Latest Articles

CBO: Clean energy standards are an affordable way to cut emissions

The Congressional Budget Office found that shifting to cleaner electricity generation is an affordable and effective way to reduce carbon emissions.

Balancing climate pragmatism with moral clarity

The Breakthrough Institute crew has a new report called "Climate Pragmatism." It's got a few reasonable ideas and some not-so-reasonable ones.

DeChristopher case begs question: What if enviros were allowed to bid on oil leases?

What if instead of landing him in jail, Tim DeChristopher's bidding was welcomed? What if enviros were allowed to bid for federal land leases?

Tea Party will protect humans from manatees

Rep. Rich Nugent (R-Fla.) proposes an amendment to the Interior and Environment appropriations bill that blocks the creation of a manatee refuge.

Could a carbon tax help solve our budget woes?

In addition to generating much-needed revenue, a carbon tax would force industries to pay for the pollution they create, instead of placing the burden on the public.

Green crush: How does your garden grow?

There's nothing quite contrary about Eagle Street Farm.

The plastics industry will do anything to keep you using plastic bags

Plastic bags are the genital warts of litter -- they're incredibly widespread, nearly impossible to get rid of, and can lead to much worse problems down the line. The only thing that works is prevention -- i.e. not using them in the first place. But the plastics industry doesn't take too kindly to that. Here's a sampling of the tactics the industry has used to keep people from weaning themselves off plastic bags:

British kids build greenhouse out of plastic bottles

What do you do with the empty plastic bottles that you really shouldn't have been drinking out of, anyway? These British school children spent a year and half collecting 1,500 of them and used the bottles to construct a greenhouse, in which they are very successfully growing tomatoes.

People living near mountaintop-removal mines have way more cancer

Mountaintop-removal mining is not only bad for the environment, it's bad -- very bad -- for the health of the people who are exposed to it. A new study, based on a door-to-door survey, found that in communities exposed to this type of mining, cancer rates were twice as high as in communities that weren’t exposed. That's after controlling for all of those other cancer-causing factors: age, sex, smoking, occupation, etc.

Destroying nature so people can look at nature in Yosemite Park

Yosemite National Park is a great place for appreciating nature, what with the mountains and the wildlife and so forth. But there's one thing spoiling the bucolic beauty for everyone: All those damn trees. They are so in the way! They're like the mist that comes up off Niagara Falls and ruins all your photographs. If only they'd cut them down, so we could get back to looking at nature!