Latest Articles

Why do green jobs pay better than other jobs?

Less-educated workers with green jobs get higher wages than their peers with other low-skill jobs. Could it be because more green jobs are union jobs?

China to build 50+ nuclear reactors based on unsafe 60's tech, says Wikileaks

"China is currently in the process of building as many as 50 to 60 new nuclear plants by 2020; the vast majority will be the CPR-1000, a copy of 60's era Westinghouse technology that can be built cheaply and quickly and with the majority of parts sourced from Chinese manufacturers," says this cable from the U.S. embassy in Beijing.

Fox News viewers 'confused' by Bill Nye, science in general

Watch the latest video at video.foxbusiness.com

You'd think Fox News would already be mildly embarrassed by the fact that their outside consultant on science is the host of a children's program. ("And now, to discuss transportation infrastructure, Mr. Rogers!") But what's even more embarrassing is the fact that they can't understand a word he's saying, and they readily admit it.

Wind power breakthrough: Carbon nanotubes make strongest, lightest blades ever

Bigger wind turbines can harvest more wind energy, but they're also heavier, which makes them less efficient. But a scientist at Case Western Reserve University figures he can solve this fundamental dilemma by throwing carbon nanotubes at it.  

Breaking: Major victory — deal reached to retire old, dirty Potomac River Coal Plant

Only a few short weeks ago, I stood on a boat in front of the ancient, dirty, and deadly GenOn coal plant in Alexandria, Virginia, and introduced Michael R. Bloomberg, philanthropist and Mayor of New York City, who then announced a game-changing gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies to the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. Today, major […]

Stranded penguin is going home

Here's your awesome for the day. A penguin named Happy Feet washed up on a New Zealand beach in June, and promptly made himself sick by eating a bunch of sand that he mistook for snow. It's not clear how he wound up 2,000 miles from his Antarctic habitat, but Happy Feet is now well and is getting a lift back home. 

Run and hide from methyl iodide

Activists gathered in San Francisco to protest the use of methyl iodide, a known carcinogen, as a pesticide on California crops.

Busting myths about China's one-child policy

Joe Biden's latest gaffe thrust China's population policy into the headlines. Let's seize this opportunity to set a few things straight.

In battle between fuel and food, food is losing worse than ever

Despite the backlash against ethanol in the U.S. and biodiesel in the E.U., global production of biofuels was up 17 percent in 2010. That's 27.7 billion gallons of liquid fuel for the year. (For reference, the U.S. uses 137 billion gallons of gasoline per year, though that's not directly equivalent because biofuels include biodiesel, and ethanol contains slightly less energy than regular gasoline.)

Ice-cream-selling bike vendors run wild in Portland

Visit a park in Portland, and you could find a nice vendor biking around, hauling a cooler of ice cream. But this isn't any ice cream. It's illegal ice cream, and the people who are selling it are thumbing their nose at the law that is the Portland Parks Bureau. 

You’re supposed to pay $120 each month for a permit to sell ice cream in the parks, and these lawless vendors just aren't buying them. It annoys the people who sell legal ice cream, and the parks people. But are they going to crack down?