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The top green and Gristy stories of 2011

Sharing systems are all the rage Can less consumption be more fun? Yes, when it’s social. The “collaborative consumption” trend didn’t start this year (the Zipcar car-sharing service launched way back in 2000), but the sharing movement has blossomed big-time. Airbnb, which lets you rent your home to travelers, made the biggest splash in 2011. […]

Solar for Schools? Not so easy with tax-based solar incentives

You’re a city manager hoping to cut electricity costs at sewage treatment plant, a school administrator looking to power schools with solar, or a state park official needing an off-grid solar array for a remote ranger station. But unlike any private home or business, you can’t get 50% off using the federal tax incentives for […]

Recent Coal to Clean Energy Victories Worth Celebrating

This week we’re celebrating as more utilities are recognizing that coal is dirty and expensive, and are deciding to make the switch to clean energy. Earlier this week, Wisconsin’s Dairyland Power Cooperative announced that it will cease burning coal in three of the six units at its Alma Station by the end of the month. […]

A New Obsession

“This obsession with a legally binding treaty [to tackle climate change] is an obstacle for countries achieving targets they have committed to,” declared Paul Bledsoe, a climate change advisor to President Clinton. “What we need is national will to reach stated goals.” Given that the only international agreement so far, the Kyoto Protocol, expires in […]

End of year existential rant and giving ideas: For humans

“In a place without people, be a person.” -old saying, source unknown to me. I am a parent and a 41-year-old human denizen of planet earth, climate warrior, dormant mountaineer. So like others of my ilk, I spend a lot of time in mid-life/existential crisis. That state of mind is ameliorated to some extent by […]

Is one of the top U.S. mercury polluters in your backyard?

I just came back from a trip to Illinois, where the state had the good sense to put mercury protections in place for coal-fired power plants back in 2006. Unfortunately, here in West Virginia and in most other states, there are no mercury protections in place whatsoever, because the coal lobby has spent the last […]

The News Smashup: 4 examples of a news app sub-genre

After attending one of Twitter’s developer teatimes here in Seattle and having various other Twitter API related experiences recently (more on that soon), it’s becoming a bit obvious that there’s a rapidly-emerging subspecies of news app coming into being.  This sort of app can trace its origins pretty directly to pre-Twitter sites like Techmeme and […]

Curbing Power Plant Carbon Pollution

This item cross-posted from NRDC’s Switchboard. Willie Sutton is famously supposed to have said that he robbed banks because that’s where the money is (apparently this quote is apocryphal but it’s just too good to not keep using it). I have focused a number of recent posts on power plants because that’s where the carbon […]

Movement-building and 2012

“But eventually, the greater danger to the movement is that it may dovetail into the presidential election campaign that’s coming up. I’ve seen that happen before in the antiwar movement here, and I see it happening all the time in India. Eventually, all the energy goes into trying to campaign for the “better guy,” in […]

Friday music blogging: Milo Greene

I give you the Next Big Thing: a band called Milo Greene. They haven’t even released an album yet — they’ve got a single out and an EP coming soon — but they’re getting buzz all over the place, for good reason. They land squarely in the current indie sweet spot, with the gorgeous four-part […]