Give a child a hammer, they say, and everything is seen as a nail -- or at least in need of a good pounding. Likewise, give an environmentalist a brush loaded with green paint, and she or he may set to turning everything one verdant hue. Pretty, perhaps, but problems can arise when well-off painters try to "green" the people the communists once tried to "red": the world's huddled masses, the have-nots, the dispossessed, the poor. Backed up in Bangkok. Photo: Kelly Flock. While Grist's new series explores poverty and the environment in the U.S., we are wondering about a …

Japan rules, U.S. drools in new list of greenest vehicles An annual list of the world's greenest cars placed the top American car at an impressive, uh, No. 10, while Japanese cars took all of the top five spots. (But American cars dominated the Totally Un-Gay Testostero-Manly Mean Machine list!) The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy gave the two-door hybrid Honda Insight top marks, based on fuel economy and air-polluting emissions. The natural-gas-powered Honda Civic GX, Toyota's Prius hybrid, the Honda Civic hybrid, and Toyota's gasoline-powered Corolla rounded out the top five. The first U.S. car on the list …

Here at Maverick Farms, a foot-thick blanket of snow swaths the cover crops and garlic beds, insulating them from sub-freezing temperatures. In the depths of the field, a big compost pile smolders. As at small farms all over the country, we've been been flipping through seed catalogs as we plan what to plant this coming season. At this time of year, optimism burns bright, sparked by the glowing prose of the seed catalogs. Here is my favorite catalog, Fedco, engaging in a bit of beet poetry: The genius of Alan Kapuler at work, this [root grex beet] is an interbreeding …

Let's say you're threatened by hybrids. Let's say you're particularly threatened by hybrids coming into the U.S. from another country, and proving mighty popular. What might be a creative way to fix the problem? Oh, how about suing for patent infringement? "If the International Trade Commission agrees with Solomon, [Toyota] could be banned from importing the systems and the Prius and Highlander hybrid models that they power." Stay tuned.

After the Sago coal mine disaster killed 12 West Virginia miners last month, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) came under widespread criticism for failing to adequately regulate the coal industry and protect mine workers. Critics blamed the Bush administration for stocking the agency with coal industry cronies who wanted a more "cooperative" approach to safety regulations rather than serious enforcement. Now, one more group has joined the chorus of MSHA critics: the very coal companies that worked to gut the agency in the first place. Read the rest of this weird, wacky tale.

A U.S. EPA program that's supposed to give recognition and flexibility to companies that are good environmental citizens may in fact be giving a free pass to some firms that are heavy polluters and even lawbreakers, according to a coalition of environmentalists. Come and get it! Photo: Clipart. The agency's voluntary Performance Track program -- whose participants include DuPont, International Paper, and Monsanto -- is open to companies that have "high-quality environmental management systems" and "consistently meet their legal requirements," says the EPA website. These so-called "top environmental performers" are encouraged to go beyond basic compliance with environmental laws, and …

Amid all the hoopla over President Bush's State of the Union address, Archer Daniels Midland's quarterly report (PDF), released Tuesday, got little attention outside of Wall Street -- where it drew cheers, sending ADM's share price to an all-time high. At the company's conference call with analysts, the Wall Street Journal reports, John M. McMillin of Prudential Securities "likened [Archer Daniels Midland] to Exxon Mobil Corp., which just announced its own record-breaking profit and jokingly suggested the company might be called upon to explain its profits." Actually, McMillin's comparison isn't all that comical. Just as ExxonMobil clawed its way to …

Recycling paper at your company? How's it going? If you answered "yes" to the first question and "not so good" to the second, you're in fine company. After years of trying, an astonishing number of outfits both large and small are having trouble accomplishing this seemingly simple task. At least, that's my conclusion after talking with companies -- and hearing from Grist readers. Same sheet, different day. Photo: iStockphoto. Why is paper recycling such a challenge? The answers have to do with the natural reluctance of people to change habits, with the designed-to-fail nature of many programs, and with the …

Exxon Mobil Corp., you may have heard, just ended the most profitable year ever, for any American corporation. Ever. To the tune of $34 billion. That means Exxon pulled down about $1,110 a second last year. Nonetheless, as Carl Pope extensively documents, the company remains one of the biggest deadbeats in the world, still digging in its heels about paying victims of the Exxon Valdez oil spill (2,000 of which are dead -- and their surviving family members have no standing in the case, and will never receive anything). Then there's the matter of oil and gas royalties, which -- …

Here is a story about Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott seeking greenie advice from the Prince of Wales. Any attempt on my part to summarize the tale wouldn't be nearly as good as the article itself, so I offer you the best tidbits of blunt British reporting. I love me some British. The Times on Wal-Mart: Mr Scott is desperate to transform the image of the monolithic retail organisation, which has a history of building huge superstores on the edge of towns on greenfield sites and squashing competition with an aggressive pricing policy. The Times on the Prince of Wales: [A] …