Captured just before midnight on November 13 by fishers in Cambodia, this Mekong giant catfish is 8 feet long (2.4 meters long) ands weighs 450 pounds (204 kilograms).

Kinky Apes Get Protection: The bonobo ape has rather prolific mating habits. The kinky apes are one of human beings’ two closest relatives and officials in the Congo have announced the creation of a massive rainforest preserve intended to protect them.

Can Chocolate Save the Environment? A rather unique solution to rainforest preservation through the introduction of Cocoa trees that shows that many Latin Americans are taking tropical deforestation seriously… and doing something about it! Excellent article.

Cleaning Up Oil Spills with Hair and Mushrooms? The recent Cosco Busan oil spill in the San Francisco Bay may have just met its match in an eco-cleaning solution that uses human hair and mushrooms! A group of intrepid volunteers has embarked on a project to clean up oil at San Francisco’s beaches using an unusual, yet totally organic, method of waste removal:

A report just issued is taking on a daunting task: simplifying and clarifying the nature of climate change in order to make it more comprehensible and viral as an idea. Skeptical on the issue? Well, this is for die-hards and skeptics alike - a simple report designed for everyone.

A new document has been released that is generating a lot of envirobuzz. It is so important because it provides one concise, easily-readable but comprehensive text of facts, figures and diagrams – in short all the information you need to understand and act on the threat of global warming, be you a politician, a businessman, an activist or a citizen (or for that matter, a doubter). Download it here.

More basic info on global warming and climate change can be found at the National Resources Defense Council or via the Pew Research Center. If you’d like to add more resources please do so below.

If you can’t afford to buy your own tropical island paradise, why not build your own? That is exactly what Richie Sowa did back in 1998, from over a quarter-million plastic bottles. His Spiral Island, destroyed years later by a hurricane, sported a two-story house, solar oven, self-composting toilet and multiple beaches. Better yet, he has started building another one! His ultimate goal? To build the island bigger and bigger and finally float out to sea, traveling the world from the comfort of his own private paradise.

The original Spiral Island was (as its successor will be) built upon a floating collection used plastic bottles, all netted together to support a bamboo and plywood structure above. Located in Mexico, the original was 66 by 54 feet and was able to support full-sized mangroves to provide shade and privacy, yet also able to be moved from place to place by its creator as need with a simple motorized system.

An environmentalist to the core, Sowa is also an artist and a musician. More than just the universal dream of an island retreat, Spiral Island is also his vision for low-impact sustainable living. The next version of the island will be built to withstand more treacherous weather than the first and will also be located in a more sheltered part of Mexico’s waters.

The Above Ripley’s Believe-it-or-Not video is a great introduction to the island, which conjures images of Gilligan-done-right. Spiral island is able to exist and move about in Mexico in part because it is classified as a ship, not an island, like an atoll out of WaterWorld (only much much cooler). On September 7, 2007 the new Spiral Islander social network utility was opened to the public to allow visitors, Spiral Islanders and friends of Richie Sowa to connect and communicate about the history of Spiral Island and to learn more and discuss Richie Sowa’s new Spiral Island. Want more islands? See these 7 Island Wonders of the World from WebUrbanist.

Suddenly the world looks a lot different, if you scale the map based on the planet’s most controversial resource: oil reserves. One has to wonder if this is the same map Bush and his cronies use when deciding foreign policy. You’ll also notice that Iran is big and bright, and have to wonder whether or not it’s an even more tasty target than Iraq. Image courtesy of Civic Actions dot Com.