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Generation Gap: Wind Opens Big Lead over Nuclear in China
By J. Matthew Roney In China, wind power is leaving nuclear behind. Electricity output from China’s wind farms exceeded that from its nuclear plants for the first time in 2012, by a narrow margin. Then in 2013, wind pulled away—outdoing nuclear by 22 percent. The 135 terawatt-hours of Chinese wind-generated electricity in 2013 would be […]
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Obsoleting Bertha: Viaduct traffic plummets
Sightline’s Clark Williams-Derry has a terrific post on the astounding decline in traffic on the Alaskan Way Viaduct since Seattle’s Big Dig II began. Trip volumes are down 40% in just 3 years! Clark analyzes the remarkable trend and concludes: At this point, nobody knows if [tunnel-boring machine] Bertha will ever get moving again, let alone complete […]
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Iron Maiden singer will fly around the world in a giant hybrid airship
Iron Maiden singer, pilot, and hero Bruce Dickinson will circumnavigate the globe in the biggest thing that's ever flown -- a huge hybrid balloon.
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Drought-plagued California tries to drink the ocean (hold the salt)
Un-salted seawater might be one cure for California's water woes, and 17 new desalination projects are banking on it.
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Feedlot frenzy: Should we shun grass-fed beef for the sake of the climate?
Don’t fence us in! Despite a new study’s findings, free-range meat still has a green streak.
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Round up the usual suspicious studies (but don’t link to them)
We picked some bad science to support our post on new findings about herbicide contamination of the atmosphere in the Mississippi Delta. Here's the scoop.
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Five Reasons Solar’s Win Over Gas in Minnesota is Just the Beginning
Solar advocates were popping corks when a New Year’s Eve ruling by an administrative law judge in Minnesota said that distributed solar arrays were a more cost-effective resource than natural gas to meet Xcel Energy’s peak power needs. The energy media were aflutter for weeks, but many missed the bigger significance. If solar trumps gas […]
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Making a Renewable Energy Revolution
What is needed if we are to have a chance of enacting a renewable energy revolution in enough time to prevent widespread and catastrophic climate disruption? Revolutions happen when: ~~A majority of people are either actively or passively in support of the changes that, cumulatively, would constitute a revolution; ~~The ruling powers-that-be are divided, unsure […]
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Featured Friend: JoeAnn H.
Each month, we showcase one of our beloved Friends with Benefits — folks who have donated to support our work. Want to take your relationship with Grist to the next level? Just donate any amount to join the fun. JoeAnn H. “I give to Grist because it rocks, and covers the environment where no one will go. […]
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In “The Sixth Extinction,” Elizabeth Kolbert reports from the frontlines of a dying world
The New Yorker writer talks mass extinctions, climate inaction, and whether there's any hope (short answer: no. long answer: probably not).
