Latest Articles

Climate denialism: It’s an Anglo-Saxon thing

According to a new study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, climate change denial — or at least, representation of climate change denial in the media — is pretty heavily an Anglo-Saxon problem. The study analyzed more than 3,000 articles from six countries that presented deniers' viewpoints, and 80 percent of them […]

Can the Keystone XL coalition stop climate change?

Cross-posted from the Council on Foreign Relations. Bryan Walsh, writing at TIME, is right: Bill McKibben and the Keystone XL protestors have pulled off something pretty impressive. I’m not talking about the merits of the indefinite delay to the pipeline that the State Department announced yesterday — the substantive case for blocking Keystone is weak. […]

Holy crap birds are amazing

Now that we know birds are basically just tiny dinosaurs, it makes them simultaneously more cool and more terrifying. On the one hand: tiny dinosaur that lives in your house and asks you for a cracker! On the other hand: tiny dinosaur that tries to get all up in your boardwalk fries! And here we […]

Spies among us: Café Nordo’s sustainable dinner theater

Photo: John CornicelloI’m on Pan Am Flight 892, en route to the 1962 World’s Fair. Only this is no ordinary airline food, and there are spies slinking among the seats. This is To Savor Tomorrow, the latest production from Seattle theater company Cafe Nordo. It’s the company’s fourth foray into dinner theater — although I […]

Slouching toward a bananapocalypse?

Photo: Frank KehrenFor years journalists have warned of imminent banana extinction. “Get bananas while you still can,” wrote New Scientist over five years ago. “The world’s most popular fruit … is in deep trouble,” it went on to say, adding that the banana would probably be out of supermarkets by 2013, and would soon exist […]

Most efficient solar panel ever

Physics tells us that the most efficient solar cell should be able to convert 33.5 percent of solar energy into electricity, but to date the closest that the layabouts we call "scientists" were able to manage was 24 percent efficiency. Now a new solar cell has smashed that record, reaching 28.4 percent efficiency. They pull […]

Grimy to green: Three cities that have cleaned up their acts

Jad Daley with the Trust for Public LandPhoto: Hanna Welch All right, we know that no place with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants deserves to be described in these terms — but let’s face it, some cities are known for being dumps. Yet every dump can be cleaned up. Few understand this better than Jad […]

Infographic: The top toxic health hazards

We figured this depressing Scientific American article about the top 10 pollution-related health hazards deserved the Onion-style infographic treatment. Here are the actual numbers for how many people are being sickened or killed by toxic pollution worldwide: Mercury pollution from gold mining (3.5 million people) Lead pollution from industrial parks (nearly 3 million) Pesticides from […]

Keystone ‘victory’ is nothing of the sort, say testy wonks

Enviros’ opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline has succeeded in delaying or possibly even deep-sixing a project that would have carried oil from the tar sands in Canada to refineries in Texas (and over a drinking water aquifer and the epicenter of a bunch of earthquakes). But not everyone is celebrating. Professional wet blanket Michael […]

FDA fights fish fraud

Not only is eating fish not the most sustainable of food choices, it's likely a rip-off. If you're eating a pricey fish like cod or salmon, there's more than a one in five chance that it's something much cheaper. The FDA, though, is developing a new regulatory program to fight fish fraud. The agency is […]