RIP MCA: Beastie Boy Adam Yaunch passed away Friday after battling cancer. Although his political activism for a free Tibet is better known than his support for environmental causes, fans remember that MCA supported Flow -- a water crisis documentary that made one Nestle representative so angry that she stormed out of a film festival her company had paid for. Grist

The flotsam finally arrives: After a year of floating across the Pacific, debris from Japan's 2010 tsunami has hit Alaska. Soccer balls, motorcycles, buoys, Styrofoam, drums, and all sorts of other junk are washing up in Kodiak, Yakutat, Sitka, and Craig. Although the debris isn't radioactive, it's still a pain to clean up. Anchorage Daily News

Say cheese, BP: BP likely won't be using the latest Deepwater Horizon disaster pics in the company's sunny commercials. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, Greenpeace has received about 100 government photographs documenting the spill's impact on endangered species, such as loggerhead turtles, that are, well, awful. Consider this the opposite of eco-porn. Mother Jones

No love for lizards: Declaring an animal endangered isn't usually a big deal -- unless, of course, the species stands in the way of business interests. Such is the case of the only remaining sagebrush lizard in the Southwest. The dunes that the reptile calls home are on prime oil and gas drilling lands. Washington Post

The bigger, the better: Big trees aren't just awesome to behold. They help take care of the forest dwellers living beneath their large canopies. Researchers are realizing how key the giants among us are critical for habitats, carbon storage, and fire suppression. New York Times

About face: Once reliant on nuclear energy for more than a third of its electricity, Japan will be nuke-power free by the end of the month. All it took for the pro-nuclear country to turn on the power source was a tsunami, a few meltdowns at Fukushima, and a wave of public outcry against the dangers the nation's 54 plants pose. The Economist

Full sun required: The artists behind the Carmichael Collective want you to think of everyday street features as you would plants. They created Urban Plant Tags (basically giant versions of the little plastic tags you stick in your garden and flower beds to keep track of where you've planted seeds) to make people stop and think about their built environment. Carmichael Collective

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