By enabling ships to tune in to underwater sounds, acoustics technology is helping to protect vulnerable marine giants.

Amid high tides of anxiety on a warming planet, there is plenty of good news in the world of environmentalism.

The Footprint Project has built nearly 50 solar microgrids post-Helene — and aims to create a “lending library” to deploy in the wake of disasters.

From tree planting and delayed mowing to school clubs and interactive “Bee Paths,” Slovenia is putting pollinators first.

As the new school year gets underway, more students than ever are riding a greener version of the classic yellow bus.

A series about how electrification is leading toward a more sustainable energy transition.

Drained over a century ago, these revitalized wetlands are becoming thriving wildlife hubs and storehouses of water for surrounding farms.

It can’t help cities control the weather, but by slowing the flow of stormwater, permeable pavement can lessen flooding from big storms.

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is transforming the way we see gardens — by designing them as living artworks geared toward pollinators’ tastes rather than our own.

Scientists and the Indigenous San people are working together to safeguard these elusive creatures, which play a vital role in ecological balance.

When Curtis Shuck learned that the oil and gas industry had left orphaned wells all over the US, he made it his mission to cap as many as he could.

Cities around the world are trying everything from reflective paint to underground water channels to manage the hotter days ahead.

FireD aims to limit pollution from agricultural burning — long a part of the yearly crop cycle — while shifting the blame away from farmers.

As part of an ambitious effort to host the first carbon-neutral Olympic games, Paris has expanded its emissions-reducing cooling system.

Scientists say we have all the solutions we need to limit global heating to a 1.5°C increase. So what can we, as individuals, do?

Fourth of July celebrations have long featured flashy pyrotechnics. But more environmentally friendly spectacles could take their place.

In one of the planet’s most ecologically rich regions, the fight to prevent native plants from being lost forever begins on the forest floor.

Tapping into the technology of bioacoustics, scientists are using real-time soundscapes to gauge the health of Malaysia’s rainforests.

Once rural landowners learned they could generate income by protecting macaws, the endangered birds went from burdens to boons.

As Asian hornets sow chaos in apiaries across Europe, strategically “strung” wire contraptions are giving beekeepers cause for hope.

The tiny island’s success shows that once invasive predators are eliminated, birds will swoop back in on their own.

Would you ditch your grass for less-thirsty plants? In a place where every drop of water counts, a little cash compels residents to say yes.

A seed bank full of carefully stored, drought-resistant varieties is helping to revive parched land and improve farmers’ livelihoods.

Trash emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Some of the biggest landfills in the US are converting that gas into energy.

In the growing field of “ecoacoustics,” scientists use the ocean’s natural sounds to monitor the health of marine ecosystems — and even restore them.

These massive sea creatures communicate in complex, techno-like patterns. Listening in could prove key to saving them.

Salt ponds form a vast mosaic spanning thousands of acres in California’s South Bay. But a 50-year transformation is underway.

Millions of barriers underlie American roadways, blocking the passage of fish. The US is working to fix them.

From Tanzania southward, populations have rebounded, thanks in large part to “buffer” zones that connect more protected areas.

By switching from wood to food scraps, women leaders aim to protect what remains of the country’s rainforest.

The controversial animals graze on the grass and brush that fuel blazes. So one California naturalist asks: Why not send them to fire-prone wilderness?

The Yellowstone Club is the first in Montana to use the technique, which could become more common as climate change leads to drier winters across the American West.

Floodplain restoration is one key way to make the Central Valley more resilient as climate change intensifies both flooding and drought.

Getting to Juneau is a fossil fuel-heavy endeavor. To help mitigate that, some tourist dollars are going toward heat pumps for residents.

An 80-year-old electricity supplier is going all in on decarbonization.

A historic project in Maine shows that when dams are removed, a river and its fish can recover with surprising speed.

As the western US struggles to save the greater sage grouse, one researcher is proving that insects can play a powerful role.

Meet the couple tirelessly planting desert mangroves — and helping to restore a valuable carbon sink.

Sylvia Earle, a pioneer of both deep sea diving and ocean conservation, has made it her mission to protect the ocean’s biodiversity, one spot at a time.

In recent years, there has been a growing movement to transform the archipelago into a beacon of sustainability.

Some manufacturers are years ahead of the game, pioneering natural alternatives to microplastics.

In French Polynesia, an age-old practice puts everyone in charge of protecting the sea.

The trees in this corner of India vanished decades ago, leaving heat waves and drought. What happened when they returned proves the healing power of reforestation.

Thanks to biological monitoring and community outreach, the once-nearly-extinct bruins are again ambling through the mountains.

In Massachusetts, the onetime cranberry capital of the world, former bogs are transforming into thriving, carbon-storing swamps.

The “reclusive fisherwoman” turned “controversial hell-raiser” is battling some of the biggest petrochemical companies — and winning.

Behind the scenes, their vast collections can help us better understand the past, present and future of our planet.

In one of the world’s driest cities, an ingenious system channels water from the air to those who need it most.

Climate-related heat and flooding have planners rethinking the heat-absorbing, impermeable stuff that covers so much of the urban landscape.

Long after the oysters are gone, their shells help protect the marine environment. “Once you shuck ‘em, don’t just chuck ‘em!”

Meet the intrepid e-bikers who are helping others to travel ecologically and give back along the way.

The Texas mine’s restoration is ongoing, but in an area with few grocery stores, the small garden is already making a big difference.

Birds and cats aren’t usually allies. But in Zambia, a common threat — and a concerted effort to fight it — unites them.

In Oregon and California, efforts to repopulate these furry engineers could revive struggling ocean ecosystems.

Astronomers and oil refineries are working together to dim the lights of industry — and set celestial sights ablaze.

Bengaluru is slowly re-earning its watery reputation, one lake restoration project at a time.

The production of wind energy keeps breaking records, and its potential for expansion is as wide as the oceans.

Collecting left-behind traps leaves wildlife safer while putting money in shrimpers’ pockets — a true win-win.

Though public awareness is low, some scientists believe “biochar” is quietly becoming the world’s first major carbon removal success story.

People are building beaver-inspired obstructions along waterways to make the surrounding landscape messier and more complex. That’s a good thing.

For years, locals have protected the thriving wildlife of Osa Peninsula. When the government started paying them, a whole new conservation-based economy bloomed.

From New Jersey to Texas, a nature-nurturing alternative to concrete sea walls is protecting America’s coastline.

In the lagoons off the Pacific coast of Baja Sur, physical contact between tourists and whales is at the heart of a new model of marine conservation.

With bird-tracking AI and turbines that grind to a halt before strikes occur, today’s wind farms are safer than ever for travelers on the wing.

Activist-entrepreneur Christian Schiller’s global platform is where plastic sellers and seekers keep your old shampoo bottles out of the waste stream.

Instead of tearing down houses, a local business in Minneapolis picks them apart and resells the material, reducing waste and creating jobs.

Nourishing pollinators. Recharging groundwater. Preventing erosion. Sequestering carbon. Solar farms, once devoid of life, have become ecological superheroes.

Along a rocky stretch of the British coast, a modest yet highly replicable low-tech solution to ocean cleanup is setting sail.

What do you do with old EV batteries that are too weak to run a car? Connect them by the hundreds to power vital urban infrastructure.

Decades ago, there were only 48 mature Wollemi pines left in the world. Then home gardeners stepped in.

Dropping five seed pods per second into wildfire-scarred lands, aerial tree planting is quickly creating biodiverse forests from the sky.

It’s just one example of how pulverized glass has become an upcycling hero, finding new purpose in landscaping, construction, even coastal restoration.

Cities are capturing heat emitted by computer servers and using it to warm everything from government buildings to college dorms.

Redesigned turbines are solving the problem that has long plagued hydroelectric dams, churning out green energy while leaving fish unharmed.

In an unlikely collaboration, Oregon conservationists are selling grasslands to cattlemen on one condition: they keep it pristine forever.

Threatened by climate change, entire communities are working with government to relocate — and stay intact.

After years of fighting floods on the Waal River, the Netherlands decided to let the water in — and turn a looming threat into a natural asset.

From Buenos Aires to L.A., there’s a growing consensus that serious climate action means getting citizens to change one very popular habit.

At the frontier of conservation, scientists are learning how to bring back “functionally extinct” species using cryogenically frozen cells from the past.

In what sounds like science fiction, geneticists are using cryogenically frozen animal cells to stop species from going extinct.

Imported from Japan in 1876, kudzu strangles forests and farmland throughout the South. Could it build cities instead?

Ukrainians are risking their lives to shelter a critical species in tunnels, basements and their own homes.

Few human-inhabited places are as ecologically rich as old churchyards, where nature’s spirits thrive undisturbed for centuries.

In West Virginia, mining has long been a source of money, identity and pride. Now something new is on the horizon.

Zapped with solar electrical currents, struggling reefs can self-repair with incredible speed — and even grow where none have existed before.

No other country’s green transition approaches the scale of China’s, where a world powered by the sun is quickly taking shape.

In Harlem, a neighborhood network of sensors — and citizen scientists — are measuring a little-understood risk.

An effort that began 70 years ago is poised to propel the country to middle-income status on a wave of green energy.

A German engineer asked restaurants for their used chopsticks — and a sustainable furnishings business was born.

A lack of available land is the biggest obstacle to solar power’s expansion — or maybe it isn’t.

How a last-ditch attempt to save the few remaining California condors became a conservation victory for the ages.

The US climate bill helps landowners access the carbon market, where eco-conscious companies reward regular folks for managing their land sustainably.

“We believe citizens taking responsibility for their own energy supply is the future.”

Insect hotels. Rooftop gardens. “Honey highways.” With its National Pollinator Strategy, one country is showing the world how to save pollinators.

A one-week series about surprising ways cities can crank down the temperature.

Even as mainland Greece struggles to meet its recycling goals, its islands are turning sustainability into a science.

A far-reaching reforestation effort has dramatically turned the tide for a waterborne climate change warrior.

Lawns are America’s biggest irrigated crop. Converting some of them into natural habitats could do wonders for Earth’s biodiversity.

Canberra’s commitment to renewables has made it the envy of Australia, as its energy costs stay low while fossil fuel prices soar across the rest of the country.

Once a staple of communal dining, food trays are disappearing — along with a harmful human impulse.

Once-endangered Pinzgau goats are among the many animals to flourish on Vienna’s “trash mountain,” which heats roughly one-fifth of the city’s homes.

Most Californians have never heard of the CalEnviroScreen — even those whose communities it has shielded from ecological disaster.

A nuclear power plant that became a thriving habitat for endangered crocs shows how conservation can work even in the most human-altered environments.

A new kind of cash crop is turning gusty Iowa into a renewable energy juggernaut — and preserving a rural way of life.

The country incinerates nearly half its garbage to create the energy that powers its homes and buildings.

Farmers and ecologists are partnering to restore the state’s natural flooding patterns, allowing native fish to thrive.

A Canadian province and an American state sit side by side in the same ecosystem. On one side of the border, salmon are thriving.

Converting poop into heat and electricity offers a tantalizing proposition: more waste equals more clean power.

As cities and countries ban single-use plastics, sustainable alternatives are emerging.

A Zambian park has reversed the national extinction of a precious and vulnerable species. Soon, it won’t be alone.

New research shows that the “gut health” microorganisms can enhance the immune systems of living coral.

For drought-stricken places, pulling drinkable water from the atmosphere could become one of the easiest ways to stay hydrated.

Under a new law, a large portion of the country’s produce will no longer be sold in single-use plastic containers.

A tsunami of spent EV batteries is coming, and the effort to recover the valuable materials inside them is already underway.

By only delivering it to people ask for it, the city is saving thousands of tons of paper per year.

As the world’s biggest climate conference comes to a close, we see reasons for hope on the horizon.

Kristine Tompkins has conserved more land than any other single individual, calling it “capitalist jiujitsu” for the planet.

The U.S. capital is tackling a sewer overflow problem with a softer solution.

A group of “holistic engineers” wants to return the arid Sinai peninsula to the lush, green landscape it once was.

A simple letter-grading system in the U.K. has led to a significant shift towards ecologically greener foods.

When forests are managed by the people who live in them, conservation tends to follow.

As the U.S. phases out hydrofluorocarbons, the next generation of fridges is adopting low-emissions technology that’s nearly a century old.

Though overfishing remains a global problem, a science-driven approach has led to surprisingly sustainable practices in some countries, including the U.S.

A family-owned Italian denim manufacturer is turning one of fashion’s most toxic staples green, one global brand at a time.

As we speak, giant machines are removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in an urgent attempt to slam the brakes on climate change.

The next generation of solar arrays benefits the earth — right beneath them.

An all-vegan stadium. A field fertilized with seaweed. How the owner of the sport’s most sustainable team is cultivating “a new kind of soccer fan.”

As homeowners, churches and even railway operators “rewild” their land, biodiversity is flocking back to England’s East Anglia region.

A century ago, Paris recycled half of its urine. Today, it’s being used as a high-grade fertilizer once again.

When an architecture student’s dazzling ocean cleanup concept fizzled, she started thinking smaller — and tackled the problem at the source.

Human hair is becoming a major player in ocean cleanups as a free, highly effective resource that never runs out.

In the Bolivian Andes, the low-water growing practices used by Mayans and Aztecs are making a comeback.

From picturesque Mediterranean isles to New York’s bustling harbor, strategically placed oyster colonies are depolluting the sea with ease.

One year ago an explosion decimated Beirut. Today, the city is picking up the pieces — and using them to rebuild.

On an island community in the seas north of Scotland, the last frontier in green energy is being realized.

As other businesses go green, food service remains an energy-intensive outlier. Europe’s first solar-powered restaurant wants to change the recipe.

A 100-mile stretch of coral reef in Mexico is now insured just like any other valuable asset. Is this the future of conservation?

A “game changing” 20-year effort suggests that even severely depleted marine ecosystems can be brought back to life.

What happens when you let the people most threatened by sea-level rise decide what to do about it?

A novel system gives consumers a green alternative to what their utility companies offer.

A sprawling initiative identifies pollution hotspots so the communities affected by them can act.

Creating paper from wheat waste gives forests a break — and harvesters a new revenue stream.

In Bath, England, even the smallest investors can support – and profit from – the city’s green energy boom.

By allocating residents their “global fair share” of resources, the government is making development in pristine environments sustainable.

On carbon-negative Samsø Island, renewable energy is collectively owned — which means that the greener the island gets, the more everyone benefits.

The British capital is resurrecting its long lost natural habitats to foster biodiversity.

Green energy is generated at a central location, then shuttled through underground pipes to homes in suburban Paris.

It benefits politicians to portray the issue as deeply divisive, but most voters don’t see it that way.

Spanning 16 million acres of wild Pacific coast, the Great Bear Rainforest is a magical place. The partnership that saved it is just as unique.

When overfishing decimated Puglia’s biodiversity, conservationists and fishermen created a marine reserve that turned their catches around.

The next generation of solar arrays benefits the earth — right beneath them.

These towering seaweed forests are amazing climate change fighters. Now scientists are stepping in to make them even stronger.

By the end of this decade, the world’s dirtiest source of energy will have vanished from over a dozen European countries.

How a conservative, oil-pumping state became one of the world’s biggest generators of wind power.

As fake meat floods the market, some fast-food joints are insisting that their ultra-sustainably raised beef is better for the planet.

They’re cavernous, solidly built and often on prime urban land. Now, they’re being reborn as everything from charter schools to solar farms.

Years ago, the Japanese village of Kamikatsu set the goal of producing zero waste by 2020. They’re not going to make it—and that’s just fine with them.

Nothing says family fun during the holidays like a good ol’ game night. This season, here’s a game future generations might appreciate too.

In the haze of the California wildfires, a Native American tribe’s independent electricity grid saved the day. Is a new model for energy in America rising from the ashes? 

Those ubiquitous flimsy shopping sacks are vanishing from country after country, leaving less plastic in our seas, our trees and our own digestive systems.

A recent study found that new forests might be our best shot at saving the world. A global guide to doing it right.

While other cities plant trees, Baltimore has focused on monitoring and maintaining the ones it already has—and is one of the few cities whose urban forest is expanding.

Farmers are feeding their livestock the larvae of black soldier flies—an abundant, sustainable snack that’s quietly greening the industry, one maggot at a time.

After reading David Byrne’s article suggesting that nuclear power is too risky to be a part of our green energy evolution, I had a few thoughts to share.

These days, the litigators hauling climate change scoundrels into court are doing more than any politician to keep our environment healthy and livable.

More and more institutions and even whole countries are ending their investments in fossil fuels. This is happening. Money talks.

It was legal teams—not politicians—that ultimately held the tobacco industry to account. Their next target? Perpetrators of climate change.

Early lawsuits like the Exxon Valdez settlement paved the way for the cases now holding climate changers to account. See our timeline of the eco-litigation evolution.