World consumption of most common commodity triglyceride vegetable oils. Image credit:Wikipedia Certain plant oils, especially palm oil, have a reputation of being produced unsustainably. Many plant oils are low-cost commodities (see table above for recent global volumes). Certain of the commodity plant oils are used extensively in soap and personal care products; and demand for these is increasing (a growing market segment does not accept animal fat-based product). For personal care products of the future, a key challenge is to find sustainable feedstoc...Read the full story on TreeHugger

photo: Wikipedia This is one you definitely don't hear about too often: Over at Green Biz Marc Gunther is highlighting the efforts of Contour Global to extract methane from Lake Kivu, on the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Here's how they are doing it:...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Without a commercial trade ban, illustrations and photos will be the only Atlantic bluefin tuna the world sees. Image: Wikipedia. Some good news for critically endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna: The Obama administration says it will back a proposal to place the species in Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, thereby prohibiting further trade. At current fishi...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo: Wikipedia National anthems are unique in their ability to stir patriotism, create solidarity, and inspire achievement--which makes them hugely important compositions. In fact, although the tradition of creating a national song didn't gain popularity until the 19th century, nearly every nation on earth has an anthem of its own today. And, as with all official, political texts, the lyrics to these anthems were selected deliberately to best embody the best qualities of the national identity: Some national anthems celebrate and praise Read the full story on TreeHugger

The Monteverde golden toad went extinct in 1989. Photo: Wikipedia. This probably won't be the last word on the demise of the Monteverde golden toad, but a new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says that normal El Niño conditions, not climate change, lead to the spread of the deadly chytrid fungus and caused the iconic Costa Rican species to go extinct....Read the full story on TreeHugger