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Critical List: More Midwest deaths after storms; White House, NASCAR go green

More deaths in the Midwest after storms hit Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Some areas of Texas have received less than one-fifth the normal amount of rain in the last six months. The drought has cost $1.5 billion so far. But these catastrophes are totally unrelated, right? Bill McKibben takes his sarcastic stick to anyone who'll […]

Great places: dense, wired, and sustainable

This is part three in a series on “great places.” Read parts one, two, four, and five. Part of what makes great places great is ecological sustainability. So what’s the best way to reduce our per-capita resource footprint? Typically you hear one of two stories. One is about technology: making gadgets, appliances, vehicles, and factories […]

The 10 deadliest cities for pedestrians in the United States [SLIDESHOW]

Streets in the U.S. are designed not for people, but for cars. And it shows. From 2000 through 2009, some 47,700 pedestrians were killed by drivers. Transportation for America has released a new report and interactive map that shows which metro areas are deadliest. Here are the 10 worst.

Missouri tornado whips up media discussion of climate change and extreme weather

Devastation in Joplin, Mo.Photo: KOMUnewsThe devastation of Joplin, Mo., has led to a super-storm of media stories on the link between climate change and extreme weather, including tornadoes. After April saw records set for most tornadoes in a month and in 24 hours, I examined the link in great detail here, looking at the data, […]

Micronesia challenges Europe’s dirty energy

The Czech Republic’s biggest polluter, the Prunéřov power station.Photo: Felix OThe Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), an island nation scattered across the Pacific north of New Guinea, has already had to confront the tides of climate change, which have eaten away at its coasts and left its food and water security in shambles. When leaders […]

In Chicago, coal is the real crime

Greenpeace activists climbed the smokestack at the Fisk coal plant.Photo: GreenpeaceA sad fact of living in an American city like Chicago is that every time we open a newspaper or switch on the local news, we hear of some senseless, tragic crime that has claimed an innocent life. We become outraged, and we demand justice […]

Worried about radiation in breast milk? Still best to keep breast-feeding

How can we best protect the wee ones?For survivors of Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, there have been so many concerns: access to clean water and food, the need for shelter, the threat of disease. It’s the same awful list that accompanies natural disasters around the world — but with one big difference. In Japan, […]

Getting green and happy by exporting pollution and misery: not cool

Do you know where your Apple gadgets come from?Two things I’ve seen recently have got me thinking about how the Western world solves its problems by exporting them. First, over the weekend I saw The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, a one-man theater performance from Seattle’s own Mike Daisey. It’s an absolutely brilliant […]

Family (farm) affair: my connection to Eliot Coleman’s rise to prominence

Portrait of the farmer as a young man: Eliot Coleman with children, circa early 1970s.Reprinted with permission from Melissa Coleman. I’m not sure exactly what it means to play a cameo role in a family memoir exploring the roots of today’s food movement; but certainly it makes you keenly aware of how quickly the years […]

Small bites from the Big Apple: delicious eats in New York City

I recently visited New York City to attend the ceremony for the James Beard Awards in food journalism. I had been nominated for one in the category of column writing. I didn’t bring home a Beard in the end, but I did notch a few victories in the field of the palate. Here are the […]