The financial fiasco has sidelined climate change and energy as hot topics, but the move to sustainability may do far more to shape our lives. Over time, trillions of dollars are likely to be channeled into solutions. For investors, clean and green offer a triple bottom line: Heal the planet, renew the economy and turn a profit.

Green investing is also a terrific way to damage your own bottom line if you make unwise, or unlucky, decisions. In emerging fields with great futures but skimpy track records, shares tend to climb high on faith and fall hard on despair. Crowds of contenders are brutally winnowed, leaving one or two standing and the rest forgotten.

Coal producers are riding high for an industry that a growing throng of Americans wish would just go away.

Year to date, shares of Arch Coal Inc. are up 41%. The biggie of the industry, Peabody Energy Corporation (BTU), has waxed 24% -- and 94% from its August trough. A broader measure of the sector's stocks, the Market Vectors Coal exchange-traded fund (KOL), has advanced 26% since its January launch.