to 31 percent."

Click here for a children's Earth Hour activity book from Pocoyo filled with ideas for observing Earth Hour on Saturday. Below, find Pocoyo's tips for saving energy...

A recent letter to chief executive officer Robert Dudley alleges that bribery and corruption have permeated BP's shipping division for several years, the Daily Telegraph reveals.

The anonymous message, written by someone claiming to be a "BP employee," asserts that a senior BP official received cash in exchange...

Protesters assembled in front of the Washington, D.C. offices of agricultural biotech giant Monsanto Wednesday, in response to a federal judge's dismissal of a class-action lawsuit against the company.

Chanting phrases like "Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Monsanto has got to go!," 40 to 50...

An upcoming documentary from Disney will give audiences the chance to not only see chimpanzees, but also save them.

"Chimpanzee," opening in theaters on April 20, tells the story of an orphan and the selfless alpha male chimp who raised him.

Before the extraordinary primate adoption, filmmakers were...

A recently announced climate change agreement between the United States and several other countries aims to reduce pollutant emissions, but it is drawing some concerns from a conservation group that claims it doesn't go far enough.

Introduced Thursday by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the multinational partnership...

After drilling into Lake Vostok for over two decades, Russian scientists have confirmed that they reached the mysterious freshwater lake that was sealed beneath over two miles of Antarctic ice.

Although reports on Lake Vostok came in Monday, the feat was not confirmed for two days....

Barely a week after President Obama rejected the contentious Keystone XL pipeline proposal and his relationship with environmentalists reached a "high water mark," protesters once again took to the streets of Washington, D.C.

On Wednesday, environmentalists staged a rally to "blow the whistle" on members of...

The discovery of a new frog species in New Guinea is pretty big, but the frogs aren't.

The newly found frog species, Paedophryne amauensis, is the world's tiniest known vertebrate, according to a press release from Louisiana State University. Averaging less than one-third of an inch (7.7 millimeters) in length,...

Will you vote 4 energy? A new Greenpeace video spoof suggests citizens should think twice about the latest ad campaign from the American Petroleum Institute (API).

The Greenpeace video, seen below, takes aim at the API's recently announced "Vote4Energy" campaign. API President and CEO...

Environmentalists are setting their sights on a small village in northeastern Pennsylvania and the impact hydraulic fracturing has had on the town.

Dimock, Pennsylvania, close to an hour's drive north of Scranton, is home to 11 families who received daily water deliveries for nearly three years, courtesy of...

Environmentalists are cheering after a meeting on the future of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for natural gas in the Northeast has been postponed.

The Delaware River Basin Commission, consisting of the governors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware and a representative from the Army Corp of Engineers,...

Actor and filmmaker Adrian Grenier and producer Peter Glatzer, co-founders of the award-winning sustainable lifestyle site SHFT.com, have announced a multi-year collaboration with automaker Ford.

As the name SHFT implies, the concept of change is important to the website. Speaking with HuffPost, Grenier explained that SHFT...

How will the U.S. government tackle climate change? A recent report suggests that the intelligence community could benefit from the creation of an open and collaborative group to study and mitigate climate change.

The Defense Science Board (DSB), a civilian advisory committee to the Department of Defense, recently released...