What I want to tell them is to take this opportunity to get into the nascent renewable energy fields. What I want to tell them is to shake their ideas that Al Gore invented global warming so that he cold be more powerful and better-liked by the country that gave him an electoral majority in 2000. What I want to tell them is that if painting contractors are not getting bids that can support them, it is time to learn how to apply materials that capture sunlight. What I want to tell them is that there is money to be made.

Special environment and climate edition. EPA approves Appalachian mountaintop mining permits, U.S. CO2 emissions fall in 2008, ethanol producers unhappy with EPA climate accounting, new model for global ocean currents, restoring Mississippi rapids in the Twin Cities, and tracking water pollutants remotely.

Coral Triangle conservation; who wins with the new climate bill; toughening federal mileage standards; Consumer Reports guide to eco-labeling; and climate change severity much worse than estimated.

Today we begin and end with stories about how the governor of Minnesota intends to end democracy as we know it in this state; notables get JFK award; FBI did, after all, infiltrate Iowa anti-war group, as suspected; Supreme Court to pregnant women: if you want equal benefits, don’t have a uterus; Obama’s new gas emissions guidelines.

Superfund polluter to run US environment division; House to make schools greener; U.S. is not carbon flat; wind-powered drive-in (but really, you should probably walk there).

Environment and ecology edition: Status of the Wilkins ice shelf, how not to solve global warming, Obama administration policy on climate, U.S. wind power capacity, turning Colombia into a desert, too much water in some parts of India, too little in others, flame-retardant in coastal waters, the toxic byproducts of water purification, plastic found in leatherback turtles, traveling off the grid, enjoying the birds of Belize, saving Madagascar, a solar cooker made of cardboard, concrete mixed with environmental impact in mind,avoiding 1,4-dioxane, reusing steel shipping containers, environmental toxicity and concentrations of color, an interesting interactive map of U.S. factory farms, Germany bans GM corn, treating for bee colony collapse, and NASA’s list of air-purifying house plants.

Science and environmental edition: Bizarre caterpillars, space photography on the cheap, the evolution of human color vision, art and light from junk, the consolidation and corporatization of the organic food industry, oil still available at abandoned sites in the Amazon, Indian islands disappearing under rising water, Honda offers a new–and affordable–hybrid, greenwashing, photographing the melt, unique orcas doomed by the Exxon Valdez, an unusually large gathering of right whales, sweeping land and water conservation legislation passes, cleaning products creating superbugs, and studying the ties between particulate air pollution and heart disease.

Ecology and environment edition: Solar-powered travel across India to raise awareness of climate change, the role of Atlantic ocean currents in climate change, water woes in central Asia and the Middle East, corn and ethanol’s carbon footprint, expanding the Twin Cities’ protected natural areas, and gardening in unusual and forbidden places.