While authorities in Japan work desperately to prevent a nuclear catastrophe, on the other side of the world in Germany, Angela Merkel is facing the political fallout. With an important election in the southern state of Baden-Wrttemberg being held on March 27, Merkel's future as Chancellor could be decided at kitchen tables like the one in the modest Stuttgart home of Hanna and Volker Schwerteck. The young middle-class couple has plenty of reasons to back Merkel's Christian ...

Jean Todt has succeeded Max Mosley as president of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) after he was elected to the most powerful position in motorsport on Friday. Todt, 63, won the FIA general assembly vote against ex-world rally champion Ari Vatanen by 135 votes to 49 in a secret ballot, with 12 abstentions/invalid votes, at the FIA headquarters in Paris. Frenchman Todt had received the backing of Mosley, who held the position for 16 years, ahead of Vatanen from ...

Make a few easy changes around the house for substantial savings. Seal sneaky leaks Seal electrical outlets in the exterior walls of your house. Foam insulating gaskets (less than $1 each) "act as a barrier so conditioned air stays in, rather than leaking out," says Jonathan Passe of the Environmental Protection Agency. Just unscrew the outlet cover, install the gasket, and replace the cover. RealSimple.com: 8 legitimate Earth-friendly seals Go with the flow Install a high-performance showerhead. ...

Last year's inaugural Prix Pictet photography award for environmental sustainability produced a stunning shortlist of photos. This year is no different with 12 photographers in the running for the first prize of 100,000 CHF ($97,500). The theme in 2009 is described simply as "Earth." The aim is to highlight how man exploits the planet's resources and how this impacts the landscapes and communities surrounding them. In an extraordinary series of photos Canadian Christopher Anderson captures how the quest for raw ...

There's something lurking in the depths of Loch Ness, Scotland and it has nothing to do with monsters. On a recent expedition to try and find evidence of the Loch Ness monster, U.S. research teams came across something quite unexpected -- not a prehistoric creature of the deep but thousands of plastic covered golf balls. Mike O'Brien of SeaTrepid explains: "At first we thought they were mushrooms, there were so many. But when we lowered the camera, we ...

Dozens of protesters camped out on the roof of Britain's parliament overnight to "save the climate," police reported Monday. More than 50 protesters climbed onto the roof of Westminster Hall at about 3 p.m. (10 a.m. ET) on Sunday, police said, and 31 remained on the roof as of Monday morning, environmental group Greenpeace said. About two dozen came down voluntarily and were arrested on suspicion of trespassing Sunday night, both sides said. Police put the number at 23 while ...

New fuel-economy rules proposed by the federal Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency are the first major move by the U.S. toward cracking down on greenhouse-gas emissions. The proposed program includes miles-per-gallon requirements and national emissions standards under the EPA's greenhouse-gas-emissions guidelines for model years from 2012 to 2016. You'd think that environmental groups would be overjoyed. Hardly. What has them worried are all the pro-industry rule tweaks and what they see as slanted calculations. "Automakers ...

My taxi driver is telling me about his meal last night. His name is William. He ate whale. "Delicious," he says, kissing the tips of his fingers on one hand, making the universal sign for good tasting food. William tells me he went out on a boat with some friends a few days ago and shot the whale. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Welcome to Greenland. On this remote but enormous island subsistence whale ...

Presidential adviser Van Jones is resigning after coming under fire for signing a controversial petition regarding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The White House issued a statement late Saturday saying that Jones was giving up his post at the Council on Environmental Quality, where he helped coordinate government agencies focused on delivering millions of green jobs to the ailing U.S. economy. Jones, who denied agreeing with the petition and issued an apology last week, said he was a victim ...

In the closing days of Cash for Clunkers, car dealers were turning buyers away, the government website crashed trying to keep up with the paperwork, and even the purple cars were selling. So, what does it tell us about our national character when the most popular government program in years is an economically dubious, environmentally negligible, politically lazy handout from 99% of the population to the other 1%, all aimed at reviving the economy from its vegetative state? ...