Eco-Art: Global Warming Is Hot

Doing their part to raise environmental awareness, artists worldwide have increasingly focused attention on the plight of global warming's poster animal--the polar bear. Here are five recent environmental art projects that give us the chills:

Polar Bear in the Thames River: Built by a team of 15 artists, this lifelike floating polar bear sculpture is part of a promotion for a new UK television series called Fragile Earth.

Polar Bear or Bomb Threat? Sculptures created by Mark Jenkins for Greenpeace caused quite a commotion in Washington, DC, when local bomb squads were called in to investigate the suspicious "homeless polar bears."

Polar Bear or Garbage Bag? We're still charmed by Joshua Harris's bear of a garbage bag sculpture.

Melting Ice Men: Brazilian artist Nele Azevedo's melting sculpture connects humanity's fate to the artic ice melt.

Global Warming Group Show: Chicago's Columbia College is hosting "Criteria," a multimedia exhibition focused on sustainability, through February 28, 2009.

--Della Watson