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A guest essay

The following is a guest essay from Roger S. Gottlieb, Professor of philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. His books include A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and our Planet’s Future and This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, Environment. —– If you’re not depressed, a friend of mine has been saying, it’s only because you haven’t been reading […]

Why agribusiness giants are facing off over corn ethanol

As recently as 2005, a buck fifty could get you a bushel of corn — about three days’ rations for a confined dairy cow. Today, that same bushel would run you nearly $4. Trouble in Big Ag paradise. Photo: iStockphoto That rapid price increase, inspired by a slew of federal policies that encourage transforming corn […]

The Coal Shebang

California says yes to stricter vehicle emissions, no to dirty coal California keeps pushing to be the Greenest State Ever, No Seriously, Like Ever. At an EPA hearing Tuesday, state officials demanded permission to enact vehicle emissions rules that would be stricter than federal guidelines. Under the Clean Air Act, states can follow either federal […]

Hitting Them Where It Hurts

Rebels kill ranger in Congolese national park, threaten officials and gorillas Rebels attacked three ranger posts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Virunga National Park this weekend, killing one wildlife officer, wounding three more, and taking 13 hostages. While the human prisoners were released, the Mai Mai rebels still have hostages of a sort: […]

They Could Teach PBS a Thing or Two

United Nations meets pledge goal for Billion Tree campaign Six months after launching a “Billion Tree” campaign to fight climate change, the United Nations has gotten more than a billion tree-planting pledges from around the world, with around 14 million trees making it into the ground so far. “The challenge now is to tell the […]

History Belongs to Those Who Dare to Rewrite It

Smithsonian allegedly revised exhibit to show climate “uncertainty” In 2003, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History was accused of pandering to the Bush administration when a photography exhibit about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was relocated and downplayed. Now former museum administrator Robert Sullivan is charging that last year, the museum toned down […]

Taken by my parents at a Toronto Blue Jays game

Gristmill: We’re nuts and more!

Birth of a new feature

Technical note: The Topics features mentioned below no longer are supported on Grist. As Dave noted yesterday, we rolled out a new site feature last weekend, and although we simply call it “topics,” it’s something we’ve been working on for months. Eventually it will be integrated into the site just as profoundly as commenting. Like […]

For the Love of … You Know

Religious leaders urge Congress, Bush to act on climate change After millennia of mistrust and conflict, the world’s religions might be united by … climate change? In an open letter published today in two Capitol Hill newspapers, the leaders of more than 20 religious groups urged Congress and President Bush to act on the issue. […]

U.S. tries to sentence eco-activists as terrorists, and more

Read the news items highlighted in this week’s podcast: Trouble With a Capital B Murdoch, She Wrote Or Are You Just Happy to Sue Me? Clarion Caller Remember When Driving Was Fun? Plus, He Made That Boat Sink Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: God of Small Things Lady, Bugged Citizen […]