Latest Articles

EcoCar winner produces totally normal car that gets 81 MPG

Because Americans are big babies who would rather strangle their economy with energy shortages than drive a car that is even vaguely weird, the Department of Energy's EcoCar challenge asked a bunch of universities to build the most energy efficient car possible using a stock General Motors body and a bunch of fairly typical parts.

Growing Goat Herds Signal Global Grassland Decline

After the earth was created, soil formed slowly over geological time from the weathering of rocks. It began to support early plant life, which protected and enriched it until it became the topsoil that sustains the diversity of plants and animals we know today. Now the world’s ever-growing herds of cattle, sheep, and goats are […]

Critical List: Two nuclear plants in the path of Missouri River floods; sea levels are rising

Two nuclear power plants are in the path of the Missouri River floods, but DON'T WORRY EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

A new study verifies that the sea has risen more quickly during the past one hundred years than at any other time in the last millennium, and that climate change is definitely, absolutely, positively, no question to blame for that.

Because the Obama administration likes tourist attractions that bring in gazillions of dollars to Arizona's economy, it's not going to let anyone mine for uranium on the 1 million acres of land surrounding the Grand Canyon for the next 20 years. After 20 years … well, hell, it’s only a big hole in the ground.

What is the dream behind the American Dream Movement?

Van Jones gave a speech at Netroots Nation on the "American Dream Movement." The idea is for the left to borrow from what the Tea Party has done well.

Do we have to choose between big or small clean energy projects?

The choice comes from the reality that financial resources are limited, the system of regulations and incentives are skewed toward big, centralized solutions, and choosing one strategy (long-distance transmission of centralized generation) necessarily reduces the money available and future prospects for expanded distributed generation.

Silver linings behind Supreme Court's bummer clean air decision

This morning's Supreme Court decision in American Electric Power Co. vs. Connecticut is undoubtedly a setback for the environment. Yet there are two silver linings for environmentalists in today's opinion.

U.S. nuke regulators repeatedly weakened safety rules

The Associated Press has a blockbuster study of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC has been working closely with the nuclear industry to keep aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards.

The oceans may be going extinct

Ocean ecosystems are taking a faster nosedive than anyone predicted. Without urgent action, coral reefs and entire fish species could disappear in a generation. Why is this happening? Do you really need to ask? Hint: It rhymes with shmarbon shmioxide.

Bamboo iPhone speaker amplifies music with zero electricity

The iBamboo speaker makes use of the naturally resonant properties of bamboo to provide zero-electricity amplification for the iPhone 4. Yeah, you could get more gadgets to go with your gadget, but this is probably cooler -- no wires, no energy use, and it adds as much Zen cool to your desk as a tiny portable waterfall (which would need to be plugged in anyway).

Pipeline industry funded two-thirds of pipeline safety studies

Wondering whether natural gas and oil transportation pipelines are safe? Why not ask a neutral objective party -- like, say, the pipeline industry? The federal government’s Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is supposed to study and regulate pipeline safety. But as the San Francisco Chronicle discovered, in practice, the agency tends to hand that responsibility back over to the pipeline industry.