Climate change isn't just killing polar bears, it's killing baby polar bears. YOU MONSTER. A study that tracked polar bears swimming long distances found cubs that swam more than 30 miles at a time were more likely to die than cubs that didn't. Baby polars have a hard time making those swims because: Like humans, they get water up their noses in rough seas. They haven't grown a very thick layer of insulating fat yet, so being in the cold water takes a toll. Their lack of fat also means they're not as buoyant as their parents and have a …

Turns out the nonsensical yuppie idea that bottled water is “cleaner” is actually true, in very very specific circumstances. In areas where it’s hard to find drinkable water, plastic bottles and sunlight can save lives. SODIS, or solar water disinfection, is a fancy way of saying, "Leave germy water in a plastic bottle out on your hot roof and eventually all the bad stuff will die." It's a simple idea, but remarkably effective at dealing with water contamination. Fast Company reports that it can cut incidence of diarrhea by more than 85 percent, that more than 5 million people in …

Ever wonder what oil executives do with all the money they make from wrecking the planet? Well, take a tour with me through the playhouse that oil exec John Schiller ($7.7 million in compensation in 2010, including a $2.6 million bonus) had built for his 4-year-old. That's an artist's conception above, not the actual blueprint, but all the features -- air conditioning, running water, fireplace, 32-inch flat-screen TV -- are for real. (The New York Times has pictures, too.) Built in the same Cape Cod style as the Schillers’ expansive main house, the two-story 170-square-foot playhouse has vaulted ceilings that rise from …

Activist Tim DeChristopher's sentencing is scheduled for today. He could go to prison for as many as 10 years. Congress is still hard at work cutting funding for all manner of environmental programs. With the West out as a customer, Iran is selling its natural gas to Iraq and Syria. An Australian company wants to build a 2,625-foot solar tower in Arizona that would produce 200 MW of energy, plus providing a nice physical challenge to any oversized gorillas in the area. (It would be twice as tall as the Empire State Building.) Visit Yellowstone National Park now, while there’s …

Yale Environment 360 asked a series of environmental thinkers, activists, and policymakers what they think of Barack Obama's record on the environmental record so far. The overwhelming response was that they didn't think very much of it at all. Here’s climate writer and activist Bill McKibben: President Obama hasn't yet caused "the rise of the oceans to begin to slow" or "the planet begin to heal," and since that was his promise, I guess it's been a less-than-stellar record … He put some decent money into the stimulus plan for green energy, and then he largely seemed to lose interest, …

It's only 16 months until the next election, and you know what that means: We are in the thick of political ad season. Mostly that makes everybody want to crawl under a sofa, but sometimes you get arresting ads like this one from American Family Voices.

The air is full of energy -- not in a woo-woo crystal-gazing way, but in a scientific electromagnetic-radiation-from-TV-stations-and-phone-networks kind of way. That ambient energy is just being wasted. But a team from Georgia Tech is developing inkjet-printed paper antennas that could generate enough energy to power a small gadget, right out of thin air. The researchers have already successfully operated a temperature sensor using electromagnetic energy captured from a television station that was half a kilometer away. They are now preparing another demonstration in which a microprocessor-based microcontroller would be activated simply by holding it in the air. Right now …

California's Butte College has a 928-acre wildlife refuge. It promotes ride shares. It uses goats for landscaping, and worms for composting. It has LEED-certifiable buildings. And now it's going off the grid -- the first college in the country, the school claims, to be energy independent. The school added 15,000 panels to its existing 10,000 for a total of 25,000 panels on the ground, on rooftops, and in covered parking areas. Together, they generate 4.55 MW of energy -- more than the school needs for its own energy uses. That’s despite the fact that the school operates its own water …

The White Roof Project has a simple mission: Paint black roofs white. Here's what that tiny effort gets you, according to the organization (click the picture for a more extensive infographic): A 24 billion metric ton reduction in CO2 emissions, if every roof is painted white by 2030. That's a year's worth of CO2. $5 billion in energy cost savings for the United States. 14 power plants' worth of energy savings in 11 large cities. Reduction in smog, blackout risk, and heat-related deaths. The approval of Bill Clinton, who wrote last week that "Every black roof in New York should …

Chris Drury, a British artist, created this sculpture, entitled Carbon Sink: What Goes Around Comes Around, to express the idea that (JUST POSSIBLY) Wyoming's coal industry and its contributions to climate change had something to do with the explosion of pine beetles in the state. (Warmer winters have allowed them to thrive.) The sculpture happens to be installed at the University of Wyoming, which receives just a tiiiiiny bit of funding from the coal industry, like only a couple million dollars. If the university's leaders thought principles of academic freedom and artistic expression would give them a pass on this …