The U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting that hurricane Irene is going to strafe pretty much every inch of the most densely populated part of America, i.e. the East Coast. So if you live anywhere from the Carolinas to Boston, is it time to panic? It would be, if panicking actually helped! Here’s what you can do instead. First thing to understand is whether, and to what extent, your area is under threat. Here's NOAA's official map of the projected storm track.  And here's a big map mashing up the NOAA predictions for the hurricane’s track with social …

OnEarth takes a close look at why exactly Warren Buffett has been sniffing around Wyoming coal mines lately. Short answer: China wants coal. As George Black explains: Although worldwide energy-related CO2 emissions rose more last year than at any time since 1969, and the use of coal grew faster than that of any other fossil fuel, U.S. demand has actually flatlined. In 2000 coal accounted for just over half of our electricity supply. By 2010 it was down to 45 percent. … Asia is a different matter. … [C]ompanies like Peabody and Arch Coal are convinced that Asian demand has …

Here's another bit of info to include in your "man, the Koch brothers are eeeevil" file. In environmental circles, the Koch family is best known for its funding of climate deniers, but Koch Industries also owns 56 facilities that use petrochemicals. The government is a teensy bit worried about the attraction these facilities could hold for terrorists, but the company has spent its time and money lobbying against stricter safeguards for chemical facilities. Hey, regulations are regulations, whether they protect against pollution or terrorism, and all regulations are for liberal weenies! iWatch News found that 4.8 million people live within …

Conflicts across the world can be connected to climate phenomena like El Niño. Mitt Romney: so wimpy on climate issues, it hurts. Some green jobs require an MBA. Drivers are still cutting down on miles, even though gas prices are creeping downward. An energy consulting group says the EPA and Cornell professor Robert Howarth both made erroneous assumptions that led them to overestimate the amount of methane that hydrofracking releases. The SEC is digging into fracking, too. The financial watchdog wants information about fracking chemicals and environmental impacts. Vermonters want solar projects, not wind projects, which they say would damage …

If you're not out getting arrested at the protests against the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline, we get it! Not everyone is Tim deChristopher, and that's not the only valid way to take action. But if you're on the fence about whether to head down to D.C. and get your civil disobedience on, this video might be the thing that makes up your mind.  CORRECTION, 8/29/11: The narrator in this video says, "The tar sands produces an unbelievable 36 million tons of carbon dioxide per day." Unfortunately, that stat really is unbelievable -- it confuses yearly emissions with daily emissions. In …

The Danish island of Samsoe is 100 percent energy self-sufficient, and even generates enough energy to export some back to the mainland. How'd they manage that? Well, it doesn't hurt that there are only 4,000 people living on Samsoe, but the place is also bristling with turbines and sports a solar plant and three biomass plants. Click the Samorost-lookin' graphic above for an infographic showing how they did it.

If there's one thing humans can apparently generate an endless supply of, it's shit. So why not use that to produce things we need but don't have enough of, like clean water and energy? Environmental engineer Bruce Logan is developing fuel cells that may be able to do that, cleaning wastewater while generating and storing energy. The secret is that the batteries are full of bacteria, which eat their way through the waste and release electrons, which the fuel cells can store. The bacteria can generate electrical power, but they can also produce hydrogen, which means they could have even …

By 2017, there will be 5.2 million plug in hybrid and all-electric vehicles on the road worldwide, says Pike Research. Add in 8.7 million hybrid vehicles, and the total population of electrified autos in the world is set to increase 46-fold from the measly 114,000 that currently ply our roads. Despite this explosive growth, that will represent only 3 percent of the total population of light-duty vehicles in the world in 2017. (We have a lot. Of. Cars.) But project that out to 2030, which is when some energy analysts project the world's oil exporting countries will stop shipping the …

Hey, you know what's wild about Texas turning into a gigantic desert thanks to climate change? I mean besides the fact that this makes it basically Kuwait-on-the-Rio-Grande? Many of the state's power plants, which rely on fresh water to produce electricity, could be shut down by the lack of water. The current drought provides us a window on what's to come: A number of Texas power plants may need to cut back operations or shut down completely if the state’s severe drought continues into the fall, an official with Texas’ main transmission manager told FuelFix. If the state’s drought continues …

Ever since Tsar Nicholas II, Russians have dreamed of connecting Siberia to North America via a rail tunnel. Now, apparently, the Kremlin has green-lighted the connection, which would be the world's longest, and twice as long as the England-to-France "Chunnel." Not only would the tunnel allow easy passage of freight from Europe to North America, it could also provide a conduit for electricity, allowing a continent-spanning smart grid. The project's enormous price tag will no doubt be a barrier, but that hasn't stopped engineers from projecting that the connection could carry up to 3 percent of the world's freight and …