Latest Articles

This old house: Why fixing up old homes is greener than building new ones

A new study finds that retrofitting old buildings is almost always more eco-friendly than building new ones, and provides the most immediate bang for the buck in the fight against climate change. The implication: Save old cities and we might spare the planet as well.

With meat, absence makes the taste buds grow fonder [RECIPES]

Cooking with small amounts of meat is a great way to explore flavors and eat more sustainably. As part of our Protein Angst series, here are five recipes that utilize meat as more of a condiment than the main event.

Republicans cockblock NOAA appointment because of an oil-drilling snit

You’d think that the main criterion for being named the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s chief scientist would be that you are a scientist. (Lesser criteria: being plausibly chiefly; studying some field related to oceanic and/or atmospheric science.) Turns out, though, that being a scientist can be a real liability for the chief scientist job, […]

New toilet paper is recycled and brown, and that’s not QUITE as gross as it sounds

So if you were going to make a recycled toilet paper, would you make a huge deal about it being brown? Is that really the color that will evoke the most pleasant images when paired with the phrase “recycled toilet paper”? Is anyone even driving this marketing campaign?

Obama doesn’t back down on clean energy

During the State of the Union, I was watching for whether the president would back down on clean energy in the face of coordinated GOP assault. He did not. Instead, he doubled down.

Schoolkids want The Lorax to be more tree-huggy

As Dave Roberts pointed out when the trailer was released, the upcoming Lorax movie is an insult to all that’s good and holy. The original Seuss tale is bleak, sure, but bleak with a purpose: it’s a parable about greed, exploitation, and the consequences of environmental rapaciousness. It does not feature the Polyphonic Spree. Well, […]

How enhanced geothermal power works, courtesy Taiwanese animators

Taiwanese animation studio NMA News explains, visually, how one key to our energy future works.

Geoengineering could boost crop production, says study

Adding tiny, sunlight-blocking particles to the upper atmosphere -- a.k.a. the “artificial volcano” approach to geoengineering -- could help crops avoid the effects of global warming.

Ex-employee says BP fired him for trying to clean up oil

In November 2011, BP fired an employee named August Walter, who had been working on clean-up of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Now, Wilson says the company fired him because he wouldn’t help gloss over its clean-up shortcuts. He’s suing BP in federal court. BP and the Coast Guard are working on the clean-up […]

Climate change danger: Arsenic in the water supply

Droughts, climate change, and resource-intensive dairy farming have joined forces to make Mexico’s Laguna Region, once well-stocked with ponds, into a semi-arid semi-wasteland. Oh, and the drinking water is full of arsenic and it’s giving everyone cancer. Is this the most cheerful post we’ve ever written? Maybe!