Like a shortage of bikes in a new bike sharing project, congestion in bike lanes is a problem cities should want to have, at least temporarily. And Montreal has that problem! So many people have begun using the city's most popular bike routes that more than 20 bikes often get backed up at red lights. Traffic on some bike paths has quintupled. And bike advocates and cyclists are beginning to push for more major bike lanes. No one wants to wait in traffic, but it's great to see that level of enthusiasm for cycling, even in a city known for …

Modern wind turbines already have blades as big as the wings of jumbo jets, and the tips of them can move at up to 200 mph. Now Britain's Energy Technologies Institute wants to nearly double the generating capacity of the world's largest wind turbines by making the blades EVEN MORE PHENOMENALLY HUGE. Bigger turbines mean more power. On the drawing board is a monster of a windmill, with blades 295 feet in length, a third longer than the largest currently in  use, which top out at around 197 feet. Big turbines potentially mean cheaper electricity: “This project is based on …

The cost of silicon solar panels has been falling precipitously, with no end in sight. Naturally, falling costs mean solar installation has been exploding worldwide. By the time new coal-fired power plants come on-line in the U.S., solar will already be cheaper. If you want to understand what kind of revolution this will bring about in power production, check out this analysis from Jonathan Koomey of Stanford University: Here's an interesting thing for people to contemplate: As solar reaches grid parity based on retail prices we'll start to see big changes in what is now called the peak demand period …

Pizza magnate and Republican presidential contender Herman Cain has unveiled his plan for combating illegal immigration: a 20-foot-tall, barbed-wire-studded, electrified Great Wall of U.S., and also a moat with alligators. Man, with that kind of go-getter attitude, imagine what he could achieve! Here are our predictions for how Herman Cain would tackle climate change if he believed in it, given that his approach to solving thorny political problems is apparently to throw alligators at them. Genetically engineered sharks that kill carbon by BITING IT TO DEATH. Pit with spikes for emissions to fall into. Steel cage match between a hurricane …

Even as South Korea is creating jobs in renewable energy, the U.S. is falling behind in green tech. While other countries are encouraging growth in industries like solar power and home efficiency retrofitting, the U.S. is still bickering over whether climate change is for real. So instead of taking advantage of these growing technologies to boost the economy, we're importing them. Smart. A recent report by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that while the clean technology sector was booming in Europe, Asia and Latin America, its competitive position was “at risk” in the United States because of “uncertainties surrounding key …

There’s a high probability Europe's deadly E. coli did come from bean sprouts. We always knew they were gross. Nuclear Regulator Commission head Gregory Jaczko manipulated his colleagues into killing the Yucca Mountain nuclear storage compound, according to an inspector general report. Also, no one likes him. Lower winds are helping Arizona best that wildfire, but the fire could still burn through electrical transmission lines and cut power to the region. Exxon's buying into shale gas. Here are two more arrows for the “climate change exists” quiver. Snow pack in the West has declined before, but the reductions since the …

No way Rick Santorum is going the Mitt Romney route. Everybody knows that believing in global warming is for liberals, rational people, scientists, and other don't-want-to-win-the-GOP-nomination types. That's why Santorum told Rush Limbaugh (who yesterday announced that Romney had killed his chances by admitting that he understood how science works) that climate change is a vast liberal conspiracy. Let's break down his statement: I believe the earth gets warmer, and I also believe the earth gets cooler, Translation: Tide goes in, tide goes out. and I think history points out that it does that and that the idea that man …

You don't have to go vegan to eat responsibly. But if you want to, you can avoid meat and dairy while still being TOTALLY METAL. <guitar solo by Skwisgaar Skwigelf> With a lot of rubber armor, face paint, and an awesome knife (your knife does not have to be that awesome), Vegan Black Metal Chef shows you how to keep death and destruction confined to your music collection and off of your plate.

Agriculture is thirsty work. Growing and processing food takes a ton of water, and it's only going to get worse as the world warms. So which crop has the biggest water footprint? (That's defined, by the way, as the volume of fresh water used to make the product, across all steps of production.) You're not going to like this, or at least I don't: It's chocolate. The global average water footprint for chocolate is 24,000 liters per kilogram (2,876 gallons per pound), according to the nonprofit Water Footprint Network. Even generally wretched-for-the-environment beef farming is less water-hungry, at 15,500 liters …

Methane spoils everything. Natural gas drilling would be less risky if it didn't have the potential to release clouds of methane into the atmosphere. Methane cow farts make even grass-fed beef a less-green option than no beef at all. And now it turns out that those biodegradable plastic utensils we've been telling ourselves are soooo much better than regular disposable sporks are releasing methane as they break down in landfills. There are two solutions here: Landfills could start doing more to capture methane. (Flimsy picnicware isn’t the only product that give off the gas.) Or people could stop using disposable …