Honolulu City Council backs bill that ban stores and restaurants from distributing non-biodegradable plastic bags and non-recyclable paper bags.

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At the end of April, all roofs in Toronto will have to be green, using various plants to create a barrier between the sun’s rays and the tiles or shingles of the roof. Toronto will become the first city in North America with a bylaw that requires that.

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Last week the environment ministry announced that after only 50 of the last West African giraffes were recorded in 1996, now there are over 300 living in the wild only in southwestern Niger.

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Amazon decided to remove whale meat products from its Japanese site. The UK-based environmental investigation agency (EIA) accused Amazon of hypocrisy after founding almost 150 whale products for sale on the site.

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3 new sanctuaries has been declared in Bangladesh to help protect the 2 subspecies of the south Asian river dolphin – the Ganges River dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica) and the Irrawaddy River dolphin (Platanista gangetica minor).

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The largest supermarket chain in Singapore has announced it will stop selling shark fin products starting April. About a month ago few restaurants and hotels in China also announced they will no longer be serving shark fin soup.

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According to a report by the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA), the 3rd quarter of 2011 was record breaking quarter in which solar installations in the U.S. hit  449 megawatts of new capacity in 3 months.

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Last week, Sierra Leone, one of Africa’s poorest countries, announced the establishment of Gola Rainforest National Park. The park covers 175,000 acres and is located in southeastern Sierra Leone near the Liberian border.

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A dozen of college campuses across the U.S. and Canada,  including Cornell and Stanford, will no longer supply disposable plastic water bottles, instead there will be some “hydration stations”, where students and faculty can refill their own bottles.

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A new project in the Philippines, allowing poor families to have lights during daytime for free, from the power of the sun. A pop bottle filled with water is squeezed part way through a hole in the roof and while sun hits it, it provides a 55-watt bulb light in the house.

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