Good riddance to bad rubbish: Times are tough for coal-fired power plants. Environmental regulations are forcing them to take expensive actions, such as not giving millions of people mercury poisoning. (The nerve of that EPA.) The low price of natural gas and the falling cost of renewables make electricity from coal look even more expensive, and because of rising temperatures, we need to use less power (and thus burn less fuel) to keep warm. Put it all together, and coal-fired power plants that produce up to 77,000 megawatts could be shuttered within the next five years. Excuse us while we shed a few tears (of joy, that is). Reuters

You're protecting them wrong: Less than a year ago, the state of Washington adopted a plan to protect gray wolves. So what’d they do when a pack of the canines started eating a rancher’s cattle? Shot the entire pack from helicopters. Seattles Times

Empty promises: In 2010 the world’s governments met in Nagoya, Japan, and signed agreements to protect wildlife habitats and biodiversity around the globe. Sounds great, right? Only problem is that a new report suggests that less than 10 percent of nations have since done anything to enact the targets. Guardian

Acid test: Ocean acidification already poses gigantic problems for West Coast oyster growers, whose crops are regularly killed by upwelling acidic waters. (See "The Great Oyster Crash," August 2011). Considering that the ocean is only going to get less hospitable for shellfish in coming years, you’d better get slurping while the slurping’s good. Los Angeles Times

Dead Swan Lake: Quick, name the most polluted place on Earth. Nope, not New Jersey -- it’s Lake Karachay in Russia, where the secret Mayak nuclear facility dumped its radioactive waste. (Doctors referred to radiation poisoning as “special disease,” since they couldn’t acknowledge the plant’s existence.) As recently as 1990, spending even an hour on the lakeshore could kill you; today, things are better, but you probably shouldn't go renting a paddleboat. Grist

Eye of the beholder: We're all in favor of more renewable energy, right? Well, what about when it means erecting wind turbines across some of the West's most beautiful, unspoiled spaces? George Black looks at the tough choices we have to make when one person's clean energy is another's landscape-ruining monstrosity. OnEarth

Unnatural causes: Humans mostly stopped commercial whaling in the 1980’s (*cough Japan cough*), but that doesn’t mean we’ve stopped killing whales. A study found that 67 percent of whale deaths in the northwest Atlantic can be chalked up to “human interactions,” such as ship collisions and entanglement in fishing gear. Being twice the size of a bus is apparently a lot more risky than you might imagine. Scientific American

Worms ahoy!: On October 11, 1492, Christopher Columbus caught glimpse of a mysterious green light as the Santa Maria approached the New World. Turns out he might've been witnessing the mating rituals of marine fireworms, which rise to the ocean's surface twice a month to engage in a bioluminescent courtship ritual -- to the delight of tourists, biologists, and, quite possibly, Columbus. New York Times

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