Latest Articles

Talking about the weather, post chitchat

The weather isn't a boring topic of conversation, and talking about the link between extreme weather and climate change takes on new significance.

What’s the real cost of not investing in clean energy?

Politicians have not invested in the insurance policy against climate change that we need.

Secondhand style: Wake me up, I'm wearing a nightgown

I tried to punch up this thrift store dress with braided hair, huge earrings, and bright red lipstick, but it still bores me to sleep. The reaction in my office: crickets chirping.

In defense of organic

A "mythbusting" Scientific American blogger took on organic agriculture recently, but she got much of the story wrong. Grist sets her straight.

Members of US House Introduce Bill to Stop Another Country from Controlling Aviation Pollution

Yesterday in the sweltering heat of Washington, DC Members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced legislation which would seek to stop the European program to control aviation’s air pollution.  The bill is another backward attempt by the House to undermine efforts to control the carbon pollution that is causing global warming.  This bill should […]

Jane Jacobs on neighborhoods, placemaking, and active living [VIDEO]

The celebrated urban planner's ideas are still highly relevant to today's thinking about communities and sustainability.

Pedestrians and transit riders come last [VIDEO]

More people living in the suburbs are poor and without cars. But autocentric street design means you risk your life getting around any other way.

Watch a whale jump for joy after being freed from a net

It's worth watching a guy scramble around in a Speedo to see this boatload of conservationists save a humpback whale caught in a net. If you don't want to sit through tense Speedo-clad net-cutting, though, you can skip ahead to about 6:30 and watch the newly freed whale repeatedly leaping into the air in what […]

Viva veggies: Feast at dinner, famine at lunch

Veggie challenge check-in: Dinner's easy -- I'm married to a great cook. Breakfast is also easy. But I can't seem to fill up at lunch.

Judge: Tar-sands equipment can't travel on Montanan backroads

A group of Montanans, Idahoans, Oregonians, and Washingtonians struck a blow against ExxonMobil and its push to extract carbon-soaked oil from Canada's tar sands this week. The Northwesterns weren't upset about the environmental impact of the tar sands, exactly, but they were upset that an Exxon subsidiary wanted to haul oversized loads of oil-extraction equipment from the Port of Vancouver, Wash., over small winding highways in environmentally valuable areas, to the Canadian border.

They asked a judge to stop the company from using those roads. And on Tuesday, he did.