Get your Cool Green Morning on:

1. Portland, Oregon is the solar-y-est  city the northwest United States.  (CleanTechnica)
2. What does our relatively recent super-snowy winter really say about climate change and weather patterns?  (Dot Earth)
3. The nation’s largest wind farm is currently under construction in California.  (EcoGeek)
4. Oil in the Gulf may be dissipating, but the effects of the spill will probably still be felt for decades.  (Christian Science Monitor)
5. Seriously– who doesn’t want (legally protected) clean air?  (Grist)

Doctor’s orders–10 minutes of cool green news a day:

1. The “Plastiki”–a boat made of plastic bottles–finishes its 8,000 mile journey to highlight the problem of plastic garbage in our oceans. (Green)
2. Why did climate change become such a partisian issue? (Environmental and Urban Economics)
3. Re-connecting bamboo forests is essential to saving the endangered giant panda. (Extinction Countdown)
4. New EPA proposals for coal plants could help reduce carbon emissions substantially. (The Vine)
5. Do smaller cows have a smaller impact on greenhouse gas emissions? (Treehugger)

Mondays should always be cool and green, shouldn’t they?

1. Looking beyond clean-up in the Gulf to… The Nature Conservancy’s vision for long-term restoration. (Green)
2. Does Guatemala’s rainforest stand a chance against drug traffickers, cattle ranchers, poachers, looters and loggers? (The New York Times)
3. A re-cap on cap-and-trade, and lingering questions about an energy bill. (The Vine)
4. Is the Gulf oil spill polluting as much air as water? (Christian Science Monitor)
5. Can cat rehab save endangered birds on Japan’s Ogasawara Islands. (Treehugger)

Image: Lufthansa A380 Everyone knows by now that the European member states have started a belt-tightening kick. Germany's Chancellor Merkel has presented an austerity plan that includes an eco-tax on air travel. And the air is already heating up: airlines claim the tax is a body-blow, too close on the heels of losses related to the volcanic ash. Advocates hope for new revenues of 1 billion euros from the eco-tax on air travel. The opposition claims t...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo: Flickr, CC Pollution Machines Big cargo ships are basically air pollution machines. Most of them have very dirty engines, burning the dirtiest kinds of fuel, and doing so in mostly unregulated waters. It's no wonder that by some estimates just 1 cargo ships produces as much air pollution as millions of cars. What can be a done? A few things, one of them involving putting water in the fuel. Yes, it sounds counter-intuitive, b...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Credit: Wildebeast1 via Flickr. Get on your bad motor scooter and ride. This motorcycle runs on compressed air, rather than polluting gas (like the one shown above). It's been designed, conceptually, by two India scientists, and uses compressed air to turn a small air turbine, generating enough power to let a rider get wild for up to 40 minutes. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger