Start with a pristine mountain lake in the Alaskan wilderness. Add toxic waste. Kill all the fish. Wipe the lake off the map.

Bad for that lake, yes. But is it pollution?

The seemingly obvious answer to that question (umm, yes?) is at the heart of a case the Supreme Court has agreed to hear this winter.

In this corner, weighing in at 140,000 ounces of gold per year, is the Kensington mine, owned by Coeur Alaska (and the state of Alaska, which approved its plans to spoil the lake). And in the other corner ...

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In a political tactic that seems more appropriate in an elementary school than in the hallowed halls of government, Bush Administration officials allegedly ignored an important email about global warming because they didn't like the looks of the subject line, the New York Times reports today.

Picture a kid with his hands over his ears yelling "Nah Nah Nah Nah! I can't hear you!"

The e-mail in question was the Environmental Protection Agency's response to a Supreme Court decision that deemed carbon dioxide a pollutant because of its role causing global warming. As such, it can be regulated by the EPA today under the authority it has under the Clean Air Act.

The EPA concluded that the landmark 2007 Supreme Court decision compelled the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from the likes of power plants, factories and automobiles. But when it tried to tell the White House, it was ignored, according to EPA officials who spoke to the Times ...

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See Encounters at the End of the World. Let me get that out of the way, right at the top.

It is an arrestingly beautiful, strange and serious, pleasingly quirky film written, directed and narrated by that strange and serious, pleasingly quirky fellow, Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man, among others).

Think Film
Photography like this inspired Herzog to shootEncounters at the End of the World

The story chronicles Herzog's trip to Antarctica, where he filmed the scientists working at remote and icy outposts – geologists on an active volcano, glaciologists on icebergs the size of continents, microbiologists diving under a ceiling of ice. Herzog's budget came from the National Science Foundation, but he tells the audience up front that he isn't interested in another penguin movie; at one point he even wonders why society indulges "tree-huggers" trying to save wildlife, but not those who try to save humanity's disappearing cultures.

Did the National Science Foundation, perhaps the most respected and sought-after maker of grants for scientific research, get its money's worth? ...

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For years, independent scientists have been raising concerns about Bisphenol-A, a chemical commonly found in plastics, the lining of cans and other products so common in American commerce that it's virtually impossible to go a day without using one.

For years, the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the use of these chemicals, stood by the plastics industry position that the chemical was safe, despite studies on laboratory animals that showed the chemical, also referred to as BPA, could disrupt the normal activity of hormones. So-called endocrine disruptors can have a range of effects on the body, because at minute levels they can disrupt the chemical messenging system that regulates the reproductive, developmental and other systems of the body.

For years, consumer advocates, environmentalists and a few concerned citizens have done all they can to tell the public that many products, including plastic baby bottles, might be harming their children, born and unborn.

Then in April, the National Toxicology Program in April became the first federal agency to raise concerns about the safety of the ubiquitous chemical, when it said there was "some concern" BPA might affect the neural and behavioral development of fetuses, infants and children at levels people are currently exposed to, and that the health implications could be wide-ranging, from damaging the prostate gland and the breasts, to possibly causing early-onset puberty in girls.

Late on Friday, the FDA announced that a subcommittee of its Science Board would review the safety of Bisphenol A and report back before the end of the year on its findings.

There are three reasons to think that there's less going on than the normal functioning of a bureaucracy though. ...

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When dollar figures reach into the millions, eyes tend to widen. Wow! That's a lot of money.

When they reach into the trillions, eyes tend to glaze over. Wow! That's just too big a number to comprehend.

The International Energy Agency said Thursday the world must spend $45 trillion over the next 40 years or so on an "energy technology revolution" if it is to find alternatives to oil and slow or stop global warming.

That's something like $3 billion a day, which brings the enormity of the task into focus. Somewhat. For context, Congress has proposed a U.S. budget that amounts to spending more than $8 billion per day in 2009 ($3 trillion for the whole year).

This spending isn't like a rent check. It doesn't just disappear. It's more like an investment in a new business. This is money put into new industries, new research, new technologies. You can't transform the way we generate energy without paying scientists to study, factory workers to assemble, engineers to operate and construction crews to install. ...

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Each month since November, when gas prices hit a milestone ($3.01 a gallon) that looks comparatively modest by today's standard ($3.93, on average across the U.S.) Americans have been driving less.

We're not only driving less – which means presumably that we're taking more public transportation, biking and walking more, and combining errands when we do drive – but the cars we're buying are more fuel-efficient than the gas guzzlers that we drove off the lots just a few months ago.

All this would seem like bad news (very high gas prices) with a very shiny silver lining (a very real move toward fuel-efficient transportation). After all, greenhouse gas emissions from transportation (one-third of the overall U.S. contribution to global warming) dropped 9 million metric tons in the first quarter of 2008.

You might see it that way. But not if you are a bureaucrat at the Federal Highway Administration...

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As is often the case, the teacher gets a lesson bigger than the students.

Today, I spoke to Mrs. Valerie LaRose's 9th Grade Honors English class about environmental journalism and related topics as part of the Wappingers School District's Planet Focus forum. (Wappingers schools is one of the larger suburban districts in New York's Hudson Valley.)

I hope they took away from the talk a sense that every decision we make, every purchase we make (better stop before this becomes a Police song) has implications for the environment. I hope they left with a sense that asking questions, exploring the world and writing are good ways to live and participate in civic society. Most of all, I hope they left with a sense of hope.

Why? My biggest lesson of the day came when I asked those 14-year-olds if they were optimistic about the world they'd inherit 14 years from now, when they're (more or less) my age.

Heads across the room nodded: No.

The problems seemed insurmountable, they said. Powerful corporations seem to be working to line their own pockets, and getting in the way of positive change. They didn't hear anything about solutions. Any progress being made would take too long to show results. ...

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On the heels of Sen. John McCain's big speech about global warming, the Republican presidential nominee has launched his own organic clothing line.

Or, sort of.

Team McCain (also known as "the campaign" or the folks that schedule, advise, defend and, don't forget, raise money for the candidate) is selling T-shirts ($25) and polo shirts ($50) made from "biodegradable fabric." Also on the shelf: baseball caps or visors ($15) and canvas bags ($20) made from organic cotton. The money goes toward the effort to install McCain in the Oval Office, but the effort means much more than that, both in the world of spin, and to the political dialog. ...

In the parlance of a campaign, that means McCain is promoting his "long-term commitment to providing market-based solutions to climate change and highlighting ways we can all protect our environment."

Each of the new items – reusable mug ($15) and notebook ($8) included – feature a recycling logo.

Democrats, who have been painting McCain as someone who will "recycle" President Bush's unpopular war and economic policies, will no doubt tee up that softball and swing hard. But McCain's new green theme is designed to do exactly the opposite: Distinguish himself from Bush on a key issue that until now has received scant attention on the campaign trail: global warming. ...

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Going into Tuesday's Democratic primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, it looked like Hillary Clinton's (and Republican John McCain's) proposed summer gas tax holiday was going to be a big issue.

After all, the price of gas is rising, and likely to rise further as oil keeps trading at close to $120 a barrel, and as the economy has sagged it has become the top issue in the campaign. The two candidates fighting for the Democratic nomination had a clear difference of opinion: Clinton vigorously for, Obama dismissively against.

But it's not at all clear whether it was on the minds of voters, who opted decisively for Barack Obama in North Carolina, and marginally for Clinton in Indiana. Obama has attacked the gas tax holiday as a bit of political pandering, and apparently every economist worth his oil shale agrees. Obama instead suggested investments in new trains, and alternative fuel development – long-term strategies that score low on the pandering scale, but high in measurements of reality. It won him the endorsement of the Friends of Earth Action, which until then had presumedly been unable to distinguish much difference between the two candidates on environmental issues.

The 18-cent federal tax wouldn't mean much money for American drivers, would hardly budge gas prices and would only encourage more burning of fossil fuels. In short, it would help squander a natural resource that is in increasingly short supply while pumping carbon dioxide into an atmosphere we've already saturated with greenhouse gases. It would starve the federal government of money it uses to repair and rebuild highways and bridges at a time when the nation's infrastructure is aging. It's not the policy we're looking for. ...

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Who cares about the African cone snail? Who cares about preserving biodiversity?

The 40 million Americans with arthritis and the 45 million who suffer chronic headaches should. The employers who lose 93 million work days from employees with lower back pain should. The million people diagnosed with cancer each year ought to.

That's because Australian researchers have extracted molecules from the venom of cone snails and from African plants, and used them to develop a pill to treat chronic pain, according to Research Australia.

“Neuropathic pain is one of the most severe forms of chronic pain, and very difficult to treat,” said Dr. Richard Clark, who with David Craik is studying how to develop the new pain killer as a medicine. “Regular pain occurs when the nervous system is stimulated by, for example, an injury, whereas neuropathic pain occurs when the nervous system itself is damaged.”

So we know why we should value the cone snail. Why biodiversity? ...

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After the Amazon, the Mayan Biosphere Reserve is the largest intact tropical rain forest in the Americas. At 6 million acres, the Mayan Biosphere Reserve covers nearly 20% of Guatemala and is bigger than New Hampshire.

And it's going up in smoke. And up the nose.

Narcoranchers who slash and burn the forest and enforce their illegal land grabs with automatic rifles and intimidation are enforcing the rule of lawlessness on the forest, particularly its Western portion near the Mexican border, according to Roan McNab, the country director for the Wildlife Conservation Society's Guatemala Program. He spoke Tuesday at the launch party for the group's second State of the Wild book.

In the case of Guatemala, the state of the wild is defined by the state of our drug habits.

Forests are burned to create pasture for illegal cattle ranching, and the illicit ranchers get a toe-hold in the protected forest by "capitalizing on the lawlessness and intimidation created by the drug trafficking route in the western part of the reserve," according to Anton Seimon, the assistant director of the WCS Latin America and Caribbean Program. The activity is also "financed in part by the laundering of money obtained through the drug trade." Some 30 air strips have been carved into the forest in just the last couple years. ...

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The Forest Service last week announced its plans to spend $54 million on 35 "working forests" across the country.

Its Forest Legacy Program is the only federal grant program aimed at protecting private forests. Well over half the forests in the United States are privately owned, and as the land passes from one generation to the next, its chances of being carved up, sold off and developed increase.

"Private forest landowners account for almost 60 percent of America’s forests, and many of them are now selling their lands to developers," Associate Forest Service Chief Sally Collins said in a speech in June 2007. "If current trends continue, we will lose about 23 million acres from 1997 to 2050, an area the size of Maine."

Communities, often, only recognize the value of preserving open space after it comes under threat of development. By that time, the value of the land has skyrocketed, given that any value in an acre of timber has been outweighed by the value of a home or four, on that acre.

Case in point: The Forest Service will spend $3.46 million to preserve the 3,500-acre Paulding County Land area about an hour out of sprawling Atlanta, Ga. Move up the Appalachian Trail to its other terminus, in Maine, and the Forest Service is spending almost as much – $3.27 – to preserve the 42,241-acre Lower Penobscot Forest.

Spend 5.5% less to get 12 times more. ...

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The latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau reinforce a vision of the United States where population growth and suburban sprawl will have to confront serious water shortages in the years to come.

Nine of the 10 fastest-growing counties were located in the South or West, with water-stressed areas like Phoenix, Atlanta and parts of Texas among the leaders.

A whopping 102,000 people moved to Maricopa, Ariz., between 2006 and 2007, capping a period of rapid expansion that has seen more than 800,000 people move in since 2000. Nearby Pinal County, Ariz., has seen its population increase by two-thirds since 2000.

Phoenix, like much of the Southwest, relies on massive dams and aqueducts from the Colorado River to remain viable. Meanwhile the desert region has been suffering through a decades-long drought. One recent study predicted that Colorado River reservoirs could run dry in less than 15 years – not enough time to pay off the mortgage on all those new homes. Clark County, near Las Vegas, Nev., which also relies on the Colorado River, also made the list of 10 fastest-growing counties by sheer numbers, with 461,000 new residents since 2000.

Atlanta, too, has been sprawling outward, with three suburban counties making the nation's top 10 list for fastest rate of population growth since 2000 ...

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Electric power generation was the driving force behind a 2.9% increase in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions in 2007, the largest single-year increase since 1998, according to Environmental Protection Agency data analyzed by the Environmental Integrity Project.

Sprawl and the over-sized homes that grew to dominate the landscape in so many suburban and exurban communities is a major reason that electricity demand has increased, and why carbon pollution from power plants is up 11.7% since 1997. Simply, a five-bedroom home will cost more to heat and electrify than a three-bedroom home; a three-bedroom stand-alone home in the country will cost more than a three-bedroom apartment in a city.

Yes, the mortgage crisis, which was created by too many people buying more home than they could afford, is also a carbon crisis.

The states that saw the biggest increases in greenhouse gas emissions are Texas, Georgia, Arizona, California, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Virginia and North Carolina.

The environmental group cites this evidence as reason that new coal-fired power plants should not be built. Looking at why those plants are on the drawing board – rising population and the exurban exodus – is a more fundamental issue.

The group's other recommendations:

• The nation’s oldest and dirtiest power plants need to be retired, and replaced with cleaner sources of energy. That will require accelerating the development of wind power and other renewable sources of energy.

• Cutting greenhouse gases quickly by reducing the demand for electricity. Smarter building codes, and funding low-cost conservation efforts – such as weatherization of low-income homes, purchase and installation of more efficient home and business appliances – will reduce demand and yield greenhouse gas benefits.

I would add: Setting rules to rein in sprawl and cluster new building in and around existing cities and villages – especially now that the mortgage crisis has given communities some breathing room to plan for the next real estate boom.

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New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's mandate to upend Albany by rooting out corruption and unethical behavior has been upended by his forays with high-priced hookers.

Or has it?

All signs point to a resignation today, as major news sources have reported.

There's speculation about how he might barter his high position for a Get-Out-Of-Jail (or even court) Free pass from federal prosecutors. As a governor, he's pretty well ruined anyway, most people agree. Republicans and the press won't let the public forget about the $80,000 (according to one report) Spitzer spent on Emperors Club VIP ladies, even possibly while prosecuting similar sex rings as attorney general. He won't get anything done.

The public shame of this, aside from the private shame that Spitzer gets to contend with all alone, is that he had a clear mandate from the public to shake down Albany until all the dirty money fell out of its pockets. He was not only the Sheriff of Wall Street as attorney general, but he was also a vigorous defender of environmental laws, particularly those federal laws the Bush Administration thought were written in invisible ink. Wall Street is more accountable, the air is cleaner and the water less toxic, because of Eliot Spitzer and the state coalitions of attorneys general he held together.

So here's my suggestion for a post-scandal career: Tell all. ...

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