Latest Articles

Climate change has made New Yorkers more vulnerable to Irene

A new map shows that climate change-related sea-level rise has boosted the number of people living in areas vulnerable to storm-surge flooding from Hurricane Irene.

Waiting for Irene, and remembering Katrina

One of the shocking things about the flooding of New Orleans was how predictable it was. Now, New York City is staring down the barrel of a loaded gun named Irene, and failure to adequately prepare for it could lead to the kind of devastation seen after H

Friday music blogging: Andrew Bird and the Muppets

An album of classic Muppets songs covered by indie rock artists ... sounds like an idea out of a dorm room bong session. And by that I mean awesome.

We need more markets — and veggie eaters

Rural residents tend to eat fewer fruits and veggies than their urban counterparts, despite living right next to the fields where produce is grown.

State Department concludes Keystone XL has 'no significant impacts'

The State Department issued its final environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline, finding it would bring no significant environmental impacts.

Just shut up and love this bicycle mustache

"Oh, there's no way I'm that much of a hipster," you say. "Sure, I like to bike to my community garden to pick up some herbs to go with the eggs from my rooftop chicken coop while listening to Dave Roberts' latest music recommendation, but ironic facial hair for a bike — it's just a […]

Our new favorite city is inside this guy's brain

Okay, so this is more amazing folk art than realistic urban design, but think of it as your Friday 10 minutes of Zen. Jerry Gretzinger has been making and remaking his incredibly detailed maps since 1963, and he's basically generated an entire alternate universe. In this mini-documentary, he details his complicated creative process, which is […]

Waters runs deep: Chez Panisse at 40

Can slow-food pioneer and trailblazing chef Alice Waters transcend white-tablecloth exclusivity to change the way Americans eat?

Whole Foods will tell you how to eat healthy, for a price

Unable to tell shiitake from Shinola? Don't know sea bass from a hole in the ground? Don't worry -- as long as you're willing to pay a giant wad of cash every month, you never have to be confused about what a "vegetable" is again. For a mere $49 a month -- only like a quarter of the average person's food budget! -- Whole Foods will hold your hand while you purchase their exorbitantly-priced groceries. In other words, if you're rich enough to eat healthy, you can spend more money to be assured you're eating healthy.

How to get paid to save the electrical grid

On the hottest days of the year, it's not uncommon for regional electricity systems to become so overloaded by demand that they come within a hair’s breadth of failing completely. (It happens in Texas all the time.)

Fortunately, utilities have come up with a cheap and easy way to overcome this problem: they offer their customers a cash incentive to sign up for a special kind of thermostat over which the utility has limited control. Then, when it gets nasty out, the utility can literally save the grid by turning up the temperature in your home just a teeny tiny bit. This is what's known as "demand response."