Latest Articles

Right-wingers bash Gore for wanting women to have access to birth control

The right-wing media is all aflutter over Al Gore saying that we should educate girls, keep kids from dying, and make birth control available to women.

What ever happened to the party of national security?

This OnEarth column was written by George Black. I don’t spend a lot of time listening to Rush Limbaugh. But driving through Wyoming recently, I chanced upon his distinctive cadences on my car radio. I couldn’t find a reliable signal for NPR, I don’t like Mötley Crüe, and I was getting tired of listening to […]

Solar-powered laptop lets you play outside while you work

What's the best way to piss off a computer scientist? Buy her a laptop that only works when it gets enough sun. It's the perfect gag gift for the basement-dwelling, vitamin D-deprived coder in your life.

How utilities make money while investing in cleaner generation

Calling the EPA's mercury reforms "anti-business" is good for exciting a political base during the campaign season, but it doesn't match reality.

Is China trying to steal this city?

China seems to be turning its countryside into a sort of Baudrillardian Euro-Epcot -- they've got two replica English villages, a mini-Barcelona and mini-Venice, a Scandiavia-esque "Nordic Town," and a German district in the city of Anting. Now they're planning to add a replica of the Austrian village of Hallstatt, and the original Hallstatt is pretty pissed.

Interactive climate change maps show just how screwed we are

The Climate Hot Map, from the Union of Concerned Scientists, notes climate trouble spots worldwide. These are by no means all the effects of global warming -- for instance, we're guessing that Canada is not in fact a charmed oasis, untouched by climate change outside of one river in the Northwest Territories. But it does give you a sense of just how widespread the crisis is. (And maybe they'll keep updating it until it's just a mass of flags.)

Texas' fracking disclosure law has huge omissions

Yesterday we told you about Texas governor Rick Perry doing something right for once -- he passed of a law forcing drillers to disclose the chemicals used in the controversial and environmentally destructive practice of hydraulic fracturing. Turns out the law has a bunch of loopholes that corporations are duty-bound to exploit in accordance with their legal obligation to maximize shareholder value, even if doing so threatens people’s health. Maybe you've heard this story before?

Harnessing the mighty Mississippi for power

If you’ve been anywhere near a newspaper recently, you know that the Mississippi river has an unbelievable amount of kinetic energy, which lately it has mainly been using for wreckin’ stuff. It’s like an angry teenager who discovers he’s a superhero. But hydropower advocates are hoping to convince it that with great power comes great responsibility, cooking up plans to put enough small hydroelectric plants on existing dams to rival the total hydro production of the Pacific Northwest.

One day, we’ll water plants with our pee in public restrooms

Everyone remembers that deathless scene from Waterworld where Kevin Costner pees in a jug, filters it, drinks some, then spits the rest into a plant. (EVERYONE REMEMBERS IT, I SAID. But if you’ve been living under a rock, you can watch here -- start around 1:30.) Well, that may soon become a reality. For now, at least, we’re still not drinking processed urine -- on a societal level, anyway; what you do on your time is your own business. But one ingenious conservation junkie has come up with a urinal design that filters pee in order to water plants.


 

Al Gore attacks Obama for not speaking out on climate change

Is there anything more thrilling than two Democratic politicians duking it out? One guy opens with … punishing inaction! The other counters with … an unforgiving steel 7,000 word essay in Rolling Stone! If that’s your idea of fun, you’re in luck, because it’s Gore vs. Obama and you don’t even need Pay-Per-View. Gore’s essay […]