Organic and fair trade chocolate has a reputation for being somewhat less divine than its uncertified brethren, as T Magazine blogger Jill Santopietro noted earlier this month (her pre-taste-test take on responsible chocolate: "awful"). But chocolate made with an eye to its social and environmental impact...

Two highly reactive chemicals in a common plastic can leak from disposable lab equipment and skew the outcome of life science research, according to an article published Thursday in the journal Science. Researchers...

Sabertooth cats, it turns out, weren't much like our famously independent felines. According to new research published in the Royal Society's journal Biology Letters, the long extinct cats were probably social animals, hunting and hanging out together like lions. (With declining populations, by the way, that...

"Just as reckless spending is causing recession, so reckless consumption is depleting the world's natural capital to a point where we are endangering our future prosperity." That's how WWF International Director-General James Leape describes the findings of an international team of researchers in this year's "Living Planet" report...

Morgan Stanley plans to build a 150-megawatt data center powered entirely by tidal energy off the coast of Scotland, the banking giant announced earlier this month. The project would require investment of at least $380 million and face a number of regulatory hurdles before coming online in 2011,...

Nearly half of all species are disappearing in what biologists from the University of California at Santa Barbara are calling "the sixth mass extinction of both plants and animals." They published research this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences after analyzing 40 studies of grassland...

If you're shopping for a new car next year (or wondering how much your gas-guzzling neighbors are spending on fuel), the EPA has just published your suggested reading: The 2009 Fuel Economy Guide. Hybrids swept the top four spots this time, with the 2009 Toyota Prius ranking as the most...

Van Jones' new book The Green Collar Economy has rocketed to #12 on the New York Times Best Sellers List for a lot of reasons, notably a killer Web site, grassroots organizing, and viral marketing, as Nicholas Sabloff points out. But there's (at least) one more reason: the question-to-answer...

Every little bit counts in a strained household budget. These tips offer ways to go green while reducing costs.

Tip #1: Cut back on disposable paper products and food containers
If a four-person household relies on paper napkins at every meal, it can cost more than $130...

Chef Karen Jurgensen learned the tools of her trade -- creative, seasonal cooking -- in rural Washington (where her grandmother taught her how to forage) and in Seattle's forward-thinking restaurants and catering...

If Dilbert wanted to go green at work, where would he start? Singing the virtues of natural light and energy efficient data centers seems unlikely to leave much of an impression on his pointy-haired boss. But if Dilbert is like more than half of American...

As shorthand for the insulating effect of certain gases in the atmosphere, "greenhouse" has become somewhat of a dirty word among environmentalists. But according to a study published in the current Journal of Geophysical Research and noted in this week's New Scientist, greenhouses, or hothouse farms, can mask...

Never mind the banks -- it might be time to start worrying about a run on your local bike shop. That's because commuters are asking, "Why shell out for gas when we can get around on sweat equity?" Although cycling remains uncommon in most of the U.S....

Last month, the congressional watchdog GAO published a report on high-tech toxic trash exports, and Greenpeace released its ninth annual Guide to Greener Electronics. Here are four ways to keep consumer electronics from harming human health and the environment. Even better, some of them will help you save...

Google took two dives today, plunging into the red along with other tech stocks, and splashing into the great blue deep with a new 3-D mapping tool for the ocean floor. Though buzz about this new "layer" of Google Earth began in April, it debuted today at the...

Chrysler revealed prototypes for three electric cars Tuesday--an SUV, minivan, and coupe--and announced plans to roll one of the models out to showrooms by 2010. The move, which caught many industry observers by surprise, enters the financially strapped company in the high stakes race for...

"We've got to put the 'eco' back into economics." That was the thrust of David Suzuki's keynote address today at the West Coast Green conference in San Jose, California. If we don't understand where our resources come from and where our waste goes, he said, "it becomes easy...

Used electronics shipped to developing countries from the United States are supposed to help bridge "the digital divide," says a new report from the watchdog arm of Congress -- not support an industry that relies on toxic, open-air fires, acid baths, and cheap labor to recover precious metals...

Wall Street took its biggest dive since 2001 yesterday as Lehman Brothers -- the 158-year-old investment bank -- filed for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch succumbed to a forced sale, and insurer A.I.G. teetered...

New rideshare services match commuters using Facebook, text messaging, GPS, and iPhone 3G. What's next? Devices that provide not only real-time information (about traffic and approaching buses, for example), but also anticipate a commuter's travel patterns and...