Latest Articles

Infographic: World’s tallest buildings OF THE FUTURE

(click to embiggen) Buildings are getting to be so tall that the Council on Tall Buildings came up with a new name for their most extreme versions: Megatall. This is density taken to an extreme that may not be all that helpful. For one thing, people, goods, and water have to be moved all the […]

Here’s what Republicans are trying to shove into must-pass bills

Politicians are always trying to sneak shit into important bills, so that when you vote to pass the Don't Starve America's Children Act you are also sneakily funding the Rich People Get To Use You As A Coffee Table rider. Because congressional Republicans evidently hate you and the world, they're shoving a bunch of anti-environmental […]

GOP tries to force Big Coal’s poison pill on tax cut bill

Cross-posted from ThinkProgress Green. GOP leadership in Congress has decided to use must-pass payroll tax cut legislation as a vehicle to push key polluter priorities, despite a veto threat from the White House. House Republicans have attached a rider to extend a Clean Air Act loophole for the coal industry, daring a White House veto. […]

In praise of the humble pothole

Photo: Topsy Qur’etThis may be the “most wonderful time of the year” for holiday music fans, but it’s a terrible time to drive: Constant freezing and thawing and the pounding of holiday traffic create craters in the asphalt large enough to swallow a Cooper Mini, leaving us to pick our way through a minefield of […]

The bugs that ate Monsanto

The corn rootworm.Photo: Jimmy SmithNow that 94 percent of the soy and 70 percent of the corn grown in the U.S. are genetically modified, Monsanto — one of the companies that dominates the GMO seed market  — might look to some like it’s winning. But if we look a little closer, I’d say they’re holding […]

Methane in the Arctic: The end of the world, or what?

Russian scientists have discovered that the Arctic is releasing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of enormous plumes of methane from the seafloor directly into earth's atmosphere. The scale and volume of the methane release has astonished the head of the Russian research team who has been surveying the seabed of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf off northern […]

Crazy Taiwanese animation explains Canada’s Kyoto withdrawal

Canada's craven withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol just got the Taiwanese animation it deserves. For those of you who aren't up on your international climate treaties, it's hard to put it more succinctly than New Media Animation itself has: Canada is withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, Environment Minister Peter Kent said Monday, […]

New species from Asia include noseless monkey named ‘Snubby’

There are still way more kinds of creatures out there than science knows about — we're discovering new species all the time, and it always seems like the new ones are the weirdest yet. The World Wildlife Fund just released info about their 2010 discoveries in Asia's Mekong River region, which traverses Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, […]

Why is Canada withdrawing from Kyoto? Two words: Tar sands

Canada is pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol, ostensibly because it's so far from meeting its goals it'll have to pay high penalties. Also it’s all Bill Clinton’s fault. In reality, though, this is all about tar-sands oil. For starters, it’s not exactly true that fines would be inevitable if Canada can’t meet its goals […]

Awesome vintage bike map shows cycling’s golden age

Big Map Blog has turned up a fantastically detailed map of California's bike routes in the 1890s. It was published by George W. Blum and endorsed by H.F. Wynne, the president of the California Cycling Club in 1895. Mr. Blum was based, it seems, in San Francisco, and that's where the map is centered. It […]