In case you hadn’t heard … the world is warming up. Exxon just can't quit climate deniers. The Supreme Court thinks that the EPA must regulate carbon under the Clean Air Act; now it will decide if it can regulate wetlands on private property under the Clean Water Act. Gas stations can now sell a 15 percent ethanol blend. If you drive an old clunker, stay away from the E15 -- it'll screw your engine up. The Sierra Club has to sit back and let the U.S. government take BP to court for the Macondo spill. The Railroad Park in …

Bill McKibben has it in for Canada. In a new article in The New Republic, he calls it "one of the earth's most irresponsible nations," admonishes liberals that they need to find a new country to dream of emigrating to, and stops just short of calling Canadians (and Americans, but what else is new) giant hypocrites. What's pissing McKibben off? Tar sands, of course. Canada is pushing to become an "energy superpower," in the words of one government official, by mining its tar sands for oil. And, as Grist readers know, oil extracted from Canadian tar sands would dump a …

Japan's damaged Fukushima plant is now holding oceans of contaminated, radioactive water in its storage tanks, and that water keeps leaking out. Today, the country's Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency said that fifteen tons or so of water had leaked. Not all of the water is equally contaminated; the leak was said to be water with only low levels of radiation. But leaks have been an ongoing problem at the plant -- not a reassuring trend.

In Arizona, the wildfire is at the edge of Los Alamos National Laboratory, which has radioactive materials and other nasty stuff on the premises. It’s all safety stored, the government says. We’re also being told that everything’s cool at that nuclear plant in Nebraska that’s knee-deep in the flooded Missouri. China's going to run out of water within 30 years at current rates of consumption. More people want their own personal wind turbine, but it's not a status symbol. Yet. Poland's too deep into coal and too poor to go green. Michele Bachmann may hate the EPA, but she loves …

Anyone still caring for a clipped green lawn can lessen their enviro guilt by trading in weed-killing chemicals for a herd of goats. If you’ve got invasive plants, never fear: Your milkweed brings all the goats to the yard. They could eat it, but they have to charge ($725/day plus tax for a 60-goat herd at Rent-a-Ruminant). Increasing numbers of companies offer goat-driven brush and weed control. Unlike cows, which eat grass, goats like to eat weeds and shrubs -- even poisonous ones. (I mean, they are GOATS. They eat whatever. It’s the beauty of goats.) Large lawn owners from …

Within the next year, Austin, Texas, could be home to In.gredients, a grocery store that eliminates the paper and plastic containers that most food comes in. Instead, the zero-packaging store will offer most of its wares in bulk bins. (Some products will be “packaging-light” instead, with recyclable containers.) Customers can bring their own boxes and bottles or borrow compostable ones from the store, weigh them, and fill them with goodies. This includes beer (bring your own growler!) and cleaning products. It’s a return to a simpler time, when our grandparents got along just fine without resealable plastic freshness packs, and …

The New York Times obtained government documents that call natural gas companies' enthusiasm about shale gas and hydrofracking "irrational exuberance.” That exuberance has convinced some lawmakers, though. Nine of them are writing to President Obama to ask him to push for more gas drilling. In other technology-that’s-not-actually-going-to-save-us news, China's building a $1.5 billion clean coal plant, the first commercial clean coal plant of this size. European countries are ditching even the tiniest of cars in favor of public transportation, because -- surprise! -- global treaties matter and EU countries need to cut carbon in some way to meet their Kyoto …

Even if you don't live next to one of the country's dirtiest coal plants, coal pollution is still likely finding its way into your body. Answer three questions, and the Sierra Club will tell you how at risk you are: very, extremely, or MY GOD GET OUT OF THE HOUSE. All you do is input where you live, how much fish you eat, and whether you belong to any groups known to be sensitive to air quality issues. (Oh, and they also want your email address, but there's a tiny "skip this" button in the right bottom corner of that …

Oil prices went down -- for about a minute, before they started climbing again -- after the International Energy Agency announced the release of emergency supplies. The Department of Energy is backing the $2.6 billion Project Amp, which will install 733 megawatts of solar -- as much as was installed in all of 2010 -- in 28 states over four years. To make it even clearer that the the vast liberal conspiracy has it in for dirty energy: The right wing’s favorite bogeyman George Soros joined forces with Google to invest $25 million in an energy efficiency company called Transphorm. …

Have we mentioned that our leaders in Congress are working their butts off to undermine the country's foundational environmental laws? It's not just Republicans, either! Yesterday, a bipartisan bill that would weaken the federal government's ability to keep water clean passed out of committee. The bill would amend the Clean Water Act to give "primary responsibilities for water pollution control" to the states. Pretty much any time states get to muck around with environmental issues, at least some of them decide to let corporations run hog wild and dump whatever they want, wherever they want. So we're not optimistic that …