Image via a Green Living You'd be forgiven for thinking that AB 32, California's climate change law, was truly controversial. Republican candidates running for office this year have taken to publicly bashing it, calling it a job killer and worse. And given that the effort to reign in carbon emissions on a national level just deflated because it was viewed by senators as too controversial as well, you might think that fighting climate change is a contentious issue across the board. Well, it's not. No matter how badly California's GOP hopefuls batter the law, the public still thinks it's a good idea -- by very large margins.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo via Boston In 1969, an oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California released a few million gallons of oil into marine ecosystems -- eight months later, it was among the primary catalysts for the biggest pro-environmental movement in the nation's history, starting with the first Earth Day. That 'national teach-in' day in turn lead to some of the strongest and most effective environmental laws and regulations ever created, it yielded the founding of the EPA. Fast forward to 2010, where we're still in the midst of the biggest oil catastrophe in our history, with an incomparable 100-180 million gallons of oil fouling the water. And yet, there's no sense of focused national outrage (discontent is probably a better word), no movement gaining momentum to address the roots of the problem that lead to the BP spill, and the government has shown that it feels no pressure to take significant action on behalf of the environment. What gives? ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo via US Coast Guard It was a surprise to absolutely nobody when news surfaced this week that BP's gaffe-prone CEO Tony Hayward would be resigning in coming months (that he'd be snagging a handsome $17 million pension for a job not-so-well-done was another story). But before Hayward could allow himself to fade from the public eye, he just had to go and demonstrate his general lack of tact and sensitivity to the destruction his company has brought about one last time ...... Read the full story on TreeHugger

There are plenty of reasons that America's transportation infrastructure needs retooling -- one of them is that highways are increasingly seeing a wide range of problems, from congestion to falling into disrepair. But there are even more blunt problems with highways -- they're killing pedestrians, often at higher rates than ever before. This great video details how Atlanta's Buford highway has become more and more deadly as more of the surrounding residents have increasingly relied on walking as a form of transportation. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo via the Wall Street Journal The future of climate policy is very much up in the air right now. With comprehensive energy reform evidently dead in Congress -- though Obama's press secretary Robert Gibbs says this isn't necessarily the case -- many are wondering how efforts to curb carbon nationwide can proceed from here. I've stated that it looks like it'll be years before we get another opportunity to pass legislation that prices carbon, and it looks like statistics superstar Nate Silver agrees with me. Interestingly, he says that the next time we see cap and trade come 'round, it will be to the tune of reducing the national deficit. How would that work?... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Image via Project Groundswell This shouldn't come as much of a surprise if you've been following any climate related news this year -- we've already seen the hottest global averages ever recorded for April, May, and June, and the hottest Jan.-June period as well. And, of course, NASA, along with NOAA and many others have determined that the 00s was the hottest decade ever. Now, NASA is reporting that all of 2010 is shaping up to be the hottest year on record, period. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger