Latest Articles

The kitchen of the future runs on leftovers

The kitchen of Philips Design's "Microbial Home" turns food waste into compost and cooking gas. Organic waste gets thrown in a "bio-digester," where specialized bacteria processes it into methane gas to fuel the range. Then the remaining solid matter is turned into compost. So the peelings from a potato might provide the heat to cook […]

The power of the people, organized

On Monday, Oct. 31, speaking about a possible permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, President Obama’s press secretary Jay Carney told the press that “this is a decision that will be made by the State Department.” On Tuesday, Nov. 1, speaking during an interview at the White House with a reporter from Omaha, […]

Critical List: Keystone company calls route change ‘unconstitutional’; Perry hates Iowa

The Keystone XL company thinks changing the pipeline's route could be unconstitutional. Rick Perry appears to want to piss off Iowa. He's against ethanol and now wind subsidies. Fracking probably caused an earthquake in England. Michael Mann, one of the Climategate scientists, is still fighting off groups that want access to his email. Levi Strauss […]

Confessions of a former Big Food executive

Photo: Casey V. PhotographyA few weeks ago, I learned of a relatively new blog about food industry deception, but with an interesting twist. The blog’s author is Bruce Bradley, who spent over 15 years as a food marketer at companies like General Mills, Pillsbury, and Nabisco. He has since, in his words, “become more educated […]

Locavore-dom taken to the extreme — by bike

Photo: MetrofietsI stepped out onto my front porch one day this summer just in time to see my farmer pedaling down the street with a trailer full of tools. To an outsider, such a vision must seem like a sketch right out of Portlandia, the television show that spoofs my hometown’s supposedly eccentric ways. Here […]

Old-school flower house leaves LEED in the dust

This is not your grandmother’s flower house.Photo: c/o Phipps ConservatoryThe Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh is the kind of place your grandmother would have loved. You know the routine — the spring tulip show, a whole room full of orchids, 5,000 varieties of rosebush. Housed in a classic Victorian glass house, it’s the kind of place […]

Green issues and greenbacks: Occupy Wall Street connects the dots [VIDEO]

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters linked climate and the environment to their movement this past Sunday, Oct. 30.  OWS’s environmental working group put the Climate Justice Day event together in five days, hosting workshops at New York City’s Zuccotti Park on topics such as fracking and sustainable economics.  Throughout the day, speakers drew connections between […]

Is solar Britain’s new sunset industry?

Photo: doggy SchnauzerGovernment treasury departments don’t generally respond well to the idea that the environment matters, and here in the U.K. things are no different. Yesterday, Energy Minister Greg Barker announced proposals for a 50 percent reduction of the “feed-in tariff” — a program that guarantees homeowners an income for the power they produce from […]

Texas toast: State’s drought-crippled ag market has global impact

Lakeview Park, Texas.Photo: dasrooflessCross-posted from Climate Progress. In August, agronomists showed that the historic drought in Texas had caused a stunning $5.3 billion in losses in the agricultural sector. Two months later, even with some rain finally coming to the state, Texas farmers are being crippled by a drought that could stretch beyond next summer. […]

Occupy Wall Street moves to bike power

Now that their gas generators have been seized, Occupy Wall Street is switching to a greener option: human power. Generator bikes can provide 100 hours of power per six hours of pedaling, which helps fuel OWS needs like heat, light, phones, and laptops. As you might have guessed from subtle messages in the above film, […]