Watch any blockbuster movie set in the future and you will no doubt see some kind of flying contraption making a bizarre whirring sound, doors coming out at every angle possible and a driver’s seat resembling the cockpit of a Boeing 747 with flashing lights and buttons galore

Likened to a modern day gold rush, development of the UK’s shale gas resources has generated both excitement and dissent in equal measures

What’s impossible for the individual can be achieved by many: How alternative financial institutions are helping the transition to a low carbon economy

The 'Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award' honors innovators whose work will change the future. Corwin Hardham, Kenny Jensen and Damon Vander Lind are the brains behind a turbine that, with the force of billowing wind, lifts thousands of feet off the ground to generate power

The summer of 2012 has been one of the hottest years on record and nothing beats the heat better than an icy cold glass of water. Someday soon, however, this simple pleasure may be harder to come by. Intense sun and sparse rainfall is causing a massive drought across the United States. The unprecedented heat wave is affecting fresh water supplies

There are many ways to charge your devices these days, but few that are as attractive as this one. Drop your leaf trimmer, push your high-maintenance bonsaï aside and check out the Electree, a chic solar-powered charger from French artist and designer Vivien Muller

On July 7th California’s senate approved funding for the first phase of a $68 billion plan to produce the first high-speed rail system that will link Los Angeles to San Francisco. With construction beginning in the Central Valley, the rail system will zoom between Los Angeles and San Francisco in three hours – a journey that usually takes up to eight! Sustainable sources such as wind and solar energy will be the main producers of electric power driving the engine to speeds of up to 200 mph

Artists and Designers Lonneke Gordijnwent and Ralph Nauta went into partnership in 2006, co-founding the Design studio DRIFT. Since then, their work has been exhibited in many prestigious places, such as the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York, the Tuileries Garden in Paris and Art Basel, the annual international art show held in Miami Beach 

Brazil is bracing itself for the much anticipated World Environment Day (WED) this coming Tuesday 5th June. Preparations have been ongoing for what is set to be one of the greatest celebrations in the events history and UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) are still encouraging people across the globe to get involved. With the theme very aptly chosen as Green Economy: Does it include you?, they have cleverly given global issues a community feel, asking each of us to take a role in the planet's uncertain future

As 2012 gets under way, the battle between the Big Energy boys and the renewables advocates is getting serious, in the face of some truly ridiculous odds. Extreme PR manoeuvres have been in evidence, too