If you thought you were melting over the summer, just be glad you're not an ice sheet that's been chilling out since before Europeans settled in Canada. Over the summer, two huge Canadian ice shelves in the Arctic shrunk down precipitously, report scientists from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. One sheet had already split into two sections and just kept getting smaller; the other broke in half this year. Icebergs are breaking away and "pose a risk to offshore oil facilities and potentially to shipping lanes," reports the Associated Press. "Since the end of July, pieces equaling one …

MIT created an "artificial leaf" that recreates photosynthesis. In Germany, they've got so much wind-generated electricity, they’re giving it away. Driving 75 mph isn't fuel efficient, ahem, Maine. Austin's going to be the largest local government using only renewable energy to power its municipal buildings. Little things are turning people against the Keystone XL pipeline, even people you might not expect to take an activist stand. This Montana rancher just wants to keep his trees, so his ranch land won't erode away. Green and native groups are challenging Shell's Alaska drilling efforts in court. A new online game is sort …

We all knew coal is harmful -- we figured people just ignored that harm because of their profit margins. But according to the prestigious American Economic Review, harm from coal-fired electrical plants costs more than twice as much as the electricity they generate. All told, coal plants cause $53 billion in damage every year. And none of that even takes climate impacts into account. Health effects from coal-fired plants -- increased deaths from sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulates -- comprise more than a quarter of pollution-related damages from U.S. industry. That's a conservative estimate, done by centrist economists, that …

This is why we have national parks, people: So there's one place in the country where "share the road" means "stop your damn car so baby bears can have a little tussle."

You've probably heard that motorcycles are more fuel-efficient than cars, and therefore better for the environment. I mean, they're practically bikes, right? It sounds plausible, but how do you find out if it's really true? The same way you find out if ANYTHING is really true: Ask the MythBusters, obviously. The Discovery Channel hosts and general experts on everything took on the myth of the green motorcycle on last night's show. (The above image isn't actually from that episode, I just thought it was badass.) Their conclusion: Hogs emit less CO2, and they are more fuel-efficient, so they should probably …

China is now the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, but its per-capita emissions are still less than those of the average U.S. citizen. In six years, that could flip, says a new report from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency that was sponsored by the European Commission. Current U.S. per-capita emissions are 16.9 tons, down from a peak of 19.7 tons. A host of factors, including peak travel, the decimation of the U.S. economy, and the continued shift toward moving manufacturing overseas could continue the downward trend, even as China's emissions continue to rise. Those two trend lines …

Global total new investment in clean energy 2004-10 ($BN) Good news: clean energy investment is basically doing awesome. "Few, if any, sectors can point to such a robust and broadly-based growth during a tumultuous time in the world economy," says Nathaniel Bullard of Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Look at the numbers: Clean energy has not had a down year since the creation of major market support programmes in Germany, which began in 2004. The growth rate was nearly 50 percent in 2005 and 2006, and even remained high--19 percent--during the first year of the financial crisis (and had the crisis …

If you have a spare $4,500 lying around, you can now own a Rick Perry chia head that's as tall as Rick Perry. (From the item's description: "Hmmm, Rick recently stated at a Tea Party debate that he would be offended if somebody thought he could be bought for $5,000. He obviously hasn’t evaluated his worth as a gigantic planter.") Hair plants are not included -- like the governor himself, you're going to have to WORK for that hair. But it does ship with a gallon of Cow Wow, a manure-based fertilizer. In other words, the Perry head comes with its …

Don't tell Michele Bachmann, but it turns out that when food isn't adequately regulated, you can get giant deadly food poisoning outbreaks. Most recently, a crop of listeria-tainted cantaloupe has now killed 13 people officially, and possibly as many as 16 -- shooting right past the salmonella episode three years ago that killed nine. This is the most deaths from contaminated food since a 1998 listeria outbreak that killed 21. Listeria is no joke: It can kill as many as one in five of the people who fall ill from it. (The elderly and immune-compromised are more likely to be …

Dumping buckets of fish guts into the ocean turns out not to be so good for the ecosystems involved. Basically, the more dead fish you put in the water, the fewer live fish can survive there. Off the coast of Alaska, one seafood processor has created "a massive wasteland of fish guts about 50 acres or more … a dead zone." The processor, Seattle-based Trident, now has to pay $30 to 40 million to clean up its mess (plus, stop dumping so many damn fish innards into the sea). That’s the result of a settlement with the EPA, which apparently …