Latest Articles

Coloring inside the lanes: Art that creates community

Sunnyside Piazza.Photo: Daniel Etra Cross-posted from Sightline Daily. What if all it took to build better neighborhoods was a little paint? Walking in southeast Portland, I once stumbled on a horizontal rendition of a sunflower, painted curb to curb on the intersection of Southeast 33rd and Yamhill. Sunnyside Piazza, it is called, which may seem a […]

Why Miracle on 34th Street delights my cold cynical heart

Miracle on 34th Street is the perfect Christmas movie for those who hate fake sentimentality. It is not that the classic 1947 film lacks schmaltz, but that a sly script hides a sharp edge under every schmear. Most of the plot advances come when characters, good and bad act out of self-interest. Two exceptions are […]

Now's not the time to hide from cleantech's challenges

In October, Third Way raised alarms that a decline in early stage venture capital investment in clean energy technologies threatened America’s ability to compete in the $2.3 trillion global clean energy market. Some in the clean energy community dismissed this warning, citing the massive growth of wind and solar capacity in the United States over […]

Confessions of a former Coke addict

Coked out.Photo: Lazurite Yes, I’ve battled a Coke “addiction” more than once. Just when I think I have it beat, it worms its way back into my life. No, this Coke isn’t that white, powdery stuff; it comes in a can, and my drug of choice is Cherry Coke Zero. Do you ever wonder why […]

Yet more evidence that shutting down coal plants will not threaten reliability

Light bulb: not going off.Photo: Pascal BovetRemember way back, uh, two days ago when I wrote a post arguing that new EPA rules will not threaten electric system reliability? Well, just in the last day or so, more evidence has emerged to support that position. I enjoy being right, so I’m doing a follow-up post. […]

The most heartbreaking polar bear picture, ever

I don't know if this guy is actually trying to push this icebreaker ship away from his home. Maybe he just thinks there's a free buffet if he can climb aboard. But in the context of the polar bears' plight, with their numbers dwindling due to climate change and habitat loss, this looks like a […]

Durban dispatch: Canada blames Canada

Cross-posted from ThinkProgress Green. The Canadian Youth Delegation has publicly apologized for the actions of the Canadian government and their negotiators at Durban, publishing an apology letter in a local newspaper. The Persian Gulf nation of Qatar, which has the highest per-capita greenhouse gas emissions in the world, has been selected as the site of […]

Toying with the Happy Meal: Is McDonald’s evading the law?

While most media outlets dubbed it the “Happy Meal toy ban,” the ordinance passed in San Francisco last year didn’t ban anything. The law just placed a few reasonable nutrition guidelines (a maximum of 600 calories per meal and limits on fat and salt, for example) for restaurants using free toy incentives to lure kids […]

Energy-producing toilets kill two birds with one … well, you know

Leave it to MIT geeks to figure out how to solve one problem (the need for a sustainable energy source) by solving another (insufficient sanitation). Sanergy, a company founded by a group of MIT grads and newly funded by USAID, provides low-cost toilets to sanitation-challenged communities in Kenya, then harvests the waste to convert into […]

The Greenie Pig is on a (carbon) diet

I’ve become quite the calorie-counter lately. With the holiday season upon us, I’m really tightening my belt, carefully calculating the number of calories I’d consume from all kinds of daily choices and sniffing out ways to trim the buggers from my diet. Like many a calorie-counter before me can attest, it’s frustrating work. Of course, […]