A Blinding Rush of Snow Leaves Tragedy in the Alps - NYTimes.com

The High Mountain Gendarmerie, which handles Alpine rescues in Chamonix, officials of the mayor’s office and Mr. Michau all say the latest avalanche resulted from an unstable buildup of windblown snow, one of the most dangerous conditions that mountaineers can face. Though common in winter, wind slabs are generally seen as less of a hazard in summer, when snow melts during the day and freezes into place overnight.

RPT-U.S Air Force tests biofuel at $59 per gallon | Reuters

The Air Force bought 11,000 gallons of alcohol-to-jet fuel from Gevo Inc, a Colorado biofuels company, at $59 a gallon in a program aimed at proving that new alternative fuels can be used reliably in military aircraft - once, that is, their pricing is competitive with petroleum, which now costs $3.60 a gallon.

The cost of the Air Force demonstration - $639,000 - was far less eye-catching than the $12 million the Navy spent for biofuels to power a carrier strike group on alternative energy for a day.

Canada’s Inuit roar in protest over moves to discourage their polar bear hunts | Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, North Dakota

The move to protect polar bears is appreciated by the Canada's Inuits for one thing, and that’s a hefty hike in the price for a dead one. Across Canada, prices for polar bear pelts have soared over the past few years, with two at a June 20 auction in Ontario fetching a record $16,500 each.

CLIMATE SPECTATOR: Fielding, Pell and climate education | Tristan Edis | Commentary | Business Spectator

The extended drought of 2002 to 2007 being broken by extraordinary levels of rainfall and floods has acted to confuse the Australian community about whether global warming is occurring and whether they need to worry about it. Overcoming widespread misunderstanding about climate almost requires one to go back to base principles, as the Climate Institute is now trying to do with the Carbon 101 campaign. But retaining people’s attention for long enough to explain the complexity of climate change is an incredibly difficult task without a sustained crisis to concentrate their minds.

Miners Weather The Slow Burn Of Coal's Demise : NPR

Domestic natural gas is killing coal because it's cheap and abundant. Four years ago, electricity generated by gas was twice as expensive as coal. Today, gas is less than half the price of coal.