So it's reached the point where we have to ask: When did Yellowstone cease to be a national park and turn into a 3,400-square-mile zoo?

Pretend for a moment that you are a Yellowstone bison, part of the largest remaining wild herd in the world. It's been a long, hard winter in the high plateau, and you're getting hungry. You can't eat the snow, so you migrate to lower ground in search of food. And then you get shot as soon as you leave the west side of the park in Montana.

That is more-or-less the government's bison management plan these days. Since last fall, officials have killed 1,598 of the animals as they sought food at lower elevations. That's out of a total Yellowstone bison population of 4,700 ... well, make that about 3,000 now.

That's what you get for $16 million, which is what state and federal officials have spent on the management plan since 2002. The plan is aimed at preventing the transmission of the the disease brucellosis from bison to livestock. The disease can cause pregnant cows to abort their calves, though there is not a single documented case of bison-to-cattle transmissions.

This "kill every bison" strategy has caused some to question the long-term viability of the herds. Among them is the Government Accountability Office, which released a report last month criticizing state and federal agencies for not taking promised steps to stem the slaughter. This includes finding an effective brucellosis vaccine.

With the Olympics coming up, China's been getting a lot of flack from the global community for its less than stellar environmental record. There was the marathon runner who dropped out of this year's games because he thought China's air pollution would exacerbate his asthma. Then the U.S. said it was going to bring its own food to keep its athletes safe from insecticides and other chemicals that are found in Chinese food. Teams are even training in Japan or South Korea to ensure their health isn't damaged by the unsafe particulate counts in China's air -- soot that mainly comes from coal power plants.

But now environmentalists have one more reason to hate on China: The 11,000 lbs of C02 being dumped into the atmosphere by flying the Olympic flame from city to city so that people may celebrate the tradition and spirit of the games can try to blow it out and disrupt the relay in protest of the country's human rights record.

China's battle-weary Olympic torch is getting the rock star treatment by having its own private jet transport it to 23 cities, logging over 83,000 miles. The plane is named the Journey of Harmony. Ouch.

Since China has been going as far as to shut down major industries in the provinces around Beijing to improve air quality before the big games, we think they could go the extra mile and plant a few trees or something to offset those carbon emissions. London, which will be hosting the summer Olympics in 2012 already has devised a way to make the Olympic torch parade carbon neutral.

Just to put those 11,000 pounds into perspective, the average American produces about 40,000 lbs of CO2 each year.

New York City and Boston each launched ambitious solar power initiatives yesterday, both of which are going to require a few extra zeros on their initial budgets if they are to be at all meaningful.

In Boston, Mayor Thomas Menino announced a $550,000 initiative to help the city reach its goal of increasing solar energy output fiftyfold by 2015. The "Solar Boston" project is funded by city, state and federal agencies and will initially focus on mapping the city to find the best rooftops for photovoltaic panels.

Boston currently has half a megawatt of solar capacity. We're no experts in solar energy, but we do know it's going to take more than half a million dollars to reach 25 MW in less than seven years.

Meanwhile, fresh off the embarrassing defeat of his congestion pricing plan, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city would solicit proposals from private developers to install and maintain solar panels on city-owned buildings in all five boroughs. Bloomberg's goal, which is part the PlaNYC environmental initiative, is a bit more modest: Deliver 2 MW of solar power to city-owned buildings.

Federal support for the project includes a $200,000 grant and $200,000 in technical support from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Given that panels plus their installation cost more than $8 per watt on average, potential bidders are looking at a $16 million job. And that leaves the city about $15.6 million short at the moment.

There's no need to go out and file an injunction yet, but the Interior Department is considering drilling for oil and gas in the southeast Bering Sea. Unlike other parts of Alaska, a bi-partisan Congressional mandate placed a moratorium on drilling in the Sea after the Exxon Valdez did a number on the South Alaskan coast 19 years ago. But the Bush Administration, with the help of "Bridge To Nowhere" Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, have repealed the ban.

The Bering Sea drilling zone is thought to contain 2.5 billion barrels of oil and 23.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Considering we go through 7.5 billion barrels of oil per year, that would barely get us through the summer driving season. As for the natural gas, 23.3 tfc would not quite cover a year's worth of natural gas consumption -- and this is assuming the estimates are accurate and all of the resources can successfully be pumped out of the seabed.

[Speaking of the Bering Sea, Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month he wants to build a 64-mile tunnel that would run under the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska. Estimated cost to connect two of the world's most sparsely populated areas: $65 billion -- though maybe they could use some of the oil revenues to pay for it.]

Ironically, local politicians in Alaska are in favor of the drilling, because commercial fishing is becoming less lucrative in the area. Considering offshore drilling is considered to have negative impacts on ecosystems in the vicinity of drilling, we don't exactly see this as a good thing. Sure, with the high and rising prices of fossil fuels, the state (and oil companies) would generate some serious revenue from extraction. But, fossil fuels are non-renewable resources, while fish can make more fish in less than millions of years, making them quite renewable. Defenders of Wildlife argues that the drilling could damage, "one of America's only remaining sustainable marine ecosystems."

If you haven’t been to New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina, you might not know that many parts of the city outside the French Quarter look as bad today as they did after the flood waters retreated.

Entire blocks are deserted. Houses have collapsed on them themselves and their owners may not ever be coming back or simply can’t afford repairs. And, not surprisingly, most of the remaining problems are in low-income areas. However, much like New York City did after 9/11, New Orleans is rebuilding one brick at a time. Some of the projects even have a green twist to them. On a recent visit, we checked out a few and heard about some others.

The Green Project has been salvaging and deconstructing old houses around New Orleans and selling reusable building materials and fixtures to do-it-yourselfers for years. The organization also sells old paint that it remixes on site, and serves as a drop off for recyclables and unwanted electronics. According to the group’s director, business has picked up since the hurricane, but that included a major hurdle. After the storm, the project’s warehouse headquarters and store was without power for a stretch. Rather than try to secure the building and fight possible looters, the staff let people take what they needed and pay if they pleased.

You’ve got to hand it to Brad Pitt, he doesn’t take his celebrity lying down. Mr. Jolie has played a hands-on role—at least for someone like him—in two sustainable housing projects in New Orleans. The Holy Cross Project, sponsored by Global Green, Pitt and the Home Depot Foundation, comprises five single-family homes, an 18-unit apartment building and a greenway in one of the areas wiped out by a levee break during Katrina. The buildings will be certified LEED Platinum and use 75 percent less energy than conventional homes, and will be sold to local residents at below-cost prices. We checked out one of these homes while it was being built and it was something—all the appliances were Energy Star and hurricane-force wind-proof window.

Thanks to the collection of almost a quarter of a million signatures, Californians will get to vote in November on whether to increase the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard from 33 percent in 2020 to 50 percent in 2025.

Jim Gonzalez, head of Californians for Solar and Clean Energy, started the increased RPS initiative because he didn't think California was doing enough to combat climate change. We don't know if Mr. Gonzalez has cracked a newspaper in the past few years, but California has been pretty active in its efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, while twisting the federal government's arm as well.

But even in a state as green as California, not everyone is in support of the new standard. Californians Against Another Risky Energy Proposition (can't these groups come up with catchier sounding acronyms than CSCE and CAAREP?) think Gonzalez is asking for too much too soon and his proposal would only result in much higher energy prices. Coal power is already banned for electricity generation both within the state and imported from other states.

We think Mr. Gonzalez, who happens to be a former San Francisco supervisor, is right-on for wanting more electricity generated from renewable sources. After all, if more states had substantial RPSs, then maybe we wouldn't be looking to such extreme measures as extracting oil from tar sands to get more precious hydrocarbon energy. But, we can't help but be reminded of the carnage that almost befell San Francisco in their effort to be environmentally friendly. To our Californian readers, vote carefully in November.

Well that didn't last long. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to charge drivers up to $8 to enter Manhattan -- approved last week by the City Council -- was nixed this week by the State Assembly before even making it to the floor for debate.

The proposal, one of Bloomberg's major environmental initiatives aimed at reducing congestion and air pollution, would have charged drivers $8 with their EZ pass and $9 without one if they entered the city below 60th Street during weekdays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

But the mayor's plan faced strong opposition from state and local officials from the city's other boroughs and the suburbs, who called it a regressive measure that benefited rich Manhattan residents. Critics predicted that the toll would hurt local businesses and unfairly tax poorer commuters.

"The word 'elitist' came up a number of times," during discussions, Assemblyman Mark S. Weprin of Queens told the New York Times.

So while the "elitist" proposal is dead, lawmakers already are looking at a plan that would raise transit revenue by taxing the elite. One plan being floated in Albany would add an income tax surcharge of 3/4 of 1 percent for people who earn more than $1 million per year in New York State. Officials say such a tax could raise at least $5 billion over five years.

We're not sure what the more surprising statistic is here: That this plan would affect 75,000 people, 35,000 of whom live out of state, or that "18 percent of the new revenue would come from the 426 taxpayers who make more than $35 million a year." That group, of course, includes Mayor Bloomberg.

The Army is set to begin relocating 770 desert tortoises in order expand their Fort Irwin training facility in Southern California, something they've been trying to do for two decades. We guess even the Army isn't immune to the headaches of red tape.

We actually had experience working with the desert tortoise a few years back in Las Vegas as part of a USGS study. Basically, everyone started moving to Las Vegas and building homes and strip malls and the desert tortoises -- though not endangered as Reuters claims, but still threatened -- were relocated to Bureau of Land Management land, as is the case with the Army relocation.

The study we worked on helped to determine the maximum density of tortoises that could be placed in an area without carnage ensuing (trust us, you haven't lived until you've seen two desert tortoises fighting ... or mating, but that's another story).

Anyway, we guess if the tortoises can be relocated for slot machines, it's not really a surprise that the same would be done to provide the Army with more space for training and sophisticated weapons testing. That hasn't stopped two conservation groups from suing the Army to prevent the move, contending that the chosen sights would be too close to highways and other nuisances that would stress out the tortoises.

Whe working in Mojave, we were honestly surprised how attached people got to the desert tortoise, considering they aren't very huggable and look like 90-year-old men. But tens of millions of dollars have been spent studying them and ensuring their safety, despite not even being listed as an endangered species (which is not something we are looking for -- we're just pleasantly surprised by the proactive nature of their protection, especially considering President Bush's track record on endangered species protection).