If you got all warm and fuzzy reading our previous post about the revitalization of the Howe Sound, and if you want to keep that feeling, don't read this post. Because it is the exact opposite story, one in which humans mess up the environment and can never, ever take it back. In Scotland, from 1963 to 1984, a nuclear plant leaked lethal-if-ingested radioactive waste. That waste got all over beaches and other lovely sea-side resources. A while back, the Scottish version of the EPA recommended that someone make this right and return the area to a "pristine condition." But …

Humans can royally muck up the environment, but sometimes we can put things right again. Seven years ago, Vancouver's Howe Sound was a lifeless chemical stew, poisoned by contamination from a copper mine. And now, according to the Globe and Mail, there's this: Sightings of grey whales, killer whales and schools of hundreds of white-sided dolphins are now being made regularly in the Sound, where massive herring spawns are once again occurring. “We are seeing the revitalization of an entire ecosystem. It is really uplifting,” said John Buchanan, a Squamish conservationist who voluntarily walks streams in the area to help …

“We look like a joke, right?” — President Bill Clinton, on the ridiculousness that is America’s climate-denying Republican candidates. Obama is at least TRYING to cut coal, oil, and gas subsidies with his deficit reduction proposal. Your commute could give you a heart attack. Not in some stress-related indirect way. The fumes from the cars increase the risk of your heart bottoming out. These guys are DIYing an electric car. It’s awesome. A smart property tax system is letting businesses like Lockheed Martin make buildings green and pay off the costs over a number years, rather than up front. Here’s …

In the post-peak-oil, post-automotive world, we'll have to do something while we're huddled around our campfires in Bartertown. And we'll need to do something with the parts of our now-useless vehicles. Sure, we'll have to build shelters with the metal carapaces, and we'll need some of that tire rubber for shoes and things. But there are a billion cars now! Surely we'll have more spare tires than the survivors will have feet. Belgian artist Wim Delvoye has a vision for the art we can make from this extra rubber. His tire carvings are sort of a miracle of creative reuse …

Shwetak Patel is revolutionizing home energy use, and people are noticing. Patel was just awarded a MacArthur Fellowship -- affectionately known as a "genius award" -- for his work creating user-friendly ways for people to monitor and control their utilities consumption. In other words, this is what certified energy genius looks like. To allow residents to track their energy usage down to the level of individual appliances and fixtures, Patel's distinctive approach leverages existing infrastructure — such as gas lines, electrical wiring, plumbing, and ventilation ducts — and requires only a minimal number of small, wirelessly connected sensors attached to …

There has not traditionally been a lot of military presence in the Arctic, given as how it's mostly ice and seals. But now that the ice is melting, it's just mostly seals, and those little buggers are shifty. So Russia is sending in the troops. "Our northern border used to be closed because of ice and a severe climate," said Anton Vasilev, a special ambassador for Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "But the ice is going away we cannot leave 20,000 kilometres unwatched. We can't leave ourselves in a position where we are undefended," Vasilev said, in an interview with …

Sure, the High Line is great and all -- abandoned rail line turned into a beautiful outdoor leisure area, what's not to love? (Plus, reportedly you can see people getting undressed in the windows of one of the hotels that straddles the park.) But what it's really missing is an element of Neil Gaimany beautiful creepiness. I know! Let's put it UNDERGROUND. That's the thinking behind the Low Line, a proposed park that would turn two acres of abandoned Lower East Side trolley terminal into an underground Eden. This pastoral underworld would have plants, water features, and even natural sunlight …

You know how people say Americans are gross? Americans are gross. An average one of us eats 42 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup each year. GOOD points out that that's the same weight as six newborn babies (Austin Powers was prescient). I think at this point, we all know corn syrup is bad, even when it's called "corn sugar." But it sneaks into everything. That bag of sliced bread I bought at the store yesterday? Corn syrup. That tonic water I mixed with gin this past weekend? Corn syrup. And while it's all well and good to intend to eat …

Swimming pools — so awesome and fun, but so not actually good for the environment in any way. But KB Custom Pools, a pool company in Texas, has a sorta-kinda-more-like-a-real-body-of-water alternative. Their Eco-Smart pools match the topography of your backyard, use a filtration system that doesn't require harsh chemicals, and can be heated using solar panels. Gizmodo goes so far as to say it's positively lake-like (minus, of course, the mucky bottom and the fish). Of course, if, like this company, you're located in central Texas, there's still the itsy, bitsy problem of record-breaking droughts, which means that there's still …

Occasionally, as in the past decade, greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere continue to increase, but the increase in average world air temperatures seems to "pause." (Not that the past decade wasn't the hottest on record -- it's just that climate scientists thought it could have been even hotter.) Now, scientists are figuring out where that extra heat went: into the oceans. Specifically, into the deep oceans, below 1,000 feet beneath the surface. The world's oceans can hold vastly more heat energy than the atmosphere, so this isn't a big surprise, although it's nice to have some confirmation. "This study …