South Korean Mayor Dumps Tonne of Trash on Pristine Beach for International Clean-Up Day
On September 21, volunteers across the globe, from Thailand to Hawaii, gathered on their local beaches to clean up trash and make a powerful statement about the poor state of our environment? But what about volunteers with no dirty beaches to clean? Well, some of them got a bit of help from local authorities. Late […]
The Brazilian Couple Who Brought a Dead Subtropical Rainforest Back to Life
Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado is a world renowned social documentary photographer and photojournalist from Brazil, but few people know that he is also the mastermind behind one of the most amazing environment restoration projects in history. Together with his wife, Salgado has nearly completed the recovery of a single uninterrupted section of the Atlantic Forest, planting millions […]
Double Amputee Turns Barren Hills into Lush 17,000-Tree Forest
Ma Sanxiao, a 70-year-old double amputee and army veteran from Jingxing, North China’s Hebei province, has pent the last 19 years of his life planting thousands of trees and turning the once barren hills surrounding his village into a small forest. Ma was diagnosed with blood poisoning in 1974, while serving in the Chinese Army. His condition […]
Female Vigilante Group Has Been Defending This Indian Forest for 20 Years
A group of 75 female volunteers from India’s Odisha state has spent every day of the last 20 years patrolling a 75-hectare forest to protect it from woodcutters and timber smugglers. In 1999, the eastern state of Odisha was ravaged by a supercyclone. People lost their homes, their crops and had to go without food […]
Heavy Pollution Turns Snow Black in Russia
Imagine going to sleep after a day of heavy snowfall and waking up the next morning to find that all that white snow has turned black overnight. That’s exactly what the people of Kiselevsk and Prokopyevsk, two cities in Russia’s Kuzbass region experienced earlier this week. Photos and videos recently shared on social media by worried […]
Indian “Tree Man” Planted Over 5 Million Trees to Cope with Tragedy
Vishweshwar Dutt Saklani took his last breath on January 18, 2019, but he will live on in the memory of his countrymen as the “Tree Man of Uttarakhan”, a dedicated conservationist who planted over 50 lakh (5 million) trees and turned his once barren homeland into a lush forest. Saklani had been fond of trees […]
Australian Families Living a Nightmare as Thousands of Bats Drop Dead in Their Yards Due to Heatwave
Dozens of families in and around the city of Cairns, in Australia, have been forced to temporarily abandon their homes after flying foxes started dropping dead on their properties due to the unbearable heat. Cairns residents started reporting massive numbers of spectacled flying foxes dropping out of trees on Monday, when temperatures in Australia’s Queensland region […]
Mysterious Environmental Incident Leaves Crimean City Without Birds
Armyansk, a city on the Russian-occupied Crimea Peninsula, has been left without any kind of birds after a mysterious chemical incident at the nearby Crimean Titan plant. On August 23 – 24, an unknown substance spewed into the atmosphere, covering everything in a rust-like plaque and emanating a foul odor. Social media was buzzing with reports […]
Chinese Millionaire Spends His Free Time Picking Up Trash From the Streets of His City
Zhong Congrong, a successful businessman from Chongqing, China, has become known as the “the millionaire trash collector,” for his longtime habit of scouring the streets of his city armed with a trash-picking claw and picking up any garbage he finds. The 52-year-old entrepreneur began cleaning up the streets of Chingqing three years ago, after a family […]
Eco-Conscious Woman Cuts Her Trash Output to a Tiny Mason Jar Per Week
Do you think you could make do with just a Mason jar instead of your trash can? It’s highly unlikely, but a Canadian woman has managed to do just that. After seeing the huge amount of plastic waste in her son’s lunch, Tippi Thole decided to make a drastic change. While she already recycled and […]
Swedish Brewery Makes Beer with Recycled Sewage Water
In an attempt to raise awareness about the ability to turn wastewater into safe drinking water, a brewery in Stockholm, Sweden has launched a new beer brand made with recycled sewage water. Aptly called PU:REST, the new beer crafted by Stockholm’s Nya Carnegiebryggeriet (New Carnegie Brewery) in collaboration with the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL) […]
World’s First 100% Plant-Based Steak Is Barely Distinguishable From the Real Thing
Dutch company Vivera claims it has created the holy grail of plant-based protein – a 100% vegan steak that tastes and smell so good that consumers will barely be able to tell that it’s not actual steak. Made primarily of soy and wheat, the groundbreaking vegan steak is the result of one and a half […]
This Indian Coal Field Has Been Burning Continuously for Over 100 Years
One of India’s largest coal reserves, the Jharia coalfield, situated in the Dhanbad district of Jharkhand, is the site of one of the longest-burning fires in the world. The area has been burning continuously for over 100 years. Mining in the Jharia coalfields, which cover over 100 square miles, began in the late 1800s, under […]
This Landfill Diner in Indonesia Lets Patrons Pay for Food with Plastic Waste
An extraordinary new restaurant in Semarang, Indonesia is on a mission to support locals trapped in poverty, many of whome are earning less than $25 (USD) a month, by providing them with an alternative way to pay for their food. The Methane Gas Canteen, run by husband and wife team Sarimin and Suyatmi, is located […]
Dutch Startup Wants to Train Crows to Clean Streets of Cigarette Butts
Alarmed by how many cigarette butts littered the parks of Amsterdam, two Dutch designers came up with an unusual plan to train crows to pick up the butts and trade them for tasty rewards. Industrial designers Ruben van der Vleuten and Bob Spikman originally considered using robots to clean the streets of cigarette butts, but […]