The carbon-storage skills of ants and the biofuel potential of tobacco; energy efficiency financing surges, and Beijing bans coal. All that and more in this week's ClimateCast.

Good-paying jobs that produce multiple products in rural communities where good jobs have been scarce – This is the restoration economy.  In Oregon the restoration economy created 6,483 jobs, generated $977.5 million in economic activity from 2001–2010, a new report from Ecotrust says.

Outside of humans, beavers have more impact on landscapes than virtually any other species. Now a new study reveals those hardworking animals not only build dams but biocarbon storage as well. 

Carbon dioxide levels hit 395 parts per million in 2012, the highest in four or five million years when sea levels were around 80 feet higher and temperatures up to 10° Fahrenheit hotter. If we sustain those CO₂ levels, or go higher as we are doing, a completely different world will emerge. 

Imagine a world where we invest billions of dollars in improving ecosystem resilience to help combat climate change, all because doing so sucks up vast amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and provides pure oxygen in return.

Lost in the current debate over how best to control greenhouse gas emissions from combustion of fossil fuels is the simple fact that it won’t be en