As the Senate tries to resurrect the Keystone XL pipeline, join Grist and other organizations in sending a message: Stop playing political games with our climate and our future.

Tired of hearing that “complete protein” has to come from animals? A nutritionist takes on that argument and says plant-based phytonutrients might be more important anyway.

A reader wonders if there are any palm-oil-free butter substitutes. Umbra spreads her knowledge.

Peter Smith is a freelance writer exploring the frontiers of food, technology, and popular science. He’s a regular contributor to Smithsonian’s Food and Think and has also written for GOOD, Wired, The Believer, Popular Science, and The Art of Eating. He shares his enthusiastic curiosity for analog tech and faits-divers here.

The transportation bill currently making its way through the House of Representatives sure does suck. It strips funds from safe streets projects and public transit, and dumps that money on highways instead. Which is all more or less what we’ve come to expect of GOP-sponsored bills — except this one’s so bad it’s even alienating Republicans.

A much-debated op-ed article in the journal Nature argues that sugar regulation should be the focus of wide-scale policy measures.

Chefs these days like to talk big about sustainable food, but they forget one of the key tenets of eco-friendly eating: cut back on the meat.

Answering that question leads us into some deep waters, where we confront the climate policy dilemma that dare not speak its name: growth. Warning: It gets a little nerdy along the way.

Tim Whitley’s Carbon Offsets to Alleviate Poverty bird-dogs big problems by connecting their solutions.

Writer Alain de Botton wants to erect a 150-foot monument to atheism. With the religious right co-opting our secular spaces, why not create a little sacred space for the profane?