Latest Articles
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Your bike commute stories: The good, the bad, and the opossum
We asked you for your best and worst commuting stories. One lucky fan who responded got a gift card for $500 to her local bike shop. But why stop there? A lot of the tales were so good, we just had to share. So here are a few choice anecdotes from the world of bike commuting. Read on and ride on!
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Who really benefits from the egg industry deal?
An agreement between the Humane Society and United Egg Producers to seek federal legislation for better henhouse conditions is still a long way from having any real effect.
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Surprise! Fracking fluid kills trees
Not that this is a big surprise or anything, but a new study shows that disposing of fracking fluid can do a number on local trees. One perfectly legal dump of used fracking fluid in West Virginia ended up killing more than half of the trees in the affected area.
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Desperate times call for dirty energy
Turning coal into liquid fuel is a majorly polluting proposition. An Ohio town starved for jobs doesn’t care.
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Killing weeds may kill butterflies
Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed, and as young caterpillars, they eat the stuff. But humans like to have neat rows of corn and soybeans, and milkweed interferes with their field aesthetics. Which is more important? Doesn’t matter; humans have thumbs, agriculture, and industrial chemistry. Thus, 100 million acres of row crops are now milkweed-free; Monarch butterflies have fewer places to stash their young; and their population may be dwindling.
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Gore launches new Climate Reality Project, tells Grist all about it
Al Gore is launching a new campaign: the Climate Reality Project. It will kick off on Sept. 14 with a global, live-streamed "24 Hours of Reality" event.
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Aerialist flies high above New York's Williamsburg Bridge [VIDEO]
The performance that aerialist Seanna Sharpe gave on the Williamsburg Bridge last night is unlikely to achieve the iconic status of Philippe Petit's high-wire act between the Twin Towers. But for 15 minutes, dozens of New Yorkers stood enthralled as she twirled and swooped above them.
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Five things Al Gore will reveal at the upcoming Climate Reality event
On Sept. 14, The Climate Reality Project, spearheaded by Al Gore, will bring us, "24 hours of reality … An event that that will focus the world's attention on the full truth, scope, scale and impact of the climate crisis." Its goals: "To remove the doubt, reveal the deniers, and catalyze urgency around an issue that affects every one of us."
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Why this drought will be way, way worse than the last one
A New York Times article about the current drought in the South compares it to a record-setting dry spell 60 years ago:
Climatologists say the great drought of 2011 is starting to look a lot like the one that hit the nation in the early to mid-1950s. That, too, dried a broad part of the southern tier of states into leather and remains a record breaker.
But this time, things are different in the drought belt. With states and towns short on cash and unemployment still high, the stress on the land and the people who rely on it for a living is being amplified by political and economic forces, state and local officials say. As a result, this drought is likely to have the cultural impact of the great 1930s drought, which hammered an already weakened nation.
But it's not just the economy that's worse now than it was in the 1950s. Water usage is also way, way up. This drought rivals the record-setting 1950s drought -- it's already breaking records in some states -- but it comes at a time when the population is double what it was in 1950, and total water use is more than twice as high.
