Latest Articles

Mercedes mows down Occupy protestors

Where's the mayor of Vilnius when you need him? This video shows a Mercedes nearly hitting two Occupy Oakland protestors at slow speed as they cross the street, causing one of them to first make a "stop" motion and then bang twice on the hood — at which point the driver decided to just run […]

McRibs are made from the unhappiest pigs

What does the McRib taste like? Gym mats? Or PIG TEARS? Meat farming is kind of the worst, but it seems the pigs who end up in McRib sandwiches are especially in need of a clever spider to rescue them. The McRib pork (who knew it had actual pork in it?!) is sourced from Smithfield […]

Keystone XL backers try to get OWS on their side

Climate leaders like Bill McKibben have visited Occupy Wall Street and put out the message that the movement should oppose the Keystone XL pipeline. But proponents of Keystone XL are also trying to use OWS to press their case. David Dayen caught this bit of politicking on a website called Jobs for the 99%: Hollywood’s […]

Whoops: 2010 had the largest-ever jump in greenhouse emissions

Ugh, you guys, we gotta step it up. Carbon dioxide emissions logged the largest increase on record in 2010, putting greenhouse gas levels above the worst-case scenario predicted four years ago. According to ThinkProgress, that could mean 10 degrees F of warming in this century. Carbon dioxide emissions went up by 6 percent between 2009 […]

Critical List: Emissions jumped in 2010; Japan has created the world’s most efficient solar cell

In 2010, greenhouse-gas emissions increased more than they ever had before in one year. Blame the tepid economic recovery. The EPA's going to release initial results from its fracking investigation next year, but the final report won't come out until 2014. Dig into the dysfunction of the Keystone XL approval process and the fighting between […]

Lobstermen pinch and save [VIDEO]

We see lobster served in fancy restaurants so often that it’s easy to forget there are places where it is caught and sold for under $3 a pound. We recently spent time in Maine — home of some of the world’s best lobsters — and familiarized ourselves with the process of catching these amazing shellfish. […]

‘Going Boulder’ means voting for local energy self-reliance

Photo: Zane Selvans This post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. By a razor-thin margin, Boulder, Colo., citizens gave the city a victory for energy self-reliance on Tuesday, approving two ballot measures to let the city form a municipal utility. If the city moves […]

Can the arts save struggling cities?

Something is stirring in Detroit. Here, in a city that in the past decade alone lost a quarter of its already dwindling population, plans are in the works to revive the manufacturing economy — at least on a small scale. The Detroit FAB Lab taps into the vibe of “maker” labs and hackerspaces around the […]

End the Coal for Carbon Credits Scandal

The Sierra Club and CDM-Watch first broke the coal for carbon credits scandal occurring at the United Nations offsetting mechanism (the Clean Development Mechanism CDM) associated with the Kyoto Protocol back in July. If you’re unfamiliar with CDM – here’s a definition from the UN: The CDM allows emission-reduction projects in developing countries to earn […]

The GOP brain explained: Why Cliff Stearns wants to subsidize successful companies

Your brain on conservatism.Yesterday I sketched the sort of personality type most likely to identify as conservative: those who prefer stability to change, order to complexity, familiarity to novelty, and conformity to creativity. This sort of personality type is drawn to clear lines separating in-groups from out-groups, highly aware of social hierarchies, suspicious of change, […]