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Obama needs to pay attention to a different kind of leak in the Gulf

There’s a lot of talk in the media about whether President Obama is sufficiently angry about the oil spill. Who cares? There are many more important questions, including: How effectively is the government managing the response? Is it forcing BP to be transparent and honest with the public? Is it making sure that the cleanup […]

Cars and People Compete for Grain

At a time when excessive pressures on the earth’s land and water resources are of growing concern, there is a massive new demand emerging for cropland to produce fuel for cars—one that threatens world food security. Although this situation had been developing for a few decades, it was not until Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when […]

Friday music blogging: The New Pornographers

What can one say about The New Pornographers that hasn’t been said? Nothing, really. They are Canadian. They are beloved by hipster nerds the world over. They are consistently good. And sure enough, their new album Together is rock solid indie pop. I’ve always thought the band works best with Neko Case‘s voice out front. […]

Friday music blogging: Fang Island

Imagine you’re 15 years old. You and your best friend have just gotten stoned for the first time, you’re laying around his rec room. Your shoes are off, the sun is shining through the windows, you’re listening to metal albums. You start to notice that in every song there’s that one part: The Awesome Part. […]

Featured Friend: Diane Bailey

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.  Diane Bailey “I give to GRIST because I love, love, love the satirical, entertaining delivery style of environmental […]

Friday music blogging: Band of Horses again

The most hotly anticipated album of the year, for me anyway, is officially dropping next week: Infinite Arms is the looong-awaited follow-up to Band of Horses’ 2007 Cease to Begin, one of the best albums of the last decade. I’m happy to report that it is positively transcendent. Much has changed since the last album. […]

Unheard Voices from the Gulf Coast

The Vietnamese community of greater New Orleans makes up roughly half of the fishing industry in the area. They help to supply more than one-third of the nation’s seafood. As our country faces a potential shortage of Gulf shrimp, crab and fish, these workers face complete economic uncertainty. Low-income communities and communities of color have […]

What’s in the air along the Louisiana coast?

Working to clean up the Gulf oil spill Cross-posted from NRDC’s Simple Steps blog. Venice, La. – “You shoulda been out here last evening” said Carey, the shrimp boat captain who took me out to South Pass today. He saw that I was taking air samples with a hand-held monitoring device, and recounted the strong […]

Now is the time to shift World Bank resources to clean energy

The World Bank has just announced its intent to seek $86 billion for a general capital increase (the GCI) from its donor countries (see World Bank press release). It is time for the World Bank to become a full part of the solution to global warming, not part of the problem and part of the […]

Using too much lawn fertilizer?

Photo courtesy of roel1943 via Flickr Brace yourself. Here comes another of my thought exercises, again inspired by my latest reading of The Red Queen-Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley. Another word of warning–random bursts of dripping sarcasm can be found in places you may not always expect it. Ever wonder […]