Latest Articles

Think the German E. coli outbreak couldn’t happen here? Think again

An outbreak of a toxic, possibly novel, strain of E. coli known as O104:H4 continues to rage in Germany. At last count, more than 1,800 people have been infected and 19 have died — and unusually, young women rather than children or the elderly have been hit the hardest. So far, the outbreak seems confined […]

How smart growth reduces emissions

Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Rob Steuteville has posted a terrific analysis on the New Urban Network rebutting the claim by the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) that “the existing body of research demonstrates no clear link between residential land use and greenhouse-gas emissions.” Rob responds with Todd Litman’s excellent research and writing […]

Finally, Congress has a sensible solution to high gas prices: Drive less

Rep. Earl Blumenauer and the congressional Livable Communities Task Force are still patiently trying to explain to the rest of Congress that it might be a good idea for people to be able to move around without cars. Yesterday, the task force put out a report outlining the startling concept that people might be less […]

Poison, poop, and trash: spring in the park

Yesterday, I was at the park with my kids after dinner, a “night session” as we call it. The dandelions, ubiquitous this time of year, had a distinctly sinister curve to their stems that meant they’d been sprayed recently with 2-4-D, the world’s most widely used herbicide. You can smell it vaguely in the air, […]

Perilous pipeline: Will Hillary Clinton give the OK to a massive tar-sands pipeline?

Oil refineries outside Channelview. Do we really need to add a tar-sands pipeline to the mix?Photo: KM&G-MorrisWill Hillary Clinton put the desires of a giant oil corporation ahead of the needs and health of low-income communities and communities of color? Will anyone else in the Obama administration stand up and stop her? With the State […]

Watch Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., talk mountaintop-removal mining on Colbert

Activist and all-around handsome dude Robert F. Kennedy talked mountaintop-removal mining and The Last Mountain with Stephen Colbert Wednesday night, and taught Stephen about why mountains are not actually renewable resources.

How last year’s record emissions stack up to the worst-case scenario

Here's a little visual representation, from Climate Crocks, of how 2010's record carbon emissions stack up to various predicted scenarios. Hey, whaddya know … after a brief drop because of the recession, we're right back on track for the worst-case scenario! (And possibly set to blow right past it if we continue on this trajectory.)

Haley Barbour pins the BP oil spill on a sad bird

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour thinks the disastrous economic effects of the Gulf oil spill were the fault of BP, where “BP” stands for “brown pelican”: So people saw on TV the same brown pelican coated with looked like 3 inches of oil, I mean, looked like a chocolate pelican. And they showed it every hour, […]

Let’s point and laugh at the United States’ weeny little pollution taxes

Awwwwww, look at the teeny little bar graph representing U.S. pollution taxes! I bet everybody tells the U.S. it's "average," but it's clearly not. Don't worry, America; it's not how big it is, it's what you do with it! And we … use it to fund wars, I guess? 

New Orleans proves passive houses work just as well in hot climates

New Orleans might be turning into an island, but by God, it will be a stylish, energy-efficient one, if some Canadian architects have anything to say about it. We already knew passive houses were all kinds of awesome, capable of staying warm in even harsh winters without any kind of heating at all. But NOLA […]