Congrats to the Washington Post, winner of the 2005 Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting for their series on lead in D.C. water pipes. Details, and the other winners, below the fold. Beginning in January 2004, Washington Post journalists David Nakamura, Carol D. Leonnig, D'Vera Cohn, Craig Timberg, Monte Reel, Sarah Cohen and Jo Becker began reporting and publishing more than 200 articles alerting local residents to dangerously high levels of lead in tap water. Their continuing investigation ultimately resulted in the firing of James Buford, director of the District of Columbia Department of Public Health, and revealed that water …

Last week, Daily Grist reported -- somewhat tongue in cheek -- that China had surpassed the U.S. as the world's largest overall consumer. It's all part of our ongoing obsession with China's boggling growth, which is, from the environmentalist's point of view, probably the single most significant socioeconomic trend in the world right now. We've gotten several letters since then yelling at us for being "anti-China." You see, China has four times as many people as the U.S., so on a per capita basis, Americans consume much, much more and produce much, much more waste. Yes, yes, Americans are the …

There was a flurry of stories recently on some new studies that tried to get a handle on the extent of global warming by measuring ocean temperatures. For all you science geeks out there, a new post on the invaluable RealClimate explains why that's a good idea.

I would be remiss if I did not point out that Geoff Dabelko, director of the Environmental Change and Security Project and regular Gristmill contributor, was recently interviewed by Wildside News, an environmental radio program, about the "Death of Environmentalism" controversy. You can hear the interview here and the full show here. It's a wide-ranging interview and quite effective at providing a larger perspective on the issue. Give it a listen.

Okay, sorry I put that song in your head. This NYT story is interesting: Apparently McDonald's entrance into the fresh fruit and veggie market -- driven by pressure to offer healthier options, salads and such -- has made it, almost overnight, one of the biggest players in the $80 billion American produce industry. Two bits from the story, one funny, one significant:The funny bit: Mr. Donahue conceded that the Shaker salads "did not resonate with customers" in part because customers did not like the idea of eating salad from a plastic cup. The significant bit, tucked away (sigh) at the …

When I asked Emily Gertz to cover the Verdopolis confab for Grist, I requested that she focus mainly on what I considered the more weighty topics -- green energy, green urbanism, and green markets. This was, in part, to counter the impression -- found even (gasp) among some Grist staff members -- that the "bright green" movement celebrated by Verdopolis is mainly about a chic lifestyle or a set of consumer products. It is much, much more. However, it does include a chic lifestyle and consumer products. To wit, Emily's coverage of the last day of Verdopolis over on Worldchanging …

The discussion described in this post and this post, about whether there's a need in environmentalism, and progressivism more broadly, for a uniting narrative or Grand Vision is continuing. I don't know if anybody but me is interested or following this, but if there are fellow wonks out there, let me catch you up (start by reading the two posts linked above). Jonathan Chait (yet another source of vital wonkitude) has a great column in The New Republic claiming that liberalism is, by nature, non-ideological. Rather, it is pragmatic, results-based, empirical, and technocratic: "liberalism has no justification other than the …

Joel Makower (yes, yes, I know I link to all his posts) has a bit of a contest running. He received this query from a reader: I am teaching a college course this semester on Sustainable Science and Technology and was wondering if you had any suggestions for a one-hour activity that would engage students to learn and possibly apply some of the fundamentals of sustainability. He's soliciting ideas and offering a nice prize for the best one. Go brainstorm with him.

A little over a year ago, federal investigators found that Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lawrence Small's private collection of Amazonian artifacts contained several hundred items (mostly feathers) that violated, among other laws, the Endangered Species Act. He was convicted in Jan. 2004 and sentenced to 100 hours of community service. He is now arguing that he should be allowed to use those 100 hours to read books on, chat with politicians about, and lobby to change what he calls an "outmoded" law. U.S. Attorney Frank Whitney told U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle, who is handling the case, that Small shouldn't …

Sustainability Sunday over on Worldchanging is always good reading, but today's is particularly meaty. Don't miss Gil Friend on Kyoto and sustainable business, Mike Millikin on the state of sustainable transportation, and Jamais Cascio on the need for distributed computing systems to run future energy grids: ... distributed energy is currently more costly than centralized power (PDF). Some of that cost comes from managing the complexity of variable power generation, changing usage patterns, and a multiplicity of sources. Distributed energy resources will have to be managed more like a computer network, complete with abundant routers and switches. The success of …