Latest Articles

Perception vs. reality in 'bike-friendly' San Francisco

The city's four-year injunction on developing new bike infrastructure has finally been lifted, but will San Francisco be able to make up for lost time?

Missouri puts payoff of local power in peril

The Missouri legislature's move to jeopardize the state's renewable energy standard misses the huge economic benefits of local clean energy.

The Tar Sands Action (smile)

  My mind has been a jumble the last couple of days as I’ve tried to think about what I would be saying in this column. I knew I would be writing about the historic and amazing Tar Sands Action in Washington, D.C.   I am literally smiling as I embark on this writing journey. […]

Rick Perry: The EPA 'won't know what hit 'em'

Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry announced his intentions to make the EPA unapologetically pro-pollution.

Light pollution is stealing our night sky — here's how to get it back

This (left) is your sky. And this (right) is your sky on ONE MAJOR LIGHT SOURCE. So it's no surprise that suburban starscapes have been totally desaturated by the lights on buildings, roads, and parking lots. Less than half the U.S. -- and almost none of Europe -- has dark enough night skies to see the Milky Way.

Mom could be arrested for letting her kid bike to school

There are a few factors that make it tricky for kids to bike or walk alone: Bad drivers who face insufficient consequences, lack of sidewalks and protected bike lanes, too few crosswalks. We COULD improve biking and walking infrastructure, and have cops actually crack down on illegal driving maneuvers. But that's hard! Instead, let's just arrest everybody who doesn't drive their kids to school. That appears to be the approach in Elizabethton, Tenn., where Teresa Tryon has been threatened with arrest if she keeps letting her daughter bike to school on her own.

Don’t tell Bachmann, but lightbulb standards were a Republican idea

Republicans have been whining about the Obama administration’s liberty-squashing decision to phase out inefficient incandescent bulbs in favor of CFLs, LEDs, and (surprise!) more efficient incandescent bulbs. But (double surprise!) the idea of requiring efficient lightbulbs sprang fully-formed from the head of a Republican, Michigan Rep. Fred Upton. 

Las Vegas actually pretty good at conserving water

The Las Vegas strip likes to pretend it’s flush in all manner of luxuries, including water -- even though Lake Mead, which provides the city with water, could disappear within the next decade. Running a giant fountain or indoor canal in the middle of the desert is the hydrological equivalent of flashing fat stacks of cash. But while casinos aren't exactly down with water conservation (that’s for poor people!), the Las Vegas government is.

Nothing says eco-tourism like a 21-foot crocodile

What do you do with a suspected man-eating crocodile the size of a small aircraft? Make it the highlight of an eco-tourism park. At least, that's what wildlife authorities in the Philippines are doing with a 21-foot crocodile they caught this weekend. Lord, if only Steve Irwin were here to see this.

Farmers who don't believe in climate change adapting to it anyway

In our nation's breadbasket, adaptation to climate change is very much already in progress -- the attitudes of those who represent farmers in our nation's capital notwithstanding. Higher minimum temperatures are reducing yields for corn, which likes hot days but cool nights. So whatever their political leanings, farmers have to adapt or face disaster.