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By Lester R. Brown
Earth Policy Institute

As fossil fuel prices rise, as oil insecurity deepens, and as concerns about climate change cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new energy economy is emerging. The old energy economy, fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas, is being replaced by one powered by wind, solar, and geothermal energy. Despite the global economic crisis, this energy transition is moving at a pace and on a scale that we could not have imagined even two years ago. And it is a worldwide phenomenon.

Agence France-Presse

Thousands of dead fish surface at mouth of Mississippi RiverThousands of fish have turned up dead at the mouth of Mississippi River, prompting authorities to check whether oil was the cause of mass death, local media reports said Monday.

The fish were found Sunday floating on the surface of the water and collected in booms that had been deployed to contain oil that leaked from the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Times-Picayune reported.

Collapse of middle class means there's no fuel for recovery, Gerald Celente argues

By Daniel Tencer
Raw Story

The US economic recovery in recent quarters is little more than a "cover-up" and the world is headed for a "Greatest Depression," complete with social unrest and class warfare, says a renowned economic forecaster.

Gerald Celente, head of the Trends Research Institute, told Yahoo!News' Tech Ticker that there's no risk of a "double-dip recession" because the first "dip" never ended.

By Robert Field
NewsLanc

An article “Past Peak Prosperity” from a prominent Sunday News columnist reflects:

CNN

* Thad Allen says cementing is a "significant milestone"
* On-scene coordinator warns tar balls could wash ashore for years
* BP says it has paid $303 million in claims

Washington (CNN) -- BP finished pouring cement down its crippled well in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday in an operation known as a "static kill," completing the job earlier than expected.

The government official overseeing the effort is sounding increasingly optimistic that the end is in sight in the drive to seal the well once and for all.

By Richard Lai
Engadget

Greenbang

A new carbon cycle model developed by researchers in Europe indicates that global carbon emissions must start dropping by no later than 2015 to prevent the planet from tipping into dangerous climate instability.

By ANDREW E. KRAMER
NY Times

MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin on Thursday banned all exports of grain after millions of acres of Russian wheat withered in a severe drought, driving up prices around the world and pushing them to their highest level in two years in the United States.

A girl walked past a burned house on Thursday in Mirny, a Russian village ravaged by wildfires sparked during the worst drought in decades. More Photos »

By Chris Hedges
Truthdig

2010 tops 1998 temps; question now is whether 12 months will break 2005 record for warmest year

MSNBC

Global land and ocean surface temperatures in the first half of 2010 were the warmest January-June on record, the federal climate service reported Thursday.

January-June temperatures averaged 57.5 degrees Fahrenheit — 1.22 degrees F above the 20th Century average, according to the National Climatic Data Center. Its records go back to 1880.

That broke the previous record of 1.19 degrees F above average set in 1998.

By Jacob Wheeler
Apollo News Service

Chattanooga, TN - Twenty years ago, under popular mayor Gene Roberts, Chattanooga launched an effort to rejuvenate its deteriorating downtown. In 1992, the city opened what at the time was the world’s largest freshwater aquarium. That same year, the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA) opened an electric transit vehicle (ETV) shuttle service with the aim of bringing people – and businesses – back downtown.

By Jacob Wheeler
Apollo News Service

United Streetcar, a union company in Portland, Ore., and wholly owned subsidiary of Oregon Iron Works, has built the first American-made streetcar in over half a century. United Streetcar already has a deal in place to build thirteen of its streetcars for the cities of Portland and Tucson, Ariz.

Are you still looking for a great summer activity? Here is one that will be fun and build your advocacy skills.

A new rule aims to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide around and downwind of old coal-fired power plants east of the Mississippi, in keeping with an Obama campaign promise.

By Michael Hawthorne
Chicago Tribune

In a move that portends cleaner air in communities east of the Mississippi River, the Obama administration cracked down Tuesday on smog- and soot-forming pollution from coal-fired power plants in 31 states and the District of Columbia.

By Renee Schoof
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday proposed a new federal plan to reduce the pollution from electric power plants that wafts hundreds of miles across state lines.

The new rule would require pollution reductions in 31 states and the District of Columbia — most of the Eastern half of the U.S., from Texas and Minnesota to the coast.

To make the cuts, power plants would be required to install new equipment or use lower-sulfur fuels.

By NEIL KING JR. And KEITH JOHNSON
Wall Street Journal

Less than four months after President Barack Obama took office, his new administration received a forceful warning about the dangers of offshore oil drilling.

The alarm was rung by a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., which found that the government was unprepared for a major spill at sea, relying on an "irrational" environmental analysis of the risks of offshore drilling.

By Kimberly Kindy
Washington Post

In the 77 days since oil from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon began to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, BP has skimmed or burned about 60 percent of the amount it promised regulators it could remove in a single day.

The disparity between what BP promised in its March 24 filing with federal regulators and the amount of oil recovered since the April 20 explosion underscores what some officials and environmental groups call a misleading numbers game that has led to widespread confusion about the extent of the spill and the progress of the recovery.

But is his U.S. Chamber of Commerce good for business?

By James Verini
Washington Monthly

Two articles below.

'Rigour and honesty' of scientists not in doubt but Sir Muir Russell says UEA's Climatic Research Unit was not sufficiently open

By David Adam
The Guardian

The climate scientists at the centre of a media storm were today cleared of accusations that they fudged their results and silenced critics to bolster the case for man-made global warming.