Cave snake catching and eating a bat in flight. Photo by Rhett A Butler, 2006. Taman Negara, Malaysia.

The planet needs "energy miracles" to overcome the dual challenges of meeting energy demand and addressing climate change, said Microsoft founder Bill Gates during a speech Friday at the TED…

Little known beyond the waters of the Gulf of California, the world's smallest cetacean (a group including whales, dolphins, and porpoises) is hanging on by a thread. The vaquita—which in…

A new study in Science shows that farming practices in China are acidifying the nation's soils and threatening long term productivity at a time when food concerns worldwide have never…

Palm tree at sunset in Maui. Photo by Rhett A. Butler 2008.

Coquerel's sifakas grooming in Madagascar. Photo by Rhett A. Butler 2010. Madagascar is in the midst of an appalling logging crisis driven by greed and politics. Here's a proposal for…

Carnivore researchers have captured the first footage of the Sunda clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi) in Malaysia. The island's largest predator was only proclaimed a unique species in 2006 when genetic…

Over one third of the world's land surface (38 percent) is threatened with desertification, according to a new study published in the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. The study…

An initiative that aims to root out deforestation by increasing the transparency of global supply chains released the results of its first survey on Wednesday, finding that most companies were…

In the aftermath of a military coup last March, Madagascar's rainforests have been pillaged for precious hardwoods, including rosewood and ebony. Tens of thousands of hectares have been affected, including…

Soy cultivation in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. Photo by Rhett A. Butler 2009. Palm oil produced from plantations grown in the Amazon is a better option than soy…

The first ever national survey of pollution in China shows a nation that has paid for its economic growth in environmental pollution. Measuring nearly six million sources of pollution in…

Last Friday, the government of Canada and the governments of the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador signed a memorandum of understanding to create a the new Mealy Mountains National Park.…

Scientists have captured what they believe to be the first footage ever of the oarfish, the species likely responsible for legends told of sea serpents. Deep in the gulf of…

El Zoológico del Bronx ha puesto en exhibición los más inusitados batracios: El sapo rociador Kihansi. En primera instancia, este sapo sobrevivió en el desfiladero Kihansi de Tanzania, adaptándose a…

Everyone knows the tiger, the panda, the blue whale, but what about the other five to thirty million species estimated to inhabit our Earth? Many of these marvelous, stunning, and…

Business-as-usual agricultural expansion to meet biofuel production targets for 2020 will take a heavy toll on Brazil's Amazon rainforest in coming years, undermining the potential emissions savings of transitioning from…

Researchers have discovered a new species of spiny mouse that lives on four mountainous forests in the Cordillera de la Costa mountain range, which runs along Venezuela's northern coast. Discovered…

A local organization in Papua New Guinea, known as Asples Madang, is fighting against one of the region's biggest industrial loggers, Rimbunan Hijau (RH) chaired by billionaire Tiong Hiew King.…

African Wild Dog in the Serengeti. Photo by Uwe Skrzypczak. Wildlife photographer Uwe Skrzypczak sent photos of wild dogs (also known as painted dogs from the field. The shots are…

Google has taken a step towards boosting the deforestation monitoring capabilities the Google Earth Engine by contracting Massachusetts-based Clark Labs to develop an online version of its Land Change Modeler…

A new report from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) finds that almost 9 out of 10 toothed whales—including dolphins and porpoises—are threatened by entanglement and subsequent drowning from large-scale…

Child in village in the Antanifotsy Valley, Madagascar A transition in the drivers of deforestation over the past 20 years means that efforts to reduce rural poverty through programs that…

The Church of England has dropped is 3.8 million pound stake (5.9 million US dollars) in controversial mining company, Vedanta Resources, citing concern over the company's human rights record. The…

Due to increased problems with poaching, the conservation organization TRAFFIC has joined with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to begin tracking every tiger mortality in India with a new…

Forest conservation via REDD may be ineffective without addressing commodity consumption and trade, argues a new paper that looks at the implications of changing drivers of deforestation on new policy…

Clear pool near Actun Tunichil Muknal in Belize

For the first time, sales of certified sustainable palm oil have nearly met production, reports the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a group that has developed the leading environmental…

Dura palm fruit used for palm oil production. Photo by Rhett Butler. A leaked European Commission document setting standards for biofuels seems to suggest the palm oil industry's efforts to…

The Copenhagen Accord signed in December is widely seen as a disappointment. The Accord set no binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions targets and did not even commitment to a…