Latest Articles

The Economics of Distributed Renewable Power

A serialized version of ILSR‘s new report, Democratizing the Electricity System, Part 2 of 5. Click for Part 1. The Economics of Distributed Generation The falling cost of distributed renewable generation has been one of the key drivers of the transformation of the U.S. electric grid. The following chart illustrates the cost of power generation […]

Tar-sands protests go global

Protests against a proposed tar-sands pipeline broke out across the globe today.

GOP's dirty air hit list sacrifices Americans' health

House Republicans want to block "job-killing" clean air safeguards that every year prevent thousands of deaths, heart attacks, and asthma attacks, and millions of missed work and school days.

Are vegetarians more fun in the sack?

Apparently vegetarians do eat meat. Data from the online dating site OKCupid indicate that vegetarians enjoy giving oral sex more — or anyway, they say they do. There are all sorts of causation and correlation-based theories we could attempt here, but we'll just let your imaginations run wild. We'll simply note that, inevitable confounding factors […]

Irene's damage not 'overrated' for farmers

From apple orchards in New York to sweet corn fields in Massachusetts, we take a look at how farmers are faring after the storm.

Climate convert says deniers are dumb

In a beautifully written post on Climate Crocks, former skeptic D.R. Tucker illuminates the way that far-right climate change denialism encourages and feeds off of science-phobia. Tucker is clearly far from stupid, but he wonders if stupidity is a required characteristic for climate change denial -- not because there's really an IQ requirement, but because denialists glorify ignorance and roll their eyes at complexity. That's appealing to dumb people, surely. But it's also appealing to people who lack for good science education or who think they're dumb at science, and who feel disadvantaged and judged because of it. Climate deniers like Rush Limbaugh make them feel like that's an asset, not a flaw.

Which side are you on, Obama? Live from the tar-sands protests [VIDEO]

Over 700 people have been arrested since action began two weeks ago, but Obama has stayed silent.

Don Cheadle's Captain Planet is not taking any crap from you

Yeah, whatever it is Captain Planet does is cool and all. (What does he do? Recycle really hard?) But certified badass Don Cheadle has a better idea, one that will save the Earth FOREVER. 

Conservative pundits grapple with 'anti-science' charge, flail

Conservatives are trying to defend their movement against the charge that Republicans are "anti-science." They started off badly and are getting worse.

Musical GPS lets you steer your bike without looking at a screen

It's hard enough to look at your GPS and at the road while you're driving, but on a bike that split second of inattention could easily lead to injury. So Dutch researchers, who know from biking, have developed a music-based navigation system called "Oh Music, Where Art Thou?" It's a smartphone app that lets you navigate by following a strain of music through the streets. If the sound seems to come from the right, you go right; if it comes from the left, you go left. (Hopefully there's a needle-scratch feature for missing your turn.)