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Graphic: The sad state of American forests

The New York Times has an interactive infographic about the state of forests worldwide. Here's North America. The orange area has been decimated by the mountain pine beetle — warmer winters mean the beetles live longer and simultaneously make the trees more vulnerable. And the bright red spots lost between 20 and 88 percent of their […]

Can cash payments win over wind farm opponents?

This post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. A 50-turbine wind farm in Goodhue County in southeastern Minnesota has met with stiff local resistance, a frequent tale in the wind industry.  Recently, the project developer won a key court case to move forward, after […]

Friday music blogging: Noah & the Whale

Noah & the Whale is a UK indie-folk band. If you guessed what their name is about without googling, you may be a terminal hipster.

Food Studies: Who's doing the judging in the food justice movement?

Being an advocate for food justice sounds good -- but can you actually explain what that means?

Clean air and clean energy successes — and some rap

Who doesn’t love good news? Let’s start with something catchy — maybe a soundtrack as you read the rest of this column. This week we released a video created by DJ Steve Porter, known for his innovative “remix” videos, featuring celebrities, sports stars, and now Michael Bloomberg, philanthropist and mayor of New York City, and […]

Shine on: 2011 Solar Decathlon shoots for the stars [SLIDESHOW]

Eat it, Dwell. The kids who designed the sun-fired homes for the 2011 Solar Decathlon came up with some remarkably innovative designs, each engineered to meet the challenges of the local climate and/or economy. Read our Decathlon review here. Winners will be announced Saturday.

Come and get your Endangered Species Condoms [SLIDESHOW]

The Center for Biological Diversity wants to give away 100,000 Endangered Species Condoms this fall. Wanna help? Sign up and you’ll always have a good pick-up line. The condoms are part of the 7 Billion and Counting campaign highlighting how population growth threatens diversity.

Does energy storage compensate for water-thirsty concentrating solar thermal power?

This post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. Concentrating solar thermal power has promised big additions to renewable energy production with the additional benefit of energy storage.  But with significant water consumption in desert locations, is the energy storage benefit of concentrating solar enough […]

How Congress is turning America into China

Reading news from Washington D.C., while spending a week in China, it seems to me that some members of Congress are backing policies that would make America much more like China — without any of the economic benefits. The House voted last week 249 to 169 to curtail the EPA’s ability to reduce air pollution […]

Valdez redux? Scientists sound alarm over key Gulf fish species

Could one of the Gulf of Mexico’s most abundant fish face the same fate as Prince William Sound’s crashed herring population? A new study [PDF] by a team of researchers published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences raises alarming questions about the lingering effects of the BP oil spill on Gulf killifish. The […]