The Week in Pictures: Wind Turbine Christmas Star, 10 Years in Green, Mutant Superbugs, and More

From the world’s largest Christmas star that now hovers above the A9 Autobahn near Munich’s northern gateway–after a year of engineering, modeling, and trials–to the renaming of the world’s tallest waterfall–deep within the Venezuelan jungle–a lot happened this week in green. New research reveals that excessive use of disinfectants could be spawning mutant bacteria capable of resisting the strongest antibiotics, readers sent in the green New Year’s resolutions for our weekly slideshow, and we continued to round out the year with our Decade in Review and Best and Worst of 2009. Find out what else happened in the world of…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Fireworks: Ungreen Or A Necessary Part Of Ringing In The New Year?

Image Source: “Mr Magoo ICU”

Dear Pablo: What is the environmental impact of fireworks? It seems like it must create a lot of greenhouse gas emissions.

That is a very popular question around the 4^th of July and New Year’s Eve. In fact I have answered this question before. The following answer originally appeared on Salon.com in June of 2008.

Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association, estimates that 18,000 fireworks shows occur across the nation on July 4 alone. Totals …Read the full story on TreeHugger

Study Finds Cross-Border Cooperation Reduces Conservation Costs by 45%

Image credit: joiseyshowaa/Flickr

Most conservation studies focus on biodiversity, but to be successful in a real-world application, they must also consider the cost of research and protection programs. A new study that looked at conservation programs in the Mediterranean region has found that cross-border cooperation can increase program effectiveness while significantly reducing the expense….Read the full story on TreeHugger

enXco Starts Operation of 1.8-MW Belle Mead Solar Project

enXco has announced that commercial operations of the 1.8-megawatt (MW) Belle Mean solar project have started. Located on the grounds of Carrier Clinic in Belle Mead, New Jersey, the solar system will supply 50% of Carrier Clinic’s electrical needs under a 25-year Power Purchase agreement.

Green Erg Device Rolls Behind You For "Lots" of Kinetic Power

Photo via Green Erg

This is, well, strange. It’s a device you can drag around behind you to gather kinetic energy. Called the Green Erg, it is a human-powered electricity-generator developed by Dr. Cedrick Ngalande, who hopes that it will be a solution for cheap electricity for rural Africans….Read the full story on TreeHugger

Think City Electric Car Restarts Production

Image credit: ElectricAid.org

Just as the Vectrix electric scooter may be resurrected from bankruptcy, so too another troubled electric vehicle may be on its way to a prosperous and successful 2010. Having teetered on the verge of bankruptcy, only to be rescued by a massive fina…Read the full story on TreeHugger

Take the First Train to Bhutan

Image from himalayantours.com

Train travel is the way of the future: clean, environmental, fast and easy. Now you can even take one to the remote and magical kingdom of Bhutan. Known as the Land of the Thunder Dragon, it is one of those small countries in the Himalayas that seems lost in time; they had no roads or telephones until 1960 and no television until 1999.

Now they are going to have their first railway: an 11-mile (18km) link between India and Bhutan. Their first steps into the modern world. It’s all very political, of course, with India worried ab…Read the full story on TreeHugger

College Students Pursue

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