Philip Bump of Green for All responded to our request to create an infographic comparing the cost of the Solyndra "scandal" to the Defense Department's greatest boondoggles. We think it speaks for itself.

According to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, 83 percent of people now believe that climate change is happening. That's up from 75 percent last year. What's behind the change? Partly heat, and partly hot air. Folks historically have a hard time differentiating weather and climate, so it's not a surprise that after a very hot and drought-riddled summer, more people believe in global warming. They're right, of course, but they may be right for the wrong reasons -- i.e. because it's been unusually hot in their locale, not because the climate's getting weird all over. But whatever. If this is a …

I am obsessed with David Mitchell. (The comedian, not the dishy author, but really both of them.) Okay, mostly I'm obsessed with Robert Webb because he's the cute one who takes his pants off sometimes, but the point is they are both spectacularly funny and I will basically listen to David Mitchell talk about anything. So it's particularly delightful when he's going yard on climate deniers. Mitchell argues that even if you don't trust the scientific consensus on climate change -- which is a pretty weird way to behave -- even the chance of it is a good enough reason to …

The Daily Show Despite the fact that we give many billions of dollars in loan guarantees to nuclear power companies, and lose many billions in revenue by propping up oil companies through tax breaks, the fact remains that this Solyndra scandal looks terrible enough that even the take-down experts at the Daily Show were inspired to turn their media-dissecting powers against the administration. I was all ready to say "et tu, Jon Stewart?" when I saw the headline on this clip, but then I watched it, and, well, damn.  Our own Dave Roberts has a level-headed accounting of both the …

Two Minnesota college campus have banned bottled water, and students are, like, totally flipping out. As one College Republican, who apparently is also enrolled in the Sarah Palin School of Political Oratory, put it: “A little bit goes along the line of free choice. For us, that’s a big principle, in College Republicans is that you can’t really delegate to students what they can and cannot do in their own free will,” said Caitlyn Spence, chair of the St. Benedict Republicans. (What?) In reality, these students need not worry about their important and Constitutional freedoms to drink out of planet-killing …

Al Gore said some stuff. Texans return to their burnt-out homes. If these droughts keep up, it won’t be too long before the state gets on board with Gore. The EPA won't make a deadline for regulating greenhouse gas emissions. Here's what an imaginary, perfectly green Obama would do on environmental issues. Democrats should run this guy in 2012! Guess what? Investing in cutting edge technology is risky. Maybe the government should fill out one of those investment worksheets that tell you how much risk you can tolerate before investing in any more solar projects. One Chinese economist is trying …

The EPA, as expected, has decided to postpone making rules about carbon dioxide and other harmful gas emissions from power plants. I mean, greenhouse gas regulations? How is that REMOTELY the job of the Environmental Protection Agency, amirite? The agency was supposed to have new rules by the end of the month, but they're putting it off. Officials say they'll get around to it "soon," but the issue is just complex, so they need an extension. If that sounds familiar to you, perhaps you've encountered, say, an undergraduate who partied too hard before a paper was due. It's tempting to …

It's supposed to be instead of your car.

We use hydrocarbons in cars, home heating, and so forth because hydrocarbons burn. We also make snack chips out of hydrocarbons because we are disgusting. Ergo, we should be able to run our combustion energy off of Doritos! Okay, so it would probably miss the point if we tried to replace fossil fuels with snack chips, which have to be manufactured at great expense to the environment. But commenters on Reddit report that Doritos, Fritos, Cheetos and other representatives of the -itos family are all excellent fire-starting fuel in a pinch. Which means that maybe, as we phase out hyperprocessed …

The Obama administration wants to strangle job growth in America like some kind of giant, prosperity-choking python, mostly by banning the importation of said pythons, says a new GOP report. In a new report entitled "Broken Government: How the Administrative State has Broken President Obama's Promise of Regulatory Reform," GOP members cited the proposed snake ban as one of seven examples of red tape choking off job growth in an already ailing economy. After all, the snake-importation industry bears the U.S. economy on its shoulders. As go snake importers, so goes the country, right? Everyone knows that. Here's the irony: …