Latest Articles

Urban gardens: The harvest is not just food, it's community

Community gardens have an almost magical power to change the urban landscape. Now many in New York City are safe in the hands of those who tend them.

Nuclear power's new marketing strategy: hide behind some windmills

The tagline on this advertisement for German Atomic Forum ("founded in 1959 to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy in Germany") is "CO2 Emissions = Zero."

Thanks to the recession, recycling is booming

A few years ago, the only people who came in to Alliance Recycling in Emeryville, Calif., were were pushing shopping carts. Now, the same center is seeing people pull up in late model cars.

How to buy (and price) clean power

You get what you pay for. Clean power mandates in the US mandate that we buy megawatt-hours of clean energy, but they don’t mandate that those sources be reliable. This isn’t to say that clean energy can’t be reliable, but rather that it is mis-priced. Increasingly, this is causing conflicts for utilities, who have purchase […]

Is it meaningless to talk about ‘sustainable’ food?

How sustainable is your jar of Ragu tomato sauce? That is an insane question, says self-described “anti-foodie” Frederick Kaufman in his TED Talk.

Sustainability, Kaufman suggests, can be sort of like porn: you know it when you see it. But people really want it to be quantifiable. Kaufman describes efforts by a grand consortium of scientists, farmers, agribusiness, and environmentalists to track all the inputs into a product and mush those into one number that would reflect its overall sustainability.

Critical List: Mitt Romney doesn’t believe in carbon; Halliburton’s profits are up

Mitt Romney doesn't think carbon is a pollutant and doesn't think the EPA should regulate it. But he has said that we should reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases. May he doesn't understand what those words mean?

The hybrid electric flying car! (Brought to you by the military-industrial complex.)

Climate change could wipe out whitebark pine trees in the West, but the Fish and Wildlife Service can't be bothered to list the trees as endangered, or even threatened.

Don't eat your broccoli: Junk food industry determined to target kids

Government agencies are set to release voluntary suggestions for how Big Food could less slimy in its advertising. The industry is pushing back.

High steaks: Meat eaters' climate impact

The Environmental Working Group released the Meat Eaters Guide to Climate Change + Health, and it contains surprises for climate-conscious eaters.

Secondhand style: No hoochie dresses, please

Grist dared me to wear nothing but thrift store clothes for a week. Dresses? No problem. Shoes -- well, that's another story.

Bill McKibben avoids the fetal position

Bill McKibben's new Global Warming Reader brings together a range of writing on climate change.