These cool green stories are the Opening Ceremony for your weekend.

1. Olympic athletes and public warned of London's high "summer smog" levels. (Guardian)
2. London is striving for a green games. Which venues succeeded and which failed to meet the goal? (National Geographic)
3. How would the world's best athletes measure up against the animal world? (nature.org)
4. London's hydrogen buses have been shut down for security reasons. Is it a farce? (TreeHugger)
5. Science explains what separates a world class athlete from an Olympic champion. (Scientific American)

It's Friday the 13th. What do you want first, the bad news or the really bad news?

1. Drought has forced the largest disaster declaration in U.S. history. (Guardian)
2. Past 12 months were the hottest in U.S. history breaking the record from the month before. (Mongabay)
3. New technology at bottling plants could save billions of gallons of water each year. (TreeHugger)
4. During the last global warming sea levels may have risen 30 feet higher than today. (LA Times)
5. Lemurs are for more threatened than previously thought, sliding toward extinction. (BBC)

The colors, the action, the detail on the bird’s head. There are many reasons we picked this shot as our Nature Photo of the Week. Thanks to Flickr user snooker2009 for submitting it through The Nature Conservancy’s Flickr group. Great picture! See all of The Nature Conservancy’s featured daily nature images — submitted to the [...] More

It's still way too hot so we're pretty much hitting the beach for today's news.

1. It looks like dead coral reefs can come back to life. (NPR)
2. The U.S. Navy admits to causing dolphins and whales "harm of staggering proportions." (Discovery)
3. Here's a look at 10 threatened US coastlines and who's fighting to protect them. (Mother Nature Network)
4. NOAA has announced that it has no evidence that mermaids are real. Seriously. (LA Times)
5. GE is halting construction of what would have been the largest solar factory in the U.S. because of dropping prices. (Yale e360)

This is your assigned summer reading list. Don't worry it's only 5 stories.

1. The Colorado wildfires have been declared a disaster. Get answers to the 5 biggest questions about the fires. (Mother Jones)
2. The Supreme Court made another big decision yesterday, this one about MPG standards. (TreeHugger)
3. Why are tomatoes so tasteless these days? Geneticists have found a surprising answer. (New York Times)
4. PHOTOS: 25 new reef fish have been discovered. See the candy striper, "tripod," more. (National Geographic)
5. Is this "living rock" the weirdest creature you've ever seen? (Grist)

Not sure what Rio+20 is all about and what might happen there? We talk to Glenn Prickett, our Chief External Affairs Officer, to get an inside look at the conference and what The Conservancy hopes to achieve there. More

This beaver's tale will get you ready for Father's Day.

1. Check out the heartwarming story of a single parent beaver dad. (Discovery)
2. Speaking of warming, this May was the second warmest on record. (Huffington Post)
3. Officials now fear the Colorado wildfire could burn all summer. (L.A. Times)
4. After a century of decline, cougars are making a comeback in the U.S. (BBC)
5. Despite promises in 1992, little progress has been made in protecting ocean habitats. (Mongabay)

Today is World Oceans Day. See if you can catch the theme of today's green news.

1. VIDEO: 11x World Surfing Champion Kelly Slater needs your help. (All Hands on Earth)
2. Discovery in Arctic sea ice is "like finding the Amazon rainforest in the middle of the Mojave desert." (MSNBC)
3. Find out how we're helping to save a vitally important area in the Pacific. (Scientific American)
4. Your trash could end up in the ocean, take 600 years to decompose. Here's one way to help. (Ocean Conservancy)
5. Here are 10 things you didn't know came from the ocean (ice cream?). (Cool Green Science)

Here are some green news stories to get you to the weekend. Seriously, it's Friday!

1. Greenhouse gasses are at record-high levels, pass a symbolic milestone. (Guardian)
2. Are the disease-related deaths of bees, bats and frogs linked? (Discovery News)
3. Horseshoe crab blood is blue and does some amazing things. (NPR)
4. The largest wildfire in New Mexico's history is expected to keep burning for weeks. (Huffington Post)
5. The Honduran president watches as hundreds of illegal shark fins are burned. (Washington Post)

Be sure to watch the skies this weekend and never put rocks in your pockets.

1. Don't forget, a "ring of fire" solar eclipse will be visible in parts of the U.S. on Sunday. (National Geographic)
2. Apple is making a major green change in the U.S. this year. (Scientific American)
3. Photos: One of the largest male stars on the planet is helping one of the smallest primates. (Mongabay)
4. The remains of a turtle the size of a car have been discovered in a coal mine. (Discovery News)
5. Scientists can't solve the mystery of the rocks that ignited in a woman's pocket. (L.A. Times)