Archive: Jun 2012

Animal instincts: Can we harness human nature to do good for the world?

People are predisposed to wander, but travel has hidden environmental price tags. Human ecologist Bill Durham talks about using our wanderlust to connect people with the planet.

Romney energy advisor on oil subsidies: Four more years!

Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm will make the case for preserving hand-outs to Big Oil. But is he speaking for himself, or for the campaign?

We Need New Action on Renewable Electricity at Rio+20

Where does each G20 country stand in terms of wind, solar, geothermal, tidal & wave electricity generation.

Getting used to being in charge of the planet

Decisions made by people alive today will determine the fate of life on Earth for centuries to come. It's time to take responsibility for our planet.

California celebrities are wasting electricity moving water around

But then, so is everyone else in the state. The utilities commission broke down electricity use; we made jokes about it.

1915 document shows that penguins are extremely sexually depraved

England’s Natural History Museum at Tring recently rediscovered a 1915 report about penguin behavior that had been buried for almost 100 years — because it was considered too X-rated to be suitable for publication. Which, okay, yes, people from 1915 were prudish, but also, penguins are getting up to some freaky shit.

Estimates of Michigan’s Enbridge spill were way (way) too low

It's almost impossible to know how much oil spilled into the Kalamazoo River in 2010. One thing we can know: It was more than Enbridge reported.

Solving the climate crisis means saying yes and no

When it comes to climate work, yes and no are the interdependent and mutually reinforcing faces of responsible action.

Giant Truth or Dare game turns New York into a middle-school party

A lot of people (celebrities, misanthropes, the funny-looking) cherish New Yorkers’ studious lack of eye contact. But designer and copywriter Chelsea Davison wanted to make the city a friendlier place for a day. So she printed up 300 cards offering a “truth” question and a “dare” action, posted them around Washington Square Park, and waited for […]