Atlanta's business leaders have recognized that improving the quality of life, whether by reducing drive time, planting trees or cleaning up the polluted Chattahoochee River, is in their self-interest, he said.

CNN: Gridlock drives developers to design wiser cities

Carbon-emissions trading is becoming increasingly widespread within the industry, as is carbon off-setting, the latter involving passengers paying a voluntary surcharge to help finance the planting of trees or other green projects and so balance out the environmental damage caused by their journey.

CNN: Green wing:?can technology make flying more environmentally friendly?

Lead researcher Professor Yosef Schlein said planting mosquito-attracting trees or bushes in suitable habitats, and spraying them with oral insecticide, could provide a relatively easy and cheap way to tackle the problem of malaria.

BBC: The malaria parasite is spread by mosquitoes

Thus a recent U.N. report predicts that 98 percent of Indonesia's natural rainforest will be degraded or lost within the next 15 years, in large part because of the planting of palm trees for the production of the biofuel palm oil.

CNN: Biofuel: Green savior or red herring?