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Farmed Fish Production Overtakes Beef
By Janet Larsen and J. Matthew Roney The world quietly reached a milestone in the evolution of the human diet in 2011. For the first time in modern history, world farmed fish production topped beef production. The gap widened in 2012, with output from fish farming—also called aquaculture—reaching a record 66 million tons, compared with […]
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Need for coal leasing moratorium reinforced by Department of Interior Inspector General report
A new report from the Department of Interior’s Inspector General highlights several problems with the way DOI gives taxpayer-owned coal to companies like Peabody, Arch, and Cloud Peak Energy, including flaws in the way DOI calculates fair market value (FMV) and a failure to consider increasing coal exports. The report reinforces the need for a […]
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Bloomberg unveils ambitious plan to protect NYC from climate change
The plan, estimated to cost $20 billion, covers everything from erecting bulkheads and levees to retrofitting old buildings to protecting the city’s power infrastructure.
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Here’s how the world can get on track with climate goals
Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and climate talks continue to fail, but there are still things we can do to avoid climate apocalypse. Here are four of them.
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Nuclear Power is So 20th Century
When I was born in the 1950s, nuclear power was said to be “too cheap to meter.” Although few and far between, disasters at Fukushima and Chernobyl have laid waste to that claim and, for that matter, entire cities. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, herself a nuclear physicist, led the charge to eliminate her nation’s nuclear […]
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Patriot Bankruptcy Puts Retired Miners in Life and Death Struggle
In my many years in Appalachia, I’ve worked, traveled, prayed, broken bread, and raised a glass with a good many retired coal miners. I know that, in retirement, they are still paying heavily for their decades of work in the mines – you can hear it in their shortness of breath, you can see it […]
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The coming solar electricity transformation
Solar cells are unusual in that they were cost-competitive from the get-go. From the Apollo space program to highway signs to lighting for buoys, solar could replace highly expensive power from batteries or other sources and eliminate the need for the construction of electric distribution lines. When the Institute for Local Self-Reliance was founded in […]
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United Airline’s Top Customers Call Company Out Over Climate Pollution Misdeeds
Some of United Airline’s most valuable and loyal customers are calling out the company today over its prolonged fight to stop new regulations aimed at reducing global climate pollution emissions from the airline industry. And these aren’t your everyday frequent fliers we’re talking about, twenty are members of United’s Global Services flyer program – a privilege bestowed […]
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A drunk person, a child, and a blind man get into a car. Who’s driving?
Here's what the intersection of car-share programs and driverless cars could look like.
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China’s Growing Hunger for Meat Shown by Move to Buy Smithfield, World’s Leading Pork Producer
By Janet Larsen Half the world’s pigs—more than 470 million of them—live in China, but even that may not be enough to satisfy the growing Chinese appetite for meat. While meat consumption in the United States has fallen more than 5 percent since peaking in 2007, Chinese meat consumption has leapt 18 percent, from 64 […]
