Texas is hotter than balls right now, and it's not just the state's farmers and wildlife that are paying the price for it: Last week, the state set a record for electricity usage that led to its grid operator paying a whopping $3,000/MWh for peak electricity. To give you some perspective on this, $3,000/MWh translates to $3/KWh, or 40 times the $0.08/KWh a resident of that state normally pays for electricity at home. When your utility wants you to conserve energy on hot days, it's not just because they want to avoid blackouts -- it's also because at peak demand …

The Alaskan village of Kivalina woke up coated in a shiny, powdery orange substance last week. When that happens to me it usually involves bourbon and Doritos, but presumably the authorities have ruled that out in this case. They've also said that the goo isn't oil-based -- but that's about all they know. The village has sent samples of the stuff to a NOAA lab in Fairbanks, and residents are waiting for a verdict on what it is. In the meantime, they're boiling their water and probably biting their nails. Even if the substance turns out to be a kind …

I can't see this type of ad flying in the U.S., where there's already some perception of bicyclists as scofflaws. But in the Netherlands, bike commuting is so commonplace that the Dutch Cycling Association can shake up its image with a super-hot besuited dude doing BMX stunts.

Wind turbines are becoming bigger, more efficient, and more powerful. Drilling in the Arctic is not such a hot idea, as any spill will be tricky to clean up. The Southeast is the only region in the country that hasn’t put renewable energy mandates in place. Climate change is allowing tree-killing fungi to thrive. China is cracking down on the illegal mining of rare earth, the metals that are essential to technologies like solar panels. LEDs vs. incandescents: the showdown.

This July has seen so many record daytime and nighttime temperatures that if you plot them on a map, they show a nearly complete image of the lower 48 states.  Almost 9,000 daily records were broken or tied last month, including 2,755 highest maximum temperatures and 6,171 highest minimum temperatures (i.e., nighttime records). It should be noted that the tally of records collected so far is not complete – more are expected to come in as station data from across the U.S. is mailed to the National Climatic Data Center. 

Not satisfied with making (more of) a mockery of the electoral process, Donald Trump is now going after wind power, vowing to use "any legal means" to block a planned windfarm near his golf course in Scotland. Trump claims it's not simple rich-white-guy opposition to renewable power, or the fact that he's worried the turbines will blow his shots off course -- he's just very concerned about the view. It's been completely unspoiled up until now, except of course for the 20-foot earth wall and spruce trees he put up to protect his property!

Getaround is a car-sharing service like ZipCar, except instead of borrowing the company's vehicles, you're borrowing your neighbors'. If you have a set of wheels you'd like to rent out, it's possible to pay 100 percent of your vehicle expenses simply by making it available via the service, says Getaround's co-founder Jessica Scorpio. Katie Fehrenbacher of GigaOm sat down with her for this explanation of how the service works. And, because we know you’re wondering, the answer is yes: If someone damages your car, Getaround insures it for up to a million dollars. (Take note, Airbnb.)

Fracking companies like to say that there’s never been a single case of fracking contaminating a water well. But, well, there has, and they’ve known that for over 20 years. An EPA report released in 1987 said that a tainted well in West Virginia was contaminated by fracking. The report, which covers an 1984 incident, resurfaced this week in a New York Times article and a report from the Environmental Working Group. The report details how fracking fluids or gels migrated from the fracking well to an active water well on a neighboring property, rendering it unusable. The fracking fluid …

Texas is now in the midst of its worst-ever one-year drought. Austin, Texas' capital, has received less than two inches of rain since October, a period that would normally see 18 inches. Here are just a few of the impacts of the state's ongoing drought, which is entirely consonant with the northward march of the world's subtropical deserts that will continue, unabated, as climate change intensifies: Inspired by NASA’s innovations in urine-drinking, Big Spring, Texas is installing a wastewater recycling plant to transform sewage into drinking water. Inflow in the Highland Lakes, which provide water to Austin and surrounding cities, is …

Better get that Alaska cruise in now: Shell will be drilling exploratory wells in the Arctic Ocean next summer. The U.N. says it will take $1 billion and more than 25 years to clean up all the oil Shell and other companies have spilled in the Niger Delta. (But we're sure there will be no problems whatsoever in the Arctic Ocean … ) Conservatives in Canada call tar-sand oil "ethical oil" because it comes not from evil places like Venezuela or Saudi Arabia but from Canada -- "the boy scouts of the world," says the guy who came up with …