Latest Articles
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Critical List: Yellowstone pipe could have carried tar-sands oil; L.A. survived Carmageddon
The Yellowstone River spill could have included heavier, more corrosive tar-sands oil, federal officials said. This type of oil eats through pipes more quickly, and if ExxonMobiil was using those pipes to transport tar-sands oil, that decision could have contributed to the spill.
Carmageddon = over. And it turns out that, given the choice to avoid the freeway by plane or bike, it’s faster to bike.
It's not the best idea to buy meat from Japan right now. Just saying.
Your fish oil tablets are destroying marine ecosystems. -
Burn, baby, burn: Ask Umbra on sun-protective clothing
Do pricy sun-protective garments really do a better job than regular old clothes? Ask Umbra unbuttons the question.
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Viva veggies: Say goodbye to bacon, boys
You should be a vegetarian, and so should I. So I'm going to try it for one week, and drag my family along with me.
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25 days of dares: Kiss a cow, cut the shower short
This is Umbra’s third entry in the series “Grist dared me to make a change.” Read the first and second here. And support her dare with a gift to Grist! Day 7, July 11: Meatless Monday/fun day Celebrate your independence from factory-farmed meat by enjoying veggie dogs, eggplant stacks and other delicious meatless grillables. Check […]
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Keystone XL pipeline would screw over farmers, threaten aquifer
The Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline, which would cut through family farms and aquifers, is leak-prone and won't come with a solid cleanup strategy.
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From “peak oil” to “unburnable carbon”
Recall one version of the peaker story – peak oil as a repository of hope. This is the take in which, despairing of other avenues to rapid, large-scale changes, we look to peak oil to at least save us from the more extreme forms of climate disaster. The idea is that, as we burn our […]
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Greening a city … and pushing other colors out
A development plan in San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood exposes the challenges of making communities sustainable without destroying their social fabric.
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Trashtivist: Shameful soup stink
The take-out food is killing me. My trash bag smells like old lentil soup. But when you have kids, you have to feed them.
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Play chutes and ladders on public transportation
The designers of this "Transit Accelerator" in the Dutch city of Utrecht have the right idea about making public transportation fun: turn it into a board game, or recess. What other inspiration can public transit take from childhood? Personally I'd like to see merry-go-round train cars where you ride on My Little Ponies.
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Ain’t no mountain high enough: Taking down Massey Coal
An effective combination of civil disobedience and legal reform is actually taking shape in the fight against mountaintop-removal mining and Massey.
