Latest Articles

Three’s a crowd: Is it unethical to have more than two kids?

In the U.S., many population groups try to smooth over controversy, preferring to highlight areas of broad agreement, such as making birth control universally accessible, educating girls, and empowering women. By contrast, the British group Population Matters (formerly Optimum Population Trust) tries to stir up controversy. It recently chided David and Victoria Beckham for adding […]

Underwater cities: Climate change begins to reshape the urban landscape

Flooding in Miami.Photo: kthreadDan Kipness, a retired fishing boat captain and a 60-year Miami Beach resident, has a video that offers a glimpse of where this coastal city is headed. In it, cars and trucks kick floodwater into the air as they drive down Miami Beach’s streets. This isn’t rainwater — the skies are at […]

Food Studies: Post-communist pork, the Goat Whisperer, and other stories from the field

Mangalica pigs in Hungary. Food Studies features the voices of volunteer student bloggers from a variety of different food- and agriculture-related programs at universities around the world. You can explore the full series here. Over the past few months I’ve visited food producers, large and small, all over Europe. I’ve been behind the scenes on […]

Direct subsidies to fossil fuels are the tip of the (melting) iceberg

In recent years, energy subsidies have risen to become a first-tier political issue. Lots of folks are thinking and talking about them, which is absolutely a Good Thing. However, the discussion has remained narrow and legalistic in a way that obscures some larger realities. The usual question that gets asked is, who gets more direct […]

Which are cheaper — tradeable credits or feed-in tariffs?

Cross-posted from Climate Progress. A few years ago, a heated debate started within the U.S. solar industry about which was more cost-effective: solar renewable energy credits (SRECs) or feed-in tariffs (FITs). Now that we’ve had more experience with both policies, the question is again being asked. Researchers at the Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR) […]

The raw milk martyr

Schmidt in January 2010, after winning his court case.For nearly a month now, Canadian rancher Michael Schmidt has been engaged in a hunger strike. For over 17 years, Schmidt has been crusading for the right to distribute raw milk to a few hundred Ontario consumers who own shares in his herd of cows. He says […]

Which green home solutions pay for themselves?

Trick question: They basically all pay for themselves in the long run! But a new infographic from One Block Off the Grid helps you choose home energy improvement projects based on up-front cost and how long they'll take to start paying you back. The quickest payback is a smart thermostat, with a payback time of […]

Here’s a template for your Occupy Wall Street sign

The Occupy Design group on Flickr has a lot of arresting images, including this one about oil company profits and subsidies. If you're not angry already, clicking through this set will probably help with that — and then you can print out one of these designs, paste it on a sign, and go get tear […]

David Byrne, Janette Sadik-Khan on why New Yorkers fight over bike lanes

David Byrne.For a city widely seen as a haven for progressive thought, New York has put up surprisingly stiff resistance to helping cyclists get where they’re going in one piece. A year ago, before Wall Street greed had a monopoly on the New York protest scene, East Village residents gathered to voice concern over all […]

New ‘fish-friendly’ turbine means way more hydro power

Every year, the U.S. forgoes 8,500 megawatts of electricity because operating our hydro power facilities at full capacity would turn an unacceptable number of migratory fish into Li'l Lisa Slurry. (That's the equivalent of almost nine nuclear reactors' worth of lost baseload power.) So scientists and utilities are understandably pumped about the Alden Fish-Friendly Turbine, […]