Latest Articles
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Top 10 greenest cities in North America
It seems like we get a new list of greenest, most climate-change-prepared, most bike-friendly etc. cities every week or so. But we never really get tired of looking at these rankings, and checking them against each other to decide where we should fantasize about moving. Today, it's a list of the top greenest cities in North America from Siemens and the Economist Intelligence Unit. This ranking takes into account carbon emissions, land use, transportation, energy usage, buildings, water and air quality, waste, and environmental governance.
Drumroll please for the top 10:
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Gigantic, gorgeous visualization of humanity's transport footprint on planet Earth
It's the Atlantic, as you've never seen it before: Cities are red, shipping routes blue, roads green and air networks in white. Click on the image to see the full map of the entire planet.
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Severe weather costs us $485 billion per year
According to estimates from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the baseline cost of extreme weather (which has always been with us, but which is steadily getting worse due to climate change) in the United States is $485 billion a year -- 3.4 percent of the country's GDP.
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Why Poughkeepsie is a great place to wait for the end of the world
Towns like Poughkeepsie, New York may appear charmless, but they could be ideal places to live in a post-peak oil world.
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The Struggle Against India's Coal Rush
As the Sierra Club reaches out to activists, we hear common themes of violence, corruption, intimidation, toxic pollution and economic ruin emerging from coal affected communities worldwide. For example, after seeing pictures of coal affected communities in the United States in a recent workshop, a colleague from India kept uttering “that’s Singrauli.” Whether its thousands […]
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World's first fracking bans come through in France and New Jersey
While we were all distracted by the possibility that New York State will allow fracking for natural gas, two big milestones in the battle to restrict the notoriously environmentally destructive process arrived on successive days:
New Jersey bans fracking
On June 29, New Jersey became the first state in the Union whose legislature passed a ban on fracking.
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Too little, too late? Some Democrats seek investigations of gas industry claims
A group of energy companies -- like, say, the natural gas industry -- would never, ever mislead the public and politicians about how profitable it could be over the long-term. Obviously, we should just believe the natural gas industry's financial projections, which promise that any negative environmental impacts will be worth the jobs, the profits, and the energy security that come with the promised national gas boom.
That's basically been the stance of most legislators in Washington when it comes to natural gas. The picture the industry painted of huge supplies of low-carbon fuel proved really compelling. But now a few lawmakers are starting to worry that the government hasn't really looked into the reality of the situation. And they're asking agencies like the Security and Exchange Commission, the Energy Information Administration, and the Government Accountability Office to check up on the industry's claims about profitability and supply. -
Horde of jellyfish shuts down nuclear plant
In keeping with the recent trend of wildlife disrupting human activity through sheer numbers, a bunch of jellyfish just shut down a nuclear power station in Scotland. The plant manually shut down operations yesterday because of a "high volume" of jellyfish on its seawater filter screens. (As far as we know, the jellyfish were not […]
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Germany Sets the Bar for a Green Energy Future
Today is a historic day in Germany and for green energy world wide. The German Parliament has made a precedent setting move – not only have they set a plan to phase out all nuclear by 2022, but the Parliament has committed to renewable energy like wind and solar as the replacement. The decision will […]
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Critical List: New York could approve fracking; animals get stoned
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to open up private land in the state to hydrofracking.
Children living near Fukushima tested positively for radiation exposure.
Want to get all riled up before the weekend? Get your fix of climate skepticism here.
