The Toyota Prius hybrid leads the 2010 model cars in fuel efficiency with 51 miles per gallon on the highway and 48 mpg in city driving conditions, according to the latest federal government ratings for fuel efficiency.

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Today is Blog Action Day, and this year’s topic is climate change. As such, today’s finds will all relate to technology aimed at addressing this threat… enjoy!

• A no-brainer: Engineers have found one simple approach to addressing the release of methane into the atmosphere: seal natural gas well leaks.
  
  
• Sketching up energy management: Buildings are one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. The open-source tool Open Studio can now be plugged into Google’s SketchUp (a 3D modeling tool) to account for energy usage in the building design process. (via CNET Green Tech)
  
  

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Ever signed an online petition? Made a short video as part of a campaign directed an issue that’s meaningful to you? These have been ways activist organizations have tried to demonstrate numbers and unity. This week, Kofi Anan’s Time for Climate Justice campaign (aka TckTckTck) will add a new tool to the activism arsenal: a song download.

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The world’s largest global investors today issued a joint call for strong action this year from U.S. and international policy makers to control global warming. Signed by 181 investors, who collectively manage more than $13 trillion in assets worldwide, the statement on the “urgent need for global agreement on climate change” was released at the International Investor Forum on Climate Change in New York.

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OK, quick quiz…

1. What’s the status of the ACES bill in Congress?
2. What’s happening in Copenhagen, Denmark on December 7-18?

If your answer to both questions was “I don’t know” (and “What the hell is ACES?”), you’re probably not alone. Here in the US, climate change and clean energy legislation has taken a back seat to the health care debate. Even as we approach the Copenhagen Summit, where the follow-up to the Kyoto Treaty should be rolled out, much of the world seems to have hit the snooze button on the climate crisis. Global alliance TckTckTck thinks it’s time for a wake-up call…

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Huh? Isn’t meat production one of the major causes of global warming? Well, yes… but according to Lisa Hamilton, author of Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness, eating meat raised under the right conditions can actually help mitigate climate change.

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Five years ago, activist, writer and professor Bill McKibben published an essay at Grist calling for artists to step up and address one of the most pressing issues facing humanity: climate change (The Day After Tomorrow and State of Fear just weren’t doing it for him). We don’t know if artists responded directly to McKibben’s call; we do know that we’ve seen much more creative work on global warming since then. Visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers have all engaged the subject, creating some compelling, thoughtful work.

Last week, Grist commemorated McKibben’s essay by launching a series on artistic creation that addresses climate change.

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Friday’s passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) signaled a definite shift in US policy towards energy use and climate change. Though the bill had its detractors — most notably Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and even progressive Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) — ACES, or Waxman-Markey, set new standards for clean energy adoption, energy efficiency, and, most notably, greenhouse gas emissions.

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Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel gift shop

Think of a hotel or tourist destination gift shop as a place full of cheap crap likely made by underpaid workers in the developing world? In most cases, you’re spot on. At Yellowstone National Park’s Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, though, concessionaire Xanterra Parks & Resorts is aiming for a very different kind of gift shop experience: one that educates shoppers on the effects of global warming, and the lifecycle of the gifts they purchase.

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“It was only thanks to your massive pressure over the past six months that we could so dramatically shift our climate-change policies…. To those who were arrested, we thank you.”

Ever heard such a statement from a politician? Me either. Yet, last week, EU leaders thanked European citizens who’d participated in months of non-violent direct action on the causes of global warming, and noted this activism had resulted in the political will to address climate change in a meaningful manner.

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Lots of activities all over the US this week in celebration of Earth Day, but if you’re in New York, and looking for something to do after the recycling demonstrations and green product pitches, you may want to check out Swimming with the Polar Bears. In this one-man show, veteran stage actor Mel England (Israel Horowitz’s 3 Weeks after Paradise, his own Navajo Memoirs, and others) juxtaposes threats to his own survival (child abuse, HIV, and cancer) with environmental challenges such as species extinction and climate change.

Described as a “funny, poignant, and devastatingly personal look” at global environmental issues, the show combines England’s performance with music by Thomas Silcott, and video and photographs by by National Geographic’s Tristan Bayer.

A three-night run begins tonight at the Bleecker Street Theatre. All three performances will benefit The Climate Project, which will also have one of its trained presenters on hand to deliver Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth slide show.