Tokyo City proper has again decided to incorporate recent energy-saving and renewable-energy technology, calling it’s latest report “Tokyo Specifications for Reduced and Renewable Energy.”

Electric vehicles records are dropping like flies these days, as more and more vehicles push the boundaries of what’s possible for electric cars, boats, and planes.  The latest to fall:  the record for longest drive ever in a battery-powered vehicle (no recharge) was broken last weekend by a new, experimental electric vehicle called “Schluckspecht” (“heavy drinker” in colloquial German).

Hydroelectric power has long been left out of renewable energy counts, on the assumption that it creates some greenhouse gas emissions as vegetation caught in damned rivers rots. But that may be about to change, with the results of new research just published by Dr. Jonathan Cole in Nature Geoscience finding that hydroelectric power reservoirs are responsible for only about a sixth of the carbon dioxide and methane previously attributed to them.

Every year, about 30 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide are released around the world, with almost half that amount coming from coal. In the U.S., coal provides almost half our electricity, making it tough to simply stop burning it. However, every ton of coal burned releases harmful emissions into our atmosphere, oceans, and rivers, warming the planet, and increasing public health risks.

A solar-powered refrigerator developed in Denmark is helping doctors and staff at health clinics in Kenya’s Rift Valley store and keep critical vaccines fresh and children vaccinated against diseases such as Hepatitis B, according to an AlertNet news report by David Njagi.

Amazonia, also called the Amazon Rainforest, is one of the most widely known rainforests in the world. There are many attributes that make it a fascinating, spectacular and unique region. Here are twenty-one amazing facts about the Amazon Rainforest.

The Pew Environment Group released a report detailing the environmental impact of ‘Big Chicken‘.

The infographic below looks at plastic’s impacts and gives tips on how to reduce your plastic consumption 

Taking space-based solar one rather giant leap further, Japan’s respected construction giant Shimizu is recommending that Earthlings build a huge moon-based solar plant to power the entire world from a Lunar Ring.

Researchers at CalTech have found a way to increase the power output of wind farms at least 10x simply by optimizing the placement of wind turbines in a farm to “maximize its energy collecting efficiency at heights closer to the ground.”  Besides significantly enhancing the economics of wind farms, the design approach would also significantly reduce land use requirements, environmental impacts and threats to flying wildlife.

United Egg Producers is an industry group of chicken farmers that supplies 95% of the eggs in the United States. In the last few years, some states have been pushing their own animal welfare laws for laying hens. United Egg Producers has introduced their own humane certification in response to consumer demand, but it’s voluntary, even for their own members.

A truly gigantic rare earth find in sea mud off the coasts of Tahiti and Honolulu has just been announced by a Japanese research team from the University of Tokyo, Reuters is reporting. At over 100 billion tons, the find vastly outweighs current (land-based) rare earth supplies currently being mined, mostly in China and Russia, of about 100 million tons.