Caught on video: provoked bison injures tourists

CNN via National Parks Traveler reports on the Yellowstone bison who charged at two tourists that got too close while taking video.

The video also shows someone off camera throwing a stick at the animal which has many speculating that this could have provoked the bison to charge.

Watch the video below:



See the full story: Bison that charged Yellowstone NP visitors was provoked

The Global Conservation Award goes to... Emirates

Terra Curve reports on the Global Conservation Award win by the Emirates Hotels & Resorts.

The Tourism for Tomorrow Awards are the World Travel & Tourism Council’s highest-profile global accolade, recognizing best practices in sustainable tourism development, conservation and biodiversity protection.

Within the Emirates Group, the Emirates Hotels & Resorts (EH&R) portfolio encompasses three major conservation projects spread across three continents: Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa in Dubai; Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa in Australia; and the forthcoming Cap Ternay Resort & Spa in the Seychelles.

Read the full story: Emirates wins big for conservation

Here's a look at the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve at the Al Maha along with other Dubai conservation efforts:

Pedal the New Zealand monorail

Reuters video (that does not allow embedding anymore by the way) reports on a new bicycling monorail in New Zealand.

The Schweeb utilizes a special clear pod that users pedal to get around on the set monorail track in Rotorua, New Zealand.

Right now it's in development but the creators hope to incorporate their technology in cities as a clean transport system.

Watch the video: A monorail that gets you pedaling

Portugal bike path poem

O Tejo from Abilio Vieira on Vimeo.

KLM tests first passenger flight fueled with renewables

Reuters video reports on the first passenger airplane flight using renewable fuels.

KLM Dutch Airlines flight which circled the skies over The Netherlands used a 50/50 mix of biofuel and traditional fuel. Although it carried passengers it was still a test flight.

Watch the report below:

Saving Ecuador's condors

Reuters video reports on Ecuador's efforts to save their endangered condor.

Indigenous to the country, the scavenger birds are being bred in captivity because their native habitat is now occupied by people. Ecuadorian conservationists hope to revive the birds that have already been wiped out in neighboring Venezuela.

Watch the report below:

English pumpkin mural draws Halloween visitors

Reuters video reports on the West Essex, England "pumpkin house" mural created every year around Halloween by Tony Smith.

Watch the video below:

Drive through and create power

Reuters video reports on a New Jersey fast food drive-thru that is helping to test an energy capturing prototype.

New Energy Technologies Inc. is testing a new kinetic energy capturing device that looks like a speed bump at a Hillside, New Jersey Burger King. When cars slow down to go over the Motion Power bump, energy is captured and can be used to power the restaurant.

Watch the video below:

Hike in Swiss Alps, see climate change

BBC video reports on climate change hikes in the Swiss Alps.

A Swiss resort is offering climate change hiking trips to show the changes in the landscape scientists say are the result of global warming.

Mobile phones with GPS show the area as it once was, but melting and retreating glaciers have caused huge changes to the area - not least flooding and landslides.

Imogen Foulkes reports from the Swiss resort of Grindelwald.

Click to watch the video: Climate change hikes in Alps

100-year-old Galapagos tortoise could be father

Reuters video reports that Lonesome George, the only surviving Galapagos giant tortoise, could finally be a father at the age of almost 100.

Eggs were found in George's habitat in July, transferred to an incubation center, but have a four-month wait before scientists will know if they are fertile or not.

Giant tortoises dwindled to extinction on the northern Galapagos island of Pinta in the 1960s and their habitat was destroyed by goats. George was found in 1972 and brought to the Charles Darwin research station where scientists have tried to mate him with females of a subspecies.

Eggs were discovered last year but were infertile.

Watch the report below:


For more on Galapagos read our previous post on the islands' overpopulation problems

Electric Trabant unveiled

Reuters video reports on the Frankfurt car show where three new electric car models were shown as well as an electric Trabant.

Trabants, nicknamed Trabis, were the most common and often only available car in communist East Germany. Residents waited 15 years to even receive one of these cars after they had put in an order. They are now seen as a symbol of the former communist country and regarded with a "derisive affection," according to Wikipedia.

Watch the report below:

Cars to run on used clothing?

Reuters video reports on bio-fuel made from old clothing.

Swedish engineers have created a chemical process that breaks down cotton and synthetic fabrics into bio-fuel (ethanol and methane) which could fuel vehicles.

The scientists claim that this process uses less energy than extracting from plant sources and "50 percent more ethanol is produced."

Watch the report below:

Did global warming help Incas?

Reuters video reports on the new theory that South America's Inca population was helped by a warming planet.

Scientists now believe that the Incas were able to expand their food crops to higher altitudes when the temperature went up and thus able to sustain their growing population.

Watch the full report below:

Second plastic-bag subway art installation

Back in April '08 we reported on New York street artist Joshua Allen Harris, who fashions used plastic bags into inflatable subway grate art. Harris' latest incarnations, that are larger than his earlier polar bears and giraffes, look like giant fantasy monsters.

Watch the report below from New York Magazine.

Berlin solar-powered boat launch

Reuters video reports on the new solar-powered boat that will take visitors around Berlin, Germany's rivers.

The 60-passenger boat called Solon is powered solely by the solar panels placed on the roof. The panels soak in the sun and the energy produced is stored in batteries. Another benefit is that no smelly fumes and barely any noise comes from running the boat.

Watch the video below:

Galapagos Islands overpopulation problem

Ecotourists like to visit natural sites like the Galapagos Islands, and now the surrounding area is suffering from overpopulation directly related to this industry.

Global Post's Pailin Wedel reports on this below:


View the full story here: Overpopulating paradise

Photo by Guillermo Granja/Reuters

Cape Cod wind farm controversy

Reuters video reports on the controversy over a proposed wind farm off the heavily touristed coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Cape Wind corporation claims their installation will "produce 75 percent of the cape and islands electricity."

Opponents claim the 440 foot turbines will ruin the natural landscape that tourists come for and hurt the economy when those visitors vacation elsewhere.

Watch the report below:

NYC cops taking a bite out of eco-crime

Reuters video reports on the eco-police of New York.

The job of officers Matthew Clemens and Eric Dowling is to patrol their beat of the Bronx in New York City and find people who are overstepping environmental laws.

Watch the full video below:

Mini Es testing in Berlin

Reuters video reports on the Mini electric car tests to be conducted in Berlin this January.

German carmaker BMW, who produces the popular Mini Cooper cars, will be testing the all-electric version along with Swedish power company Vattenfall.

Watch the report:

Congalese gorillas in rebels' hands

Reuters video reports on the rebel takeover of Congo's Virunga National Park gorilla sector and conservation headquarters.

General Laurent Nkunda's rebels took over the gorilla sector in September 2007, and this past October commandeered the Rumangabo park's headquarters where the conservation efforts were run from.

Many of the park's rangers, who protected the gorillas, are now in refugee camps.

The fate of the 200 gorillas is at risk.

Watch the report below: