Call to abandon wooden chopsticks. Bian Jiang, of the China Cuisine Association, recently called on restaurant operators to phase out one-use cutlery, especially wooden chopsticks, in preparation for next year’s green Olympics. The country produces and discards more than 45 billion pairs of wooden chopsticks every year, at a cost to the environment of about 25 million trees. – China Daily

OLE, the first fire-fighting beetle. Researchers over at the University of Madgeburg-Stendal in Germany are working on OLE, a new autonomous robot that could one day help out putting out fires. This fire-fighting beetle will be programmed to run through the forest at 20 to 30 km per hour, looking for potential forest fires in the works and extinguishing them with an impulse appliance. – Gearfuse

Carnivores with a Conscience. We’ve looked at the huge climate impact of meat, and cattle farming in particular, before. It’s even led to some passionate debate over on our forums as to whether vegans in Hummers are greener than meat-eaters in hybrids. But what’s a treehugger to do if they are not ready to give up meat completely? The first step might be to look at our thoughts for making meat go further (meat reductionism, as one commenter calls it). — Treehugger

Ancient forest found in Hungary. An ancient forest of cypress trees, estimated to be eight million years old, has been discovered in Hungary. The specimens were preserved intact while most of the forest turned to coal thanks to a casing of sand, which was perhaps the result of a sandstorm. – BBC News

Green power surges despite the cost. Australians are sending green power sales surging despite a lack of Federal Government support for renewable energy. Nearly 8% of all Australian households pay more for their electricity to ensure it is environmentally friendly. – The Age