After 130 days and 8000 nautical miles, a boat crafted from thousands of plastic bottles sailed into Sydney Harbor on Monday, completing an epic trans-Pacific voyage to highlight the benefits of recycling.

The “Plastiki” catamaran, made from 12,500 bottles and the brainchild of an heir to Britain’s Rothschild banking fortune, was greeted by hundreds of well-wishers as it ended its 15,000-kilometre (9,000-mile) journey.

The Plastiki’s bottles are lashed to pontoons and held together with recyclable plastic and glue made from cashew nut husks and sugarcane, while its sails are also made from recycled plastic.

The catamaran has been home to 10 members of crew over the 4 month journey, all of whom witnessed the polluted waters of the Pacific while highlighting solutions to protect our oceans and beat waste.

Watch their videos and explore their boat (and mission) and take the pledge at: www.theplastiki.com.

(READ the full story in the Sydney Morning-Herald)

Hundreds of families facing hardship in the Gulf were forced to give up their pets to a local shelter. After an NBC News report last week, thousands of pet lovers in all 50 states called the shelter and are in the midst of adopting pets to give them new homes.

Now, dogs like Lucky, pictured here on his way to Kentucky, are wagging their tails once again, making fast friends with loving families.

WATCH the video below, or at MSNBC…

Global efforts to fight the illegal logging trade are paying off, according to a report that found production of illegal timber declining by 22 percent overall since 2002, but with dramatic drops of more than 50% in the Amazon rainforest.

The report, by London’s Chatham House, an independent policy research group, states that the illegal log trade in the last decade has plummeted  by 50 percent in Cameroon, by 75 percent in Indonesia, and between 50 and 75 percent in the Brazilian Amazon.

The reduction, documented in three of the five tropical regions studied, has prevented the degradation of up to 65,600 square  miles of forest, an area larger than England and Wales combined (17mil. hectare).

Many years ago, a $600-million-dollar man changed the life of Jack Canfield, who later became America’s #1 success coach and co-author of the most successful book series in history, Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Canfield reveals who that man was, and what his teachings contained, in a new video series by the Gaiam company called, ENCOUNTERS: Portraits of Inspiring Lives. In an “up-close and personal film”, Canfield reveals little-known stories about his early childhood, lifelong dreams, and personal philosophy.

For more than 30 years, he has researched what makes successful people flourish and now he reveals their secrets to a wider audience.

The Spiritual Cinema Circle debuts the new Gaiam series this month in their DVD club. In this first installment of the exclusive Encounters biography series, the Chicken Soup for the Soul creator shares his personal stories of transformation and his practical wisdom on how to live your life’s “soul” purpose. (Watch below)

AT&T announced Wednesday an agreement that will provide the communication network for 200,000 solar panels being installed on utility poles throughout New Jersey for supplying renewable electricity directly to the grid.

Petra Solar, a company that makes photovoltaic panels especially for utility poles, is currently installing their products on existing state poles, outfitting each location with the smart grid technology that eventually will deliver energy efficiency and cost-savings to consumers’ homes via the NJ utility company.