Now that the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage plan has been scrapped, a nuclear commission needs to find a town that wants to host the repository.

Transocean isn't legally responsible for some of the pollution from the Deepwater Horizon spill.

Scientists mapped the Amazon in 3-D.

The plan for protecting New Orleans from hurricanes requires restoring wetlands.

In the past year, examples abounded of forests being protected or restored on a grand scale. But those successes put the colossal failures and the corrupting forces behind them in stark relief: For too many forests, some combination of rapacious corporate greed, rising global population and consumption (particularly in Asia), local corruption, ignorant or careless political leadership and a lack of a strong grassroots environmental movement overwhelmed forest defenders -- leading to destruction of some of the most biodiverse, carbon-dense forests in the world. The bright contrast showed that deforestation is no ways inevitable -- in many cases, the same …

This interview originally appeared in The Dirt. Jaime Lerner was elected mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, in 1971, and reelected two more times before serving as governor of the Brazilian state of Paraná. As mayor, Lerner devised a number of low-cost solutions and innovative partnerships with the public and private companies that turned Curitiba into a model green community. He has won a number of major awards for his transportation, design, and environmental work, including the United Nations Environment Award. In 2002, Lerner was elected president of the International Union of Architects. Today, he is principal of Jamie Lerner Associated Architects. …

Remember how last month Chevron spilled more than 100,000 gallons of oil off the coast of Brazil? The oil industry likes us to think that spills like this are no big deal: They'll clean that right up! But this spill's not following that script. The company tried to plug the offending well with cement, but Chevron had to admit yesterday that the well is still leaking. The company continues to insist that seriously, no sweat! We'll have that under control …"some time in the future." We're just not sure when. But soon! Please, please let us keep drilling?

Brazil discovers that oil drilling is not good for the environment. Also, Congress is kicking renewable energy to the curb the way a mean person would a really cute puppy. Like these. Oh, wait, don't buy those, they came from puppy mills. People collectively put their fingers in their ears and go LA LA LA so as not to think about climate change. The Loch Ness monster wants to participate in the London Olympics. Geoengineering is cool and all, but it would be much cheaper to just not put carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to begin with than to try …

Despite reports of localized deforestation and violence against rainforest activists, a study on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon found that the number of square kilometers disappearing each year has hit a record low. But politics has a way of screwing up progress like this, and Brazilian politicians are voting today to weaken the forest code that contributed to the deforestation decline. Man! These guys might as well be American politicians. Nature reports that agricultural interests have backed the legislation, since trees do tend to get in the way of farming. But so does civilizational collapse, and as researchers have discovered, …

Earlier this month, an oil well that Chevron was drilling off the coast of Brazil sprung a leak, and as many as 110,000 gallons of oil have spread over the sea bed and into the ocean. Chevron didn’t even notice at first -- Brazil's state oil company had to sound the alarm about the spill, the Associated Press reports. Now the company is saying it "takes full responsibility for this incident." One of the mysteries of the oil world is the inconsistency with which companies decide to own up to their misdeeds. Back in February, for instance, Chevron professed confusion …

Solar power isn’t all rainbows and puppies. In China, protesters have spent the past few days outside a solar panel plant, which they say polluted a nearby river. A U.S. wind turbine company is suing a Chinese company for paying an employee of American Superconducter more than $1 million to steal wind turbine technology. China's also put $15 billion into Alberta's tar sands in the past year and a half. We're going to keep hearing about Solyndra all next year. Remember how all those Brazilian rainforest activists kept getting murdered? Police say they've arrested two of the men responsible. Solving …

Photo: Remko TanisCross-posted from Climate Progress. Driven by demand from countries like China, India, and Brazil, the global market for automobiles is accelerating faster than ever. According to an analysis from the auto trade journal Ward's, there are now over one billion cars, light-, medium-, and heavy-duty trucks on roads around the world, up from 980 million at the end of 2009. In just half a year, the global auto fleet expanded by around 35 million vehicles. That's the second-biggest increase ever. The U.S. is still has the biggest population of cars and trucks -- one for every 1.3 people …

This video is in Portuguese, so just mute it and cue up a bit of old Ludwig Van as you watch sneaky monkey thugs infiltrate a Brazilian home. With humans perpetually up in their business, monkeys in Rio de Janeiro are fighting back by turning to a life of crime. This is no casual looting, either -- it's a monkey mob. The housebreaking simians have a signaling system (mimicking birdcalls) and a thoroughly orchestrated plan of attack. They're not quite backflipping through radar beams, but it's close.  LIke most things (especially crime sprees!) this is probably humans' fault, not for …