Latest Articles

Has Obama lost environmental voters?

Al Gore's critique of Obama's failure to act on the climate crisis is further evidence of environmentalists' frustration with this administration.

A flooded nuke plant in Nebraska can’t be good, right?

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.10774971&w=425&h=350&fv=launch%3D43504156%26amp%3Bwidth%3D400%26amp%3Bheight%3D320] The Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant near Omaha is basically sitting in a puddle of water after recent floods. That … that can't be good, right? I mean, granted, nuclear fuel sort of sits in a puddle of water at the best of times — that's how you keep it cool — and […]

Great places: how livable streets make us happier humans

My dense, walkable, transit-rich neighborhood does a lot of great things for my carbon footprint. But what it does for my soul might, in the end, be more important.

Drilling company's coloring book sells fracking to kids

Kids! Are you worried about natural gas companies pumping mysterious chemicals into the rocks near your house, leaking methane gas, poisoning cattle, and making your water flammable? Well, don't be! A coloring book from Talisman Energy says everything will be fine, and afterwards there will be deer and rainbows. 

New solar cells can be printed right onto buildings

The world's largest dye-sensitized solar cell has just made an appearance. These cells have a couple of major advantages over traditional solar cells: one, they're incredibly cheap, and two, they can be printed right onto the materials used to make a building. Right now they’re being incorporated into girders manufactured by Tata steel.

Congress about to let agribiz get liberal — with pesticides

There's a quiet but vicious fight going on in Congress to restrict the EPA's ability to regulate pesticides, and industry is poised to win.

Russia lets VIPs ignore traffic laws

Do you hate sh*tty drivers? Well, in Soviet Russia, sh*tty driver hates YOU! Moscow's road rage problem is epic, perhaps due to the fact that their traffic solution involves giving special police-style sirens to "VIP" drivers (read: 900-plus important people, government officials and so forth, and the 900-plus folks who can get a hold of them in some other way). However poorly the U.S. is doing at managing traffic, Russian solutions make our roads look like a buggy path in Amish country.

Why tapping the strategic petroleum reserve is a bad idea

When it comes to oil, this is what the U.S. looks like to the rest of the world

 

The Obama administration has decided over the next two months to release 60 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This is kind of like giving Bubbles from the Wire $5 when he's in the middle of one of his smack binges -- it's not really going to affect consumption, and it sure as hell doesn't address the root problem, which is our seemingly insuperable addiction to oil.

Congress: Let’s just rename it the 'Dirty Water Act'

Have we mentioned that our leaders in Congress are working their butts off to undermine the country's foundational environmental laws? It's not just Republicans, either! Yesterday, a bipartisan bill that would weaken the federal government's ability to keep water clean passed out of committee. The bill would amend the Clean Water Act to give "primary responsibilities for water pollution control" to the states.

GOP's tiny cuts wound small farmers

A $2 million cut to the USDA's budget by the GOP-controlled House makes little difference to the nation's bottom line. But it brings big hurt to small farmers by undercutting efforts to reform the meatpacking industry.