According to Al Gore, climate skeptics are the new racists: they say crazy things in casual conversation that others let slide -- for now. Here’s why Irene gave NYC a break. NASA scientist James Hansen is planning to be arrested today at the Keystone XL protest. He told Climatewire that if President Obama approves the pipeline, he "was just greenwashing all along, like the other well-oiled coal-fired politicians." On the West Coast, houses with energy efficiency certifications like Energy Star or LEED sell better than less-efficient houses. The U.S. solar industry increased exports 83 percent last year.

Buying a knock-off Louis Vuitton bag is one thing, but in Europe, farmers are buying knock-off pesticides. Counterfeit pesticides have become a multimillion industry over there, and if that sounds like bad news, it is: According to the Wall Street Journal, these knock-offs contain a solvent that the European Union banned because it's a huge problem for pregnant women. The WSJ's article also makes the E.U.'s efforts to deal with the problem sound like a giant clusterf*ck. There are loopholes in counterfeiting laws that mean customs can't seize the fake pesticides. The company that's been ripped off has to deal …

With Hurricane Irene on its way, New Yorkers head to Trader Joe's and make jokes (I think they're jokes?) about the proper amount to tip delivery guys who come out during a hurricane. Why does a super-walkable condo building in Denver include eight floors of parking spaces? (Answer: There's no good answer.) So weird: Even Sen. Jim Inhofe wants Mitt Romney to stop waffling on climate change. This may be the only issue Inhofe and environmentalists have ever agreed on. To solve its pollution problem, China's using logic generally favored by house cats: stick your head under a blanket, because …

OnEarth takes a close look at why exactly Warren Buffett has been sniffing around Wyoming coal mines lately. Short answer: China wants coal. As George Black explains: Although worldwide energy-related CO2 emissions rose more last year than at any time since 1969, and the use of coal grew faster than that of any other fossil fuel, U.S. demand has actually flatlined. In 2000 coal accounted for just over half of our electricity supply. By 2010 it was down to 45 percent. … Asia is a different matter. … [C]ompanies like Peabody and Arch Coal are convinced that Asian demand has …

Here's another bit of info to include in your "man, the Koch brothers are eeeevil" file. In environmental circles, the Koch family is best known for its funding of climate deniers, but Koch Industries also owns 56 facilities that use petrochemicals. The government is a teensy bit worried about the attraction these facilities could hold for terrorists, but the company has spent its time and money lobbying against stricter safeguards for chemical facilities. Hey, regulations are regulations, whether they protect against pollution or terrorism, and all regulations are for liberal weenies! iWatch News found that 4.8 million people live within …

Conflicts across the world can be connected to climate phenomena like El Niño. Mitt Romney: so wimpy on climate issues, it hurts. Some green jobs require an MBA. Drivers are still cutting down on miles, even though gas prices are creeping downward. An energy consulting group says the EPA and Cornell professor Robert Howarth both made erroneous assumptions that led them to overestimate the amount of methane that hydrofracking releases. The SEC is digging into fracking, too. The financial watchdog wants information about fracking chemicals and environmental impacts. Vermonters want solar projects, not wind projects, which they say would damage …

This month, the White House announced the first-ever fuel efficiency standards for heavy trucks — heavy pick-ups, work vans and trucks (think the Frito-Lay delivery guy), and tractor-trailers. The people who make these behemoths have never had to think about fuel economy before, but now they do. And there's lots of room for improvement. As Fast Company writes: A rectangular metal box, it turns out, may be the worst possible shape to haul down the highway at high speeds. It's a fashion show of new forms on the road: trailer skirts, trailer tails, and "SuperSingles" all designed to reduce the …

The Moapa River Indian Reservation is right next to the Reid Gardner Power Station and its coal ash storage ponds. Winds blow the coal ash -- a waste product that contains arsenic, lead, and mercury -- over the reservation. Residents stay indoors, because it's a like a sandstorm and they can taste the ash in their months. Even so, they have health issues like asthma and thyroid dysfunction, conditions that have been linked to coal ash. As Earthjustice points out in the video, coal ash is the second largest waste stream in American but is little-regulated -- less than curbside …

East Coasters may not know what do in an earthquake, but a hurricane's coming, too. That, we know about. The Obama administration is looking into "leasing" nuclear fuel from other countries, which would let American plants use the uranium, then return it for disposal once the fuel is spent. It’s like a bottle-return program, but with much higher stakes. Chinese consumers want cars, not those namby pamby EVs. Also, as a planet, we have 1 billion cars now. Didn't we tell you the EPA creates jobs? When we say the EPA creates jobs, believe it. Your laundry soap could come …

Dyan deNapoli (who apparently goes by the moniker "The Penguin Lady," which is awesome) was very, very put out by a suggestion during the Gulf Coast oil spill that oiled birds should be killed because they're going to die anyway. The Penguin Lady knows that this is not necessarily true, because in 2000, she took part in a rescue of over 20,000 birds, oiled in a spill off of the coast of South Africa. Only 160 died. Above, deNapoli explains to a TED conference how they did it. Basically, it's a lot of hard work. But so is euthanizing thousands …