COMING CLEAN: We heard an awful lot about "clean coal" this election season, and now that the electoral dust is settling, environmental groups are launching  an ad campaign this week to battle what they call a misleading concept pushed by coal companies. (Source: The Washington Post)

SLIPPERY SLOPE: High-profile skiers and snowboarders descended on Poznan, Poland, today to plead with attendants of the U.N. climate talks there to take action, arguing that global warming is threatening the snowy climates their sports rely on. (Source: AFP)

CARBON VIRTUAL: Scientists from around the world convened in Second Life this week for a conference on climate change. Scientists generate about 1.5 tons of CO2 traveling to conferences each year, according to one lecturer, and organizers hope the trend of virtual, online conferences catches on. (Source: Physorg.com)

ELECTRIC BUGABOO: Electric car companies are joining in the bailout frenzy, asking Congress for far less money than their gas-guzzling competition from Detroit. (Source: The San Francisco Chronicle)

PAST CURLEW: The Old World's rarest bird, which is possibly extinct, will be the unwitting subject of a global search to determine where and whether it still lives. The slender-billed curlew hasn't been spotted in decades. (Source: The Independent)

POLARIZING: Artist Francesca Galeazzi, on a Greenland expedition with a group of scientists and artists, stopped at one point and released CO2 directly into the air from tanks she had brought, angering many of her companions. It was an artistic statement, however, to point out the distracting futility of carbon offsets, which Galeazzi says she purchased to "balance out" the CO2 she released. (Source: Short Sharp Science)