Plastic bottles. Contaminated surf. Hazardous medical waste. Who says life's a beach?

This week the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government has an obligation to regulate car emissions and air pollution from coal-burning power plants and factories.

The Supreme Court heard its first global warming case yesterday and they'll look at the scientific data to behind the crisis. Meanwhile, we see new data about our warming planet every day.

Fortunately, I've found a cleaner that uses green alternatives. Unfortunately, it's 12 miles away.

It was a hot week, yes? That wasn’t surprising to scientists at the National Climatic Data Center, who issued a report that the first half of 2006 was the hottest year on record. Part of the reason why we have such warm weather is because of greenhouse gases, which we can trace to automobiles burning fossil fuels on the road, here and around the world.

Energy efficiency at home and at work comes with a price-stale air. One of the key ways to keep heating and air conditioning costs down is to trap air indoors. However, by sealing windows shut and preventing ventilation, air in buildings can become as polluted as the pea soup skies of the largest cities. Breathing bad indoor air can lead to immediate health problems like irritated eyes and asthma, or long-term diseases as serious as heart disease and cancer.

Here's a phrase that does't exactly roll off the tongue: "sustainable luxury lifestyle." It's the topic of an interesting post on the blog WorldChanging, by the CEO of Vivavi, a company that makes high-end sustainably designed furniture (using materials like water hyacinth fiber, recycled glass, and Forest Stewardship Council certified wood). The Vivavi CEO, Josh Dorfman, who is also the host of LIME Radio's "The Lazy Environmentalist," wrote of some people's concern "that marketplace environmentalism is only possible for celebrities and the super wealthy."

Finally, some good news on air pollution: according to a report issued yesterday, the amount of toxic chemicals released into the air nationwide decreased by four percent from 2003 to 2004. The EPA's Toxics Release Inventory tracks what are called PBTs, or persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic chemicals - things like mercury, lead, dioxins, and pesicides.

The EPA has released the latest report on the state of the nation's air and the results may have you reconsidering where you live.

Those who reside in New York and California are at the greatest risk of developing cancer from air toxins. The national average is 41.5 million residents per million and New York comes in at 68 residents per million and California at 66 per million.

A story in the Los Angeles Times brings new concern to an old issue: mercury in seafood. To most of us, it's not news that we need to monitor our intake of several types of fish and