Dark nights: the global effort to tackle light pollution

Carrie Madren

31st August, 2010

The energy, financial and health costs of lighting up our homes and streets could be saved through better lighting and an end to wasteful illuminations more...

Solar power – the hidden threat to water supplies

Andrew Williams

18th August, 2010

Concentrating solar power plants seem in many ways like a silver bullet for the world's energy problems - but have we looked closely enough at their environmental impacts? more...

Think nuclear is clean energy? Ask the Nigeriens

Carolyn Lebel

1st June, 2010

As the new nuclear renaissance grows, so too does uranium extraction. In Niger, which boasts some of the world's richest deposits, NGOs say that the poor are being exploited for the West's 'clean energy' more...

Can our electricity grid cope with all the new wind power?

David Strahan

27th April, 2010

Wind energy finally seems to be moving somewhere in the UK, but without some new techniques, our grid is simply not going to cope with this flood of new green power more...

What if we all traded energy between ourselves?

Mark Jansen

16th March, 2010

The time may soon be coming when every government will need to think about rationing fossil fuel usage. What's the quickest and most equitable way to do it? more...

Jatropha biofuels: UK investors sell controversial crop as 'green'

Andrew Wasley

15th February, 2010

UK fund managers are selling investments in jatropha plantations as a wallet-swelling, planet-saving financial bonanza. But the reality for poor farmers is very different more...

Jatropha biofuels: the true cost to Tanzania

Thembi Mutch

15th February, 2010

Billed as wonder crop, the establishment of jatropha plantations on the ground in Tanzania has been far from successful, or, in some cases, ethical more...

Will carbon capture and storage work?

Mark Jansen

15th December, 2009

Carbon capture sounds like a fantastical idea: dig up fossil fuels, burn them, then return the captured CO2 underground. But the hurdles that stand in its way are formidable more...

Tar sands: tearing the flesh from the Earth

Paul Miles

18th August, 2009

As the price of oil increases again, Canada's tar sands once more look like a giant cash cow to the industry. Now, the only thing standing between the 400 ton bulldozers and rampant environmental destruction may be a small group of First Nations people... more...

Fighting Coal

Frank Joseph Smecker

7th July, 2009

The Appalachians, America's vast network of mountains, has long been threatened by destructive coal mining practices. Local communities fighting mountain top removal are putting their hopes behind new legislation now in Congress more...

Dams: development or control?

Khadija Sharife

1st June, 2009

The vast dams clogging the veins of Africa are instruments of control rather than promised hydroelectric liberation. Khadija Sharife investigates.
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Roundtable on renewables

Mark Anslow

1st June 2009

The Ecologist harnessed the power of several luminaries from the renewables world to find out why a wholly renewable future seems no closer than before.
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Visionaries: George Marshall

Ecologist

1st April 2009

George Marshall didn’t feel like a visionary at the time. His was an idea born of frustration, and he had no idea where it would lead him. more...

Visionaries: Peter Lipman

Ecologist

1st April 2009

Peter Lipman thought small to go large. more...

The future of energy is renewable

Jon Hughes and Mark Anslow

27th February, 2009

The recent U-turn by of some of the UK's leading environmentalists - and one-time nuclear energy opponents - on the issue of nuclear energy, has caused vigourous debate in the media. Their reasoning is that we simply don't have the capacity to produce enough renewable energy to meet our needs. But as this comprehensive Ecologist report from 2007 shows the UK is really a renewable energy powerhouse. more...