Latest Articles

Monsanto fail: GMO crops are losing their pest control powers

Monsanto crops bred to thwart western corn rootworms, which love eating corn roots, are no longer are doing their job. The rootworms developed a resistance to the natural pesticide the crops produced and are chowing down.

The alternatives for farmers: buy other genetically modified seeds (which will totally work forever!); spray nastier insecticides; abandon the economic model of monoculture and GMO crops. Guess which one's going to happen. Maybe which two out of three.

How the smart grid of the future will prevent power outages for millions

Right now there are millions of people without power thanks to the wind and heavy rainfall that accompanied hurricane Irene, and I'm one of them. It sucks. Having to call the utility company just to let them know that they've failed me once again is a symptom of our antediluvian electricity distribution system. 

Commonwealth Edison of Northern Illinois thinks so, too. Recently, they explained to the Daily Herald how a smart grid would have prevented outages for hundreds of thousands of their customers in the wake of recent July storms.

American solar exports increased 83 percent in 2010

Who says America doesn't make things? Last year, we exported $5.63 billion worth of solar products: photovoltaic cells, modules, investors, capital equipment, polysilicon, and more, according to a new report from GTM Research and Solar Energy Industries Association. That's an 83 percent increase over the previous year

Global warming will make future hurricanes worse, full stop

Ignore the members of the peanut gallery bleating about whether or not we can blame hurricane Irene on global warming. What matters is that in the future, warmer temperatures will mean more moisture in the air, so more flooding. And higher sea levels will make cities, especially New York, substantially more vulnerable to storm surges.

Elizabeth Kolbert, in The New Yorker:

Are more events like Irene what you would expect in a warming world? Here the answer is a straightforward “yes."

Brit gives NIMBYists the tongue-lashing they deserve

Writing in the Times (of New York, not London), Roger Cohen points out that even though 82 percent of Brits are in favor of wind power, only one in three on-shore projects is ever built, owing to "Not in My Back Yard" attitudes. Apparently Her Majesty’s citizens are all for wind power as long as it happens in one of the colonies. (“We still have colonies, right?”)

Jaded New Yorkers aside, Irene was serious business

With Hurricane Irene, now a tropical storm, going relatively easy on Gotham, some New Yorkers are feeling ripped off. The New York Times quotes several locals furiously white-whining about extra batteries, too much tuna fish, and the general "buzz kill" of not being subject to death and property damage. 

Everything you've heard about the tar sands and energy security is wrong

Here’s the reality: Protecting the United States’ energy security means keeping our continent’s oil in the ground for when we need it in an emergency.

Critical List: Gore analogizes skeptics to racists; why Irene calmed down

According to Al Gore, climate skeptics are the new racists: they say crazy things in casual conversation that others let slide -- for now.

Here’s why Irene gave NYC a break.

NASA scientist James Hansen is planning to be arrested today at the Keystone XL protest. He told Climatewire that if President Obama approves the pipeline, he "was just greenwashing all along, like the other well-oiled coal-fired politicians."

Liner notes: Ask Umbra on ditching garbage bags

What if making more waste just isn't your bag? Ask Umbra gets trashed to find out.

Greatest fear, greatest hope

This was originally published by High Country News’ Writers on the Range syndicate. Thanks for their permission to reprint it here. Last month, three little girls, ages 8, 5 and 2, and their mother, were killed in a Wyoming flash flood that washed away their van. It was the kind of torrential downpour climatologists predict […]