Latest Articles

Oil spill is New Zealand’s worst-ever environmental disaster at sea

It's bad when a tanker strikes a reef. It's worse when that tanker is carrying oil that starts tarring some of your country's nicest beaches. It's even worse when bad weather makes more oil leak from that tanker.

That's the series of increasingly problematic events that's been unfolding off the New Zealand coast, and the country's government is now calling it the worst maritime environmental disaster they've ever dealt with. The weather is keeping response crews from doing their thing, and birds and seals are both at risk. Plus, in addition to oil, the tanker was carrying smaller quantities of materials like ferrosilicon, which have the potential to wreak havoc in their own special way.

The Dead Sea may not be so dead after all

The planet is kind of amazing sometimes. Researchers have discovered plumes of fresh water at the bottom of the Dead Sea, deeper than any previous plumes that had been found. And around the plumes: life. Even though most microbes that live in salt die in fresh water and vice versa, some tough little buggers are hanging on in a space where salinity shifts constantly.

Coal ash regulation would create 28,000 jobs

The pro-pollution lobby loves to argue that environmental regulations destroy jobs. A report on coal ash regulation shows the opposite is true.

Critical List: Invasive species jump the border; Gulf sheen not BP’s fault

While U.S. border monitors were busy looking for terrorists in cargo containers, a slew of invasive species slipped unnoticed into the country.

Whatever that sheen in the Gulf is, it's not BP's fault, okay??

If carbon is a risk (and it is!), the market should adjust for that, valuing companies with high "exposure to climate change" less than those that are climate-resilient. But since markets don't seem to ever do what they should in theory, that hasn't happened yet.

Bicycles at war

The bicycle, though it's increasingly branded with progressive politics, has a long history in the armed forces.

Heritage livestock: Milk ’em for all they’re worth

Interest in heirloom produce highlights efforts to preserve rare livestock breeds, endangered by a half-century of industrial farming.

How to beat the Tea Party and win on clean energy

Tea Party politics have locked the U.S. into energy-policy stalemate. With the climate clock running out, is this stalemate also checkmate for Earth?

Solar PV rapidly becoming the cheapest option to generate electricity

Solar's not getting much love these days. But it could become very cheap, and we can leverage it for a rapid switch to global renewable energy.

Will more attention to climate change bring back ‘population control’?

I'm afraid that attention to climate will revive alarmist debates on population. And as a woman of color, I'm worried that the specter of population control will rear its ugly head again.

Solyndra and the self-referential Beltway media cycle

Solyndra is being called a scandal even though there hasn't been any official wrongdoing established or charged. Blame cable news and the political press.