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Get set for a new wave of small, distributed power generation projects

One of the most positive and interesting developments in sustainability is the spread of distributed power generation -- small, locally rooted projects built and maintained by the communities they serve.

According to Ted Bernhard at Clean Edge, this stuff is just on the verge of taking off:

A mini-spiel on global warming

Here's Al Gore's short appearance at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards:

Republican dollars go to Green candidate in PA senate race

Rick Santorum's campaign is funneling Republican dollars to the Green Party candidate in the (extremely tight) Pennsylvania Senate race. Why?

A commitment to open and fair debate, of course.

Or perhaps Republicans are just tired of the lesser of two evils, and they want to bust up the system, maaan.

Zero emissions vehicle symposium coming up in Sacramento

Everyone who is anyone in the zero-emissions-vehicle world will be at the Zero Emissions Vehicle symposium in Sacramento, Calif., Sept 25-27.

Ben Ovshinsky on ECD-Ovonic's hydrogen work.

Martin Eberhard on the latest from Tesla.

And Wednesday is all plug-in hybrids, all the time.

I can't freakin' wait.

On the subject, CalCars recently announced its intention to start a for-profit PHEV company.

And with PG&E taking the unprecedented step of including a bill insert asking its 5.5 million customers to join the plug-in partners campaign, plug-ins are getting some serious momentum.

A guest essay from enviro legend James Gustave Speth

The following is a guest essay from James Gustave Speth, dean of the Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and author of Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment. The opinions expressed here are his personal views.

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Thanks to an outpouring of first-rate science, excellent media coverage, and a resurgent Al Gore, the U.S. public may have turned an important corner in acknowledging global warming as a real and serious threat. To see Gore's An Inconvenient Truth in theaters alongside Nacho Libre and the usual fare is extraordinary indeed.

But if Americans take the next step and ask, "OK, what do we do now?" we encounter five other truths, most of them also inconvenient. They do tell us what we must do, however, and by when.

There’s something wacky in the D.C. water supply

The intersex part aside, here's evidence that there is something in D.C.'s water that may also explain why our elected officials so often seem to be, well, nutjob freaks of nature.

Well-Fed

It’s now oh-so-easy for federal employees to give to Grist Do you earn your bread and butter in the employ of the U.S. federal government? Have we got a deal for you! You can now donate to Grist through the Combined Federal Campaign; we’re recipient No. 2338. It’s tax-deductible and simple as pie. If you […]

A Fish Called Wanda

Male fish with female characteristics found in Potomac tributaries Male smallmouth and largemouth bass in the Potomac River have been found to be developing eggs, leading federal scientists to suspect that, well, it may be something in the water. Female characteristics have been found in more than 80 percent of the male smallmouth bass studied […]

Vast untapped oil reserve discovered in the Gulf of Mexico

Yesterday, Chevron Corp. announced the finding of a vast untapped oil reserve in the Gulf of Mexico, after Jack2, its test well, hit the biggest jackpot in a generation. It comes as a relief for some, but could be a headache for environmentalists.

A new group that’s not afraid to get its, um, shirts dirty

Things I loved as a kid, and not-so-secretly still love: rubber duckies, bubbles, and dirt.

My love for the latter is apparently shared by the founders of More Dirt. Why More Dirt? Glad you asked: