Latest Articles

Denmark calls in armed commandos to fend off Greenpeace

Hippies near an oil rig! Send in the SWAT team! The Guardian is reporting that armed Danish commandos have been helicoptered onto an oil rig off Greenland, out of fears that Greenpeace activists will interfere with the rig’s deepwater drilling. Apparently Greenpeace has sent two ships to monitor the rig, owned by Scottish company Cairn […]

Chicago’s government prepares for climate change to turn the city into Baton Rouge

While other cities ignore climate change, Chicago is doing the obvious: planning its infrastructure as if the next 50 years, and the next generation of Chicagoans, actually matter. Its efforts, started under one of the mayors Richard Daley (we can’t keep track), are now bearing fruit, leading to everything from flood-proof streets to heat-tolerant trees. […]

Japan to mandate solar panels on all new buildings

What do you do if your country depended on nuke plants for energy, but is now too freaked out about nuclear disaster to trust them anymore? You harness the awesome nuclear power OF THE SUN! At least that’s the plan of Japan’s prime minister Naoto Kan, who announced an energy policy that may require all […]

Authorities finally admit that all three reactors at Fukushima melted down

It's official: All of Fukushima's working reactors saw drops in their water levels sufficient to melt their radioactive cores. (Experts have been telling us this for months, but Japanese power company TEPCO wouldn’t acknowledge it.) The only way the self-immolation of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex could get any worse would be a large […]

Are the Kochs pushing for an international oil pipeline?

House Republicans are trying to speed up the review process for Keystone XL, the controversial pipeline that would carry oil from Canada’s oil sands all the way down to Texas. This is potentially very dangerous, probably overpriced, maybe unnecessary, and almost certainly advantageous for certain corporate bigwigs. In other words, it stinks of unwashed Koch. […]

No bike lane? Make your own!

"Safety First" is a video art installation in Prague, not an actual solution to the lack of bike lanes. We don't recommend projecting a custom bike lane off the front of your ride — or, I mean, go ahead, but that doesn't really make that staircase/train track/highway into a protected lane. But it's still cool […]

Tim Pawlenty is not interested in winning Iowa

Here’s a great way to start your campaign in Iowa: Tell them you want to phase out ethanol subsidies. Classic Tim Pawlenty! Does he even want to be president? Grist is no fan of corn ethanol, mind you — if you have a spare moment you should get Tom or Dave started, it’s super entertaining. […]

Monorails suddenly a thing again

Futuristic as they look, monorails never really got a toehold outside of airports, Disney World, and I Can Haz Cheezburger. Now elevated single-track trains might be getting a second chance to become the transportation of the future. Part of the problem with monorails is that they’re slow, and part of it is that they’re really […]

Bee season: Urban beekeeping in Hong Kong [VIDEO]

Take three minutes out of your day to watch this absolutely beautiful short video portrait of Michael Leung, a product designer and beekeeper in Hong Kong. (It’s part of a promotional campaign for Nokia called “Success Redefined,” but don’t let that put you off.) Leung is the founder of HK Honey: HK Honey is an […]

Pippa Middleton an ass … et at her ex’s geothermal energy firm

Everyone's favorite bridesmaid Pippa Middleton likes hot, wet … underground energy sources. The younger sister of the newly crowned Princess of Wales just took a job at ex-boyfriend's geothermal energy firm, which is looking to use underground stores of hot water to generate electricity. Pippa will be lobbying the British government for a licensing system […]