It has never been so complicated to take out the trash. And, for a lot of people, never so frustrating, either.

Yes, during World War II folks recycled tin foil, rubber, kitchen grease and other stuff. (That may help explain why people over 70 tend to be the best recyclers.)

But the Greatest Generation never had to sort their universal waste from their e-waste, or sit in line at a once-a-year household hazardous waste collection day to get rid of a can of paint thinner.

And they didn’t deal with the mixed messages sometimes coming from government these days: Don’t throw that TV or fluorescent light bulb in the trash, but good luck figuring out how to get rid of it. And if you do figure it out, take your checkbook – it could cost you.

Maine has some of the most progressive recycling programs in the nation, and Mainers have proven they want to do the right thing with their garbage.

The state’s bottle redemption law, approved by voters and implemented in 1978, is one of the oldest in the United States and is still one of the broadest. And Maine was the first state to create cost-sharing systems for recycling mercury thermostats and TVs and computer monitors that contain lead, cadmium and mercury.

All that is nice if you live in Portland or in Bridgton, where you can drop off regulated trash in town when it’s convenient. If you want to get rid of a TV in South Portland or Windham, on the other hand, you’ll have to take it to a recycler in the next town over, and you may have to pay a little extra.

It makes you wonder how many people are deciding not to bother, and what is really happening with those TVs and cans of paint thinner.

The confusion in Maine, unlike in some neighboring states, is partly a result of having about 500 different sets of rules – one for each town. Either you’re lucky enough to live in a community that makes it easy, or you really have to care. A lot.

The frustration is obvious every time we write a story about Maine recycling laws and readers ask, or sometimes plead, for help.

The only advice for now is to check with your town’s transfer station. Someone there should at least be able to tell you what doesn’t belong in your trash and where it does belong.

Also, Portland’s Recycling Center on Riverside Street is open to non-residents, and it’s generally cheaper than the commercial recycling alternatives.

Look here and here for state web pages on hazardous and universal waste disposal. And here is a listing of greater Portland collection programs posted by ecomaine.

In the meantime, we’d like to hear your recycling stories. And send us your nominations for Maine’s best and worst trash towns.

University of Maine Professor Paul Mayewski is one of a group of Maine scientists who are learning about global warming in far off places such as Patagonia and Greenland.

Mayewski drills cores of ice from glaciers that, in some cases, are melting faster than researchers can keep up. The cores tell the history of the earth’s climate and its atmosphere. His work has helped scientists understand the relationship between carbon dioxide and temperatures over hundreds of thousands of years.

Mayewski, director of the UMaine’s Climate Change Institute, is scheduled to appear on the Sunday, April 1 edition of the CBS News program “60 Minutes.” The show begins at 7 p.m.

CBS correspondent Scott Pelley and his crew spent 10 days with Mayewski earlier this year, during a research expedition to Chile, Argentina and Antarctica, according to the university. Last year, Mayewski was in a “60 Minutes” episode based on climate change research in the Arctic.

Mayewski, who last year received the first-ever Medal for Excellence in Antarctic Research from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, was recently a featured speaker at the Explorers Club annual dinner in New York City.

A couple of weeks ago we told you how Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, was joining forces with Al Gore by sponsoring a resolution to allow a free Live Earth concert outside the Capitol July 7. The event is part of a 24-hour global concert series to raise awareness about climate change.

Well, it’s getting weirder.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, who famously called global warming a huge hoax and sparred with Gore at a congressional hearing last week, is now saying the show must not go on. It‘s not so much the loud rock music he’s worried about, it’s the use of the nation’s dooryard for what Inhofe says is a partisan event.

That either rock concerts or global warming are partisan issues came as news to Snowe, who responded today in an article posted on The Hill website.

“(Preventing the concert) would certainly provide an unfortunate message on behalf of the U.S., that somehow we’re languishing in our desire to combat the problem,” Snowe said. “We should be a leader in this endeavor.”

Maybe it’s not too late to book Deering Oaks.

Here's a name to remember.

Juan Hoffmaister, a senior at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, has been a force in the global youth network trying to engage world leaders in the fight against climate change. We wrote about Hoffmaister and fellow COA students at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Montreal in December 2005. He led the youth lobbying contingent and thought nothing of challenging international delegates on the finer points of Kyoto as they headed to the cafe, or the bathroom.

Hoffmaister has since been to Nairobi and other parts of the world, formally addressing UN representatives as well as organizing youth activists. Now he’s about to go even further – and farther.

Starting in August, the 23-year-old will travel around the globe to see the effects of climate change on rural communities. Destinations include Greenland, Namibia, the Maldives and Chile. Adjustments the communities have made to water crises and other changes, he believes, hold lessons for the rest of us, and for global policy makers.

His travel will be paid for by the Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellowship, which awards 50 fellowships a year to passionate college seniors who are destined to become leaders. Or, as in the case of Hoffmaister, seniors who already are.

For a profile of Juan and his project, check out this COA press release.

For an animal that’s supposed to be extinct in the eastern United States, mountain lions have sure been getting around the Maine woods.

Since we ran a story last week about a federal status review of the eastern cougar, reports of sightings have flowed in over the phone, the Internet and even in a handwritten letter (talk about your endangered species).

Mountain lions, or what looked like them, were reportedly seen in Standish, Windham, Raymond, Scarborough, New Gloucester, Brunswick, Freeport and lots of other places.

Reports also have been posted on the federal eastern cougar Web site by Mainers and residents of other eastern states where the “ghost cat” also has a healthy following. You can read them, or post your own, here.

Not only are people sure the cats exist, many are just as sure that state and federal biologists are not really looking for them.

Patricia Estabrook of Belfast said she and her husband Ray were driving through Washington County one afternoon last August when a large animal ran across the road in front of them.

“Both of us were able to get a really close look at it,” Patricia Estabrook said Friday. “I noticed its really big paws … a smooth, loping run and the color and the ears. (Ray) noticed the long tail.”

The couple did some research and believe what they saw was a cougar, so Patricia called the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife thinking the experts would be as excited as she was.

“The woman who answered the phone … laughed at me and said, ‘Well, it’s fine and we’ll have somebody call,’” Patricia said. “Nobody’s called so far and it’s March.”

State officials say they don’t approve of anyone laughing off a mountain lion report and that they routinely follow up and record details. Sometimes, they go out and look.

“We certainly would be interested if we were able to confirm a cougar sighting,” said Wally Jakubas, mammal specialist with the Maine IF&W.

But at the same time, he said, such a sighting would not resolve a whole lot.

There already is scientific evidence that cougars occasionally roam the East. For one thing, federal records describe mountain lion carcasses found in rural New York, Pennsylvania and Quebec in the past 40 years.

But those animals are believed to have been captive cats that escaped or were released. And confirmed sightings of live cats are presumed to be wayward pets, too.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, while not denying that individuals in the agency have been dismissive in the past, insists it is conducting the current review with an open, scientific mind.

So if you think you’ve seen a mountain lion, you aren’t crazy. You may not even be wrong. And you certainly are not alone.

A flame retardant chemical used in TVs and other products has shown up in some strange places, from the blubber of harbor seals found in Casco Bay to the tissue of Arctic polar bears.

Now scientists have found the stuff in eggs laid by peregrine falcons in Maine and New Hampshire.

According to a study by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the BioDiversity Research Institute in Gorham and other researchers, the levels found in eggs here are nearly 10 times higher than levels found in peregrine eggs from Sweden, where the chemicals have been banned.

Eight eggs were tested, and it’s unclear if the levels are having toxic effects on the raptors. But the findings underscore just how pervasive and persistent the flame retardant chemicals are in the global food chain.

The study released today focused on deca DBE, the last widely used brominated flame retardant, and is being unveiled as Maine lawmakers consider a proposal to phase it out in consumer products here. Deca had been assumed to be less soluble and safer than other related chemicals, although emerging research, including work done at the University of Southern Maine, indicates it is toxic to mice and that it may break down into forms that are known to be toxic.

There’s no question the stuff gets around.

Brominated flame retardants have been found in whales, Tasmanian devils and falcons in Australia; terns in San Francisco Bay; guillemots in the Baltic Sea; peregrine falcons in Sweden; marine fish in Florida; seabirds in Norway; harbor seals in Maine’s Casco Bay; birds of prey in Belgium; birds of prey in Europe and China; fish in Maine’s Penobscot River; and Arctic fox in Greenland and Russia.

Oh yeah, they’re in people, too. The chemicals, which have been found in household dust, accumulate in human breast milk and get passed on to babies, research has found. It's kind of like peregrine falcons and their eggs.

Maine’s efforts to lead the region as a producer of wind power have been a case of one step forward, two steps back.

A wind farm in Mars Hill started spinning this winter, while two others – one on the Redington range near Sugarloaf and another in Freedom – hit regulatory opposition. The Freedom project was stalled by the local board of appeals last week while Redington appears headed toward a final rejection in April or May by the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission.

Some fear the early mixed-signals could scare away investors and wind developers. Now, however, the state is facing a few big opportunities to regain its footing and set a clearer course. And, if you listen closely, you might hear the sound of a future state study commission blowing in the wind.

Two large-scale wind power proposals are now pending before the Land Use Regulation Commission, which oversees zoning and development in the state’s unorganized territories. One includes 44 wind turbines on Kibby Mountain and Kibby Range in Franklin County. The other, submitted within the past two weeks, proposes 38 wind turbines on Stetson Mountain in Washington County.

What happens with those two projects over the next several months could have a big impact on whether more projects come forward and whether the state achieves its goal of generating 10 percent of our energy from renewable resources by 2017.

Gov. Baldacci and others have hopes for experimental technologies, such as tapping Maine’s powerful tides or turning its trees into ethanol to fuel cars and trucks. But wind farm developers are the ones knocking on the door now.

Expect the State House to weigh in soon. There is one bill, sponsored by Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Portland, that would streamline review of wind projects. Another, sponsored by Lawrence Jacobsen, R-Waterboro, would create a commission to promote environmentally sound alternatives to foreign oil. Other proposals kicking around Augusta include a legislative resolution to affirm the state’s support for wind energy.

Gov. Baldacci, meanwhile, continues to express his support. But a question facing the administration now is whether to hope the two latest projects catch a fair wind and move forward, or pull everyone together – including developers, wind advocates and opponents – to try developing a unified state policy and siting guidelines.

U.S. media coverage of global warming is a hot topic among some journalists, and an overheated one on the web. We at Down to Earth are going to wade in, gently, because of a couple of events this week.

The argument, for those who don’t enjoy the web’s version of an old-school WWF smackdown, goes like this: Either the media is downplaying the story by focusing on skeptics and marginal conflicts, or it is exaggerating it by spreading fear of imminent doom. Many journalists come down in the middle (where else?) and would agree that the media has been guilty of both.

A story in the New York Times this week got the action going again. The story’s about criticism of how science was presented in the film "An Inconvenient Truth," and the article itself became the object of rebuttals and criticism. Look here and here.

The other event that brought the issue to mind happened in Augusta, during a visit this week by four members of the British Parliament. The Brits were asked how the United Kingdom became a leader in global efforts to switch to renewable energy sources, reduce carbon dioxide emissions and fight global warming. The implied second half of the question was, “and why is the U.S. so far behind?”

The delegation’s primary answer was that it did it slowly, one little step at a time. There were other possible factors, from recent heat waves to the election of a Labour Government. The Honorable Greg Knight, a Conservative member of the House of Commons, also offered this explanation:

“We’ve been helped to some extent in the UK by our tabloid press.” The always sensational London tabloids, he said, have reported on climate change “as if Armageddon was about to happen next week.”

We can tell you first hand it’s a difficult story to tell, and that lots of mainstream American journalists are trying hard to do it without getting pulled away from the scientific consensus, one way or the other. Of course, readers always bring their own biases, as well – not that there’s anything wrong with that. So join in, if you wish, but no eye gouging or folding metal chairs, please.

If seemed weird enough that former Vice President Al Gore is organizing a global rock concert with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snoop Dogg and Korn. (Does Tipper know about that?)

The "Live Earth" concert is scheduled to take place July 7 on seven continents, including a show in the eastern United States, to draw attention to global climate change. Other performers include Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Fall Out Boy, the Police, Bon Jovi, Kelly Clarkson and Maine’s own Ray LaMontagne.

Now this: Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, announced this week she is getting involved in the planning, too.

Snowe and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, have sponsored a resolution to allow a free “Live Earth” concert on the Capitol Grounds in Washington, D.C. Other possible sites have included New York and Philadelphia. With Maine left off the short list (a senator has only so much power), Snowe is throwing her support behind D.C. "Live Earth promises to be a wonderful concert and a monumental event," she said in her written announcement, "and I can think of no better venue."

It was hard to imagine this week, but lawns and gardens will soon be reemerging, brightening spirits and demanding attention.

A lot of people are getting help with the imagination part this weekend at the Portland Flower Show, where you can step into colorful gardens, sit next to waterfalls and talk spring with the experts. And the talk this year is a little greener than usual.

Organic gardening and environmentally friendly lawn care are hot topics these days. Maine’s Legislature dug into them this week by taking up a proposal to discourage the sale and use of lawn fertilizer containing phosphorous, a nutrient that can get into lakes and turn them as green as the front lawn in July.

Two new Maine-based initiatives are at the Flower Show teaching gardeners and homeowners how to beautify their environment and keep it healthy at the same time.

The Gulf of Maine and the Arabian Sea may have little in common, but blooms of phytoplankton in both places are teaching Maine scientists about global warming.

Our story Thursday about Andrew Pershing’s research explained how melting ice in the Arctic Ocean and pulses of freshwater entering the Gulf of Maine led to an explosion of phytoplankton in the 1990s. Pershing, who co-authored a paper about the changes in the journal Science, is a research oceanographer at both the University of Maine and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. He is based at the Institute in Portland.

Today, we learned that two scientists from the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in West Boothbay Harbor have received a $1.18 million grant from NASA to study the impact of global warming on life in the Arabian Sea.

Joaquim Goés and Dr. Helga do Rosario Gomes have already documented how warming global temperatures are melting snow in Himalayan-Tibetan mountain ranges and driving a complex chain of events that includes large blooms of phytoplankton in the Arabian Sea. The sea is more self-contained than the Gulf of Maine, and the phytoplankton growth there has acted like an algae bloom on a Maine pond – dying plankton are depleting oxygen from the sea water, contributing to large fish kills off the coast of Oman.

The Arabian Sea, it turns out is an ideal laboratory for climate change studies, Goés said. “The ramifications of the study are huge.” An article on the NASA website describes the pair’s work and why melting in the Himalayas could be catastrophic for the Arabian Sea.

Goés and Gomes will head to the Arabian Sea this summer, and plan to take some Maine students along. The project is expected to last three years.

The fact that researchers from the coast of Maine are studying the Arabian Sea is not as strange as it may seem. Scientists from Maine universities and research institutions work virtually all over the world these days, from the South Pole to the Arctic Circle. A lot of their work now is focusing on how a shifting global climate will affect places – like the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Maine – across the planet.

Maine’s pair of celebrity bald eagles are starting a new family.

The two eagles made a big splash on the Internet last summer when a web camera mounted on a nearby tree turned their nest into the set of a live nature reality show. Ratings spiked when one of the couple’s three eaglets set a new standard in sibling rivalry and killed its littlest sibling.

The two surviving babies grew up and flew away last August. The parents remained through the fall and winter, getting their nest ready for a new brood.

Mother eagle laid another egg yesterday afternoon. She’s expected to lay one or two more in the coming days.

The new eaglets should start hatching in 35 days, but even the sight of the female eagle sitting on her egg – 70 feet over the Hancock County coastline in sub-zero wind chills – is inspiring drama for many of the web cam’s fans.

Of course, as last season’s violent subplot made clear, nature is unscripted and you never know what you’ll see next. Some faithful fans in recent days got a rare view of the eagles mating in the nest. Another ratings ploy?

The web cam is operated by the BioDiversity Research Institute in Gorham and has turned into a popular way to teach about eagles, as well as a surprisingly useful research tool. The web site includes archived photos of last year’s eaglets, biologists notes about the eagles and a blog where fans keep close tabs on the birds.

Are those compact fluorescent light bulbs that everyone’s buying to save energy and fight global warming really a bright idea?

It’s a question that comes up a lot from those who are afraid of trading one problem for another.

Efficiency Maine, which provides coupons for the compact fluorescents, said this week it has helped put about one million of the squiggly bulbs into Maine homes, saving more than $46 million in electricity costs and keeping 194,000 tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. The potential for more savings and carbon reductions looks huge.

The dilemma for some is that compact fluorescent light bulbs, like fluorescent tubes, contain mercury, a vapor form of the same silvery liquid in old-fashioned thermometers.

Mainers are getting turned on to energy efficiency.

Efficiency Maine, part of the state Public Utilities Commission, held a news conference at a Portland hardware store this morning to mark the sale of the millionth compact fluorescent bulb, give or take, as part of its incentive program. The agency offers $1.50 coupons for the energy saving bulbs.

CFLs are the squiggly bulbs that use 50 to 80 percent less energy and last up to 10 times longer than traditional incandescent light bulbs. Along with saving electricity and money for the homeowner, screwing them in is considered a first step toward slowing carbon dioxide emissions and global warming.

The one million CFLs in Maine homes represent a combined savings of more than $46 million in electricity costs and the elimination of 194,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, which is equivalent to taking more than 33,000 cars off the road, according to Efficiency Maine.

While General Electric is trying to make the old-fashioned incandescent bulb more efficient, Thomas Edison’s brightest invention seems to be going the way of the phonograph.

Australia recently announced plans to ban incandescents and replace them with more energy efficient fluorescent bulbs. Ontario is considering becoming the first province in Canada to do the same thing. And, wouldn’t you know, a lawmaker in California has introduced a bill to phase out incandescent bulbs there by 2012.

Here’s a good story by the Los Angeles Times and another by The Christian Science Monitor.