When it comes to oil, this is what the U.S. looks like to the rest of the world   The Obama administration has decided over the next two months to release 60 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This is kind of like giving Bubbles from the Wire $5 when he's in the middle of one of his smack binges -- it's not really going to affect consumption, and it sure as hell doesn't address the root problem, which is our seemingly insuperable addiction to oil. The general idea is that this release will drive down prices, …

Have we mentioned that our leaders in Congress are working their butts off to undermine the country's foundational environmental laws? It's not just Republicans, either! Yesterday, a bipartisan bill that would weaken the federal government's ability to keep water clean passed out of committee. The bill would amend the Clean Water Act to give "primary responsibilities for water pollution control" to the states. Pretty much any time states get to muck around with environmental issues, at least some of them decide to let corporations run hog wild and dump whatever they want, wherever they want. So we're not optimistic that …

Bill McKibben invites you to come to D.C. in August and march on the White House over and over and over again. The goal is to convince the administration that siphoning Canada's tar sands through the Keystone XL Pipeline is not a good idea, and also to get heat stroke. Transocean issued a report blaming BP for the Macondo spill. A Norwegian prosecutor issued a report blaming Transocean for $1.8 billion in tax evasion. House Republicans don't care who was to blame for the Macondo spill; they just want the EPA to approve permits for offshore drilling more quickly. Bored …

What's the best way to piss off a computer scientist? Buy her a laptop that only works when it gets enough sun. It's the perfect gag gift for the basement-dwelling, vitamin D-deprived coder in your life. Samsung's solar laptop doesn't need to be in the sun to function -- it can charge up while perched on a (presumably very secure and out-of-the-way) windowsill, storing an hour of battery life for every two hours of charging. But unlike with traditional laptops, you can work outside for the entire day without having to go in search of a plug. It has a …

China seems to be turning its countryside into a sort of Baudrillardian Euro-Epcot -- they've got two replica English villages, a mini-Barcelona and mini-Venice, a Scandiavia-esque "Nordic Town," and a German district in the city of Anting. Now they're planning to add a replica of the Austrian village of Hallstatt, and the original Hallstatt is pretty pissed. Apparently the architects who are copying the town, right down to its lake, in the province of Guangdong didn't warn Original Flavor Hallstatt that it would be cloned. Hallstatt residents are house-proud -- it's a UNESCO heritage site -- and opinions on Hallstatt …

The Climate Hot Map, from the Union of Concerned Scientists, notes climate trouble spots worldwide. These are by no means all the effects of global warming -- for instance, we're guessing that Canada is not in fact a charmed oasis, untouched by climate change outside of one river in the Northwest Territories. But it does give you a sense of just how widespread the crisis is. (And maybe they'll keep updating it until it's just a mass of flags.) That's all well and good, but what if you're trying to decide whether to invest in a snow shovel or a …

Yesterday we told you about Texas governor Rick Perry doing something right for once -- he passed of a law forcing drillers to disclose the chemicals used in the controversial and environmentally destructive practice of hydraulic fracturing. Turns out the law has a bunch of loopholes that corporations are duty-bound to exploit in accordance with their legal obligation to maximize shareholder value, even if doing so threatens people’s health. Maybe you've heard this story before? Four states in addition to Texas -- Wyoming, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, and Michigan -- are working on laws to require disclosure of fracking chemicals, but none …

If you’ve been anywhere near a newspaper recently, you know that the Mississippi river has an unbelievable amount of kinetic energy, which lately it has mainly been using for wreckin’ stuff. It’s like an angry teenager who discovers he’s a superhero. But hydropower advocates are hoping to convince it that with great power comes great responsibility, cooking up plans to put enough small hydroelectric plants on existing dams to rival the total hydro production of the Pacific Northwest. Of America's 79,000 dams, only 2,000 currently produce electricity. Many are small "run of the river" dams with only a 30 foot …

Everyone remembers that deathless scene from Waterworld where Kevin Costner pees in a jug, filters it, drinks some, then spits the rest into a plant. (EVERYONE REMEMBERS IT, I SAID. But if you’ve been living under a rock, you can watch here -- start around 1:30.) Well, that may soon become a reality. For now, at least, we’re still not drinking processed urine -- on a societal level, anyway; what you do on your time is your own business. But one ingenious conservation junkie has come up with a urinal design that filters pee in order to water plants. The …

Is there anything more thrilling than two Democratic politicians duking it out? One guy opens with … punishing inaction! The other counters with … an unforgiving steel 7,000 word essay in Rolling Stone! If that’s your idea of fun, you’re in luck, because it’s Gore vs. Obama and you don’t even need Pay-Per-View. Gore’s essay makes the case that Obama has completely failed to prioritize climate change in proportion to the threat it represents. Unlike George W. Bush, who at least defended the war in Iraq at every opportunity (even if his defenses didn’t always make any sense), Obama has …