Latest Articles

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.

Plastic purge: The good, the bad, and the ugly

The plastic purge is over, and here's what I've learned: Avoiding plastic makes you lose weight.

Elevate your ice cream

How healthy is your ice cream? Find out with this sweet flowchart.

In the future, cleaning robots will sniff out air pollution

Researchers at the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science have kitted out a Roomba -- you know, one of those robotic vacuum cleaners that cats ride around on and act out Citizen Kane -- to evaluate air quality. Lights on the Roomba indicate the presence of evaporated alcohol, and a long-exposure photo, above, can show which parts of a room are clean and which are fumey. Blue lights in the above photo mean that the robot detected polluted air.