Salt Lake City played host to mayors getting up to speed on climate issues. City leaders from around the U.S. were treated to a rare bird's-eye view of the environment earlier this week at the Sundance Summit, a three-day mayors' retreat on climate change hosted by Robert Redford in Salt Lake City and at his 6,000-acre resort nestled beneath Utah's Mount Timpanogos, near Park City. In between briefings on "The State of the Science" and "Why You Should Care," and tutorials on emissions-trading programs and retrofitting public transport, a bipartisan troupe of 46 mayors representing nearly 10 million U.S. citizens …

To promote the recently launched -- and somewhat idyllically named -- Ecomagination campaign, GE has been running a series of commercials highlighting its green initiatives. One in particular, focused on clean(er?) coal, has sparked a good deal of debate over its use of sexy models to excite more than the imagination, if you will. Josh Ozersky of The New York Times describes the 60-second commercial: As the spot begins, we hear Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons" and see shadowy figures, identifiable only by their helmet lights, walking into a coal mine. (The helmet light, like the physician's reflector, remains indispensable …

Activists kick off big boycott of ExxonMobil Spelling-impaired activists at Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, MoveOn.org, and nine other enviro and progressive groups have launched a nationwide "Exxpose Exxon" consumer boycott campaign. While the coalition doesn't expect to have a big impact on ExxonMobil's bottom line, it hopes to change the public's perception of the world's largest publicly traded oil company and pressure it into good, green corporate citizenship -- investing in clean energy, supporting mandatory greenhouse-gas emissions caps, and backing off from its aim to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. "On Arctic drilling and global warming, they are …

Humanity is on the threshold of a century of extraordinary bounty, courtesy of global climate change. That's the opinion of Robert Balling, former scientific adviser to the Greening Earth Society, a lobbying arm of the power industry founded by the Western Fuels Association. In a world where atmospheric carbon dioxide levels soar from the burning of fossil fuels, he says, "crops will grow faster, larger, more water-use efficient, and more resistant to stress." Quoting study after study, he invokes visions of massive melon yields, heftier potatoes, and "pumped-up pastureland." Bumper crops of wheat and rice, he says, will benefit the …

Investors pouring millions into new nanotech solar-energy firms A merger of cutting-edge nanotechnology with the earth's oldest power source may revolutionize clean energy. At least three U.S. start-ups are aiming to develop thin, flexible sheets of tiny solar cells for the mass market. If perfected, the companies say, these nano-cells would catapult solar to the forefront of clean-energy generation: they'd not only cost much less to produce than current solar panels, but would provide electricity as cheaply as average utilities do now, about $1 per watt. It may take five years or more before the technologies are perfected for mass …

Bush security adviser helped firm land lobbying gig for Chinese oil co. The bid by state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation to purchase U.S. oil and gas producer Unocal has raised hackles among some national-security types. So it may seem odd that James C. Langdon Jr., the chair of President Bush's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board -- a group with security clearance greater than even members of Congress -- would meet with CNOOC to drum up lobbying business for his law firm. Odd but true: Langdon, a major Bush fund-raiser, met last winter with reps from CNOOC seeking lobbying work for …

Dear Umbra, I have a top-loading washing machine that's nine years old. I've heard that front-loading machines are a lot more efficient and use less detergent, so I'm thinking about taking the plunge, even though my old machine works fine. How much less water do the front-loading machines use, and why? And is it true that they use less detergent? (I just switched to an environmentally friendly detergent, but boy, is it expensive -- so less would be good.) Do they hold as many clothes as a top-loader? And can you recommend a website or other source where I can …

Senate passes energy bill Late last month, after seemingly endless go-rounds, the Senate passed an energy bill that contains big boosts for nuclear power, "clean coal," and corn-blended ethanol, and would require 10 percent of electrical utilities' power to come from renewables by 2020. "With oil prices recently topping $60 a barrel, this legislation can come none too soon," said Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), though the bill's allegedly propitious timing was cast in doubt by Energy Secretary Sam Bodman's forthright acknowledgment that it wouldn't actually affect oil prices at all. The Senate's version of the bill bypasses several contentious …

Bush gets the watered-down G8 climate statement he wanted President Bush got exactly what he wanted on climate change during last week's G8 meeting of industrialized nations: The appearance of compromise without any shift in his administration's position. Just when it seemed that U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair -- buoyed by London's winning bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games -- was succeeding in putting real international pressure on Bush to budge on the issue, a series of terror attacks struck Britain's capital city, distracting the world's attention, muting protests, and casting a pall over the G8 agenda. One day …

With the G8 Summit just days away, pop stars the world over are preparing for marathon concerts tomorrow in each of the eight wealthiest nations in the world. Modeled after the Live Aid concerts 20 years ago (when the likes of U2, David Bowie, and Mick Jagger performed for some 1.5 billion people and helped raise money for Ethiopia's famine), the Live 8 concerts aim to draw attention to and demand action from the leaders gathering at the summit. Unfortunately, however, Live 8 is focused on only one of summit leader Tony Blair's two main goals for the meeting -- …