Like the Big Mac or Budweiser beer, concrete is everywhere. But concrete comes with a cost: in creating the ubiquitous building material, tons upon tons of carbon dioxide are emitted annually. In fact, the concrete industry is the third largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world. Is there a way to green the gray giant? For answers, The Takeaway is joined by the New York Times editor and writer Henry Fountain. Fountain is the author of the today's Science Times article, Concrete is remixed with the environment in mind.

This isn't the first time The Takeaway listeners have heard about the CO2 spewing powers of cement. Check out our interview with Vinod Kholsa, as part of our Power Trip green energy series.

When we use the metaphor of things moving at a glacial pace, our intention is to describe something progressing very slowly. Well if you were familiar with James Balog and his nature photography, chances are you’d never use that phrase that way again. James Balog is the founder and director of the Extreme Ice Survey. With the use of 26 time-lapse cameras, Balog and his colleagues document the rapid changes on glaciers across the Northern Hemisphere. You can see Balog in action, trekking through treacherous terrain, in a new NOVA and National Geographic documentary, Extreme Ice. You can also check out Balog's photography in his latest book, Extreme Ice Now: Vanishing Glaciers and Changing Climate: A Progress Report.

There's a polar bear meeting in Norway this week, where politicians are considering how to handle the dire predictions surrounding the fate of our arctic friend. And this meeting got us thinking: in the face of a warming globe, is extinction the only option? Are organisms, along with a little thing called natural selection, finding a way to beat this formidable foe? We hope Warren Allmon, a paleontology professor at Cornell who specializes in macroevolution, can shed some light on our queries. Mr. Allmon is also the director of the Museum of the Earth.

Polar Bear S.O.S. has enlisted children to spread the word about the animal's plight. Hear their message below.