Latest Articles

Why should EPA regulators investigate factory farm pollution when they can go get a beer instead?

The EPA doesn't know where most factory farms are, nor what they're polluting -- and yet it just reversed a rule that would have helped clean water regulators find out.

Ask Umbra: Should I buy a refurbished laptop for college?

A reader asks if it does the planet any good to buy a used computer rather than a new one. Umbra takes a byte out of the question.

The great cities vs. suburbs rivalry, and why it matters

The cities are winning! No, the ’burbs are! Why do we bicker about census numbers?

Babes in bikeland: Advice for cycling with kids

A request for advice on biking with kids elicited a flood of enthusiastic and inspiring insights from parents about the joys of cycling with little ones.

For young farmers: No land, but plenty of climate change to go around

While making a documentary about young farmers in New Jersey, a filmmaker noticed that the extreme weather became the star of the show.

Rising waters: Close encounters with climate change on the Hudson

Two men set out by motorcycle to talk to everyday folks about their experiences with extreme weather. In this episode of Slow Ride Stories, an interview with a sailing captain and his crew.

Friday music blogging: Rye Rye

I love good hip-hop. I love good dance and club music. But as I’ve grown older (I recently turned 1,000), I’ve lost the will needed to wade through all the terrible hip-hop and dance music out there to find the good stuff. I can’t tell if it’s me or the music, but at least from […]

Republicans prefer naming things after Reagan to signing U.N. ocean treaties

And, really, who can blame them?

Why is the U.S. government so bullish on coal predictions?

The Department of Energy has a more favorable outlook for coal than virtually any other major forecasting institution.

These fruit-shaped bus shelters make public transit more delicious

Waiting for a bus is never the most fun part of a commute, but if you lived in Isahaya City, Japan, you could at least pretend you were some kind of magic bus-riding mouse in a fairy tale. Bus shelters in the city are sculpted and painted to look like giant fruit.