It had to come, such things always do. We speak of a shrill attack on the very idea of green jobs, emanating this time from PERC, a collection of free-market economists and ideologues in Bozeman Montana, that was a source of some of the ideas that informed the Bush administration, especially those of Gale Norton, W's first interior secretary.

This feisty band has decided to challenge a pretty impressive array of pro-green-jobists: The U.S. Conference of Mayors, the American Solar Energy Society, the Center for American Progress, and the United Nations Environment Programme, all of which have produced detailed studies outlining how and why putting money and effort into new green initiatives (windmill farms, solar energy installations, mass transit, and so on) will create good jobs and reap many other benefits as well.

We all know that at long last the global community is taking steps to address the certain catastrophic environmental and health effects of climate change. But let's face it: under even the most optimistic of scenarios, intergenerational injustice has been done, and global warming will be our children's cross to bear.

How possibly to prepare our youngest for the defining challenge of their generation? One place to start is the raft of excellent children's books available on the subject. Herewith are some of my favorites (tested and approved by two spirited elementary school aged children):

Appalachia's mountains never seem to get a break. First, back in 2007, a district court judge ruled in favor of a lawsuit we brought on behalf of some West Virginia groups that stopped five mountaintop removal mining permits from going forward because of the permanent destruction they would have done to Appalachian streams and headwaters. It was a short-lived victory: the 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the decision and the permits were moving forward again.

But then, the Obama EPA said it was going to review a slew of pending mountaintop removal mining permits that were awaiting the outcome of the court decision, and all were optimistic that the agency would put a halt on them and help prevent further stream and mountaintop destruction from happening. Appalachian groups hailed this decision, but again, victory was short-lived: just this month, the EPA said that despite having reviewed the permits (and despite mountaintop removal mining completely flattening entire mountain ranges and completely burying streams and headwaters) it was going to let 42 mountaintop removal mining permits proceed.

One of the most difficult things we face every legislative season is a bill that looks good on the surface but turns out to be rotten at the core.

We are urging Florida Gov. Charlie Crist to veto just such a bill, deceptively titled, "Protection of Urban and Residential Environments and Water Act," right now. This bill – Florida Senate Bill 494 - appears to do something to help the environment, when in fact, it makes things worse.

In short, the bill will make it harder for cities and counties to enact strong local laws to protect waterways from fertilizer pollution. This is critical stuff down here in the land of emerald green lawns and golf courses, where blue water is turning murky and underwater springs are bubbling up with fertilizer-laden water.

The Beaufort Sea, off Alaska's northernmost shores, and the Chukchi Sea, which separates Alaska from Russia, are home to one in five of the world's remaining polar bears. These icy waters are crucial feeding and migration zones for bowhead, beluga and other whales, seals, walruses and migratory birds; for thousands of years they have also sustained a vibrant Native culture. But the Bush administration treated America's Arctic as just another place to be exploited, relentlessly pushing oil and gas drilling without regard for the consequences.

Now a new President and his Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, have pledged to restore science to the forefront of decisions about energy and the environment. They have no better opportunity to fulfill that pledge than in the coming weeks, as they face key decisions on oil and gas activity in the Beaufort, Chukchi and Bering Seas—decisions that will determine the future of the region, its people and its creatures.

I worked in the polls on Tuesday, during the special election asking California voters to approve an enormously complicated and controversial set of measures aimed at averting fiscal catastrophe. All but one failed, by nearly two-to-one. The one that passed (by three-to-one) limits lawmakers' raises.

The election itself was a bit of a farce. Turnout was extremely low, just over 20 percent according to early reports. It took three hours for us to collect our first 10 votes at the precinct I worked at. The election itself cost between $60 and $100 million, just increasing the deficit that much more and annoying an already grumpy public.

Now, rumor has it that the school year will be cut short, social services of all kinds will be cut, prisoners will be released early, and public officials' salaries will be slashed. Environmental agencies will be hit hard, I have a feeling.

The future is now -- at least, the future is now in theaters. And what the future looks like, particularly, our cities in the future, is highly disputed in the pop culture realm.

Take this article contrasting Star Trek's vision of San Francisco with Terminator: Salvation's view of same. One movie envisions a future where the threat of global warming was either contained, or just not the threat that we know it is; the other a future where our technology stood up and ravaged the planet before climate change had a chance.

Last November, as Barack Obama won the election, we recommended a list of "easy things" the new president could immediately do to cement his promises about being a pro-environment president. This is our second update on how he's doing.

The new president's greatest achievement clearly is the abrupt reversal of the Bush-era philosophy favoring those who devour our natural resources for short term gain. He also has taken major steps towards restoring integrity to our regulatory agencies, potency to our environmental laws, and respect internationally for our country's leadership.

Nonetheless, the administration has taken some actions—for example, the delisting of northern gray wolves—that are deeply disappointing. Some of the administration actions, notably with regard to mountaintop removal mining, fall short of being complete solutions. Likewise, there remain significant environmental challenges yet to be addressed.

On May 13, Senate Republicans managed to block confirmation of David Hayes to the number two job in the Interior Department via filibuster, with three Democrats (Kennedy, Kerry, Mikulski) absent.

Hayes spent eight years in Interior under Bruce Babbitt, one strike against him, defended Secretary Ken Salazar's decision to yank 70-odd gas leases in the Rockies to review them, that's two, and then there was this quote, offered at the confirmation hearing by Senator John McCain:

People around the Web and across the country are talking about our Cleaning Up Mercury, Protecting Our Health campaign to raise awareness about the serious health risks of mercury poisoning and to support the recent EPA proposal for cutting mercury pollution.

Here are some of the comments making the rounds: