Latest Articles

Mercury? Arsenic? We’ll deal with those problems later, says EPA

Does this story sound familiar? A court orders the EPA to take action under the Clean Air Act. The EPA comes out with a set of rules. Business interests complain. The EPA relents, delaying and then relaxing rules that have compliance deadlines years down the line. That's about the tack the EPA has taken on […]

U.S. infrastructure needs a $2 trillion make-over

Like those bridges and roads and trains tracks you've got there? Want to keep them? That'll be $2 trillion. That's how much the Urban Land Institute estimates the U.S. needs to invest in infrastructure just to keep what's already in place from falling apart. Everybody else in the world gets this. In Europe, countries realize […]

Sungevity partners with Lowe’s to bring solar to the public

Sungevity will install kiosks around Lowe’s stores in California.Photo: Grant BiermanCross-posted from Climate Progress. Yesterday’s news from the solar company Sungevity that it will partner with Lowe’s Home Improvement stores to help customers quote and install a solar system is a great indicator of where the industry is going. Critics often charge that solar is […]

More evidence cell phones kill bees

There's a new study fingering cell phones as the culprit behind mysteriously dwindling bee populations. That's been one of the theories floating around for years — others include viruses, global warming, insecticide, and en masse return to the planet Melissa Majora — but new research out of Switzerland provides solid evidence that cell phone signals […]

USA Today: Climate science deniers are now like birthers

USA Today huffed and it puffed and it blew the house down.Photo: Peter J RobertsIn a must-read editorial, USA Today compared climate science deniers to “the ‘birthers’ who continue to challenge President Obama’s American citizenship — a vocal minority that refuses to accept overwhelming evidence.” Snap! Or whatever sound is made when a house of […]

Splendor in the grass at an Iowa activist’s dairy farm [VIDEO]

Last year, we created 52 episodes about sustainable and adventurous food in Minnesota. For the final episode of this past season, we announced our plans to take this web series on the road. And with this episode (No. 53!) we start a whole new round of weekly videos about real food across America. Traveling with my camerawoman […]

Eco-geeks rejoice: Here is Nathan Fillion with an electric car

Remember when we called the Arcimoto SRK "an electric car for the Facebook generation"? Apparently it's also an electric car for the "Firefly" generation. Actor Nathan Fillion got all excited about the car at its launch, and his remarks get at the main reasons for wanting an electric car: Spaceship resemblance and revenge. Thank you […]

Anti-climate change study is copied off someone else’s crummy paper

Note to climate change deniers: If you're going to lean heavily on a particular paper, make sure it's not copied out of Wikipedia. The journal Computational Statistics and Data Analysis has retracted a 2008 report by statistician Edward Wegman, which claimed the climate change consensus is an artifact of overly-intimate collaboration between scientists — essentially, peer […]

Why Germany had to phase out nuclear to build its renewables

Lots of American journalists (including this one!) have gone on and on about renewables and nuclear power in Germany without having a first-hand appreciation of the situation, or even any German language ability. This has led us all to misapprehend some pretty basic facts about why the Germans decided to phase out their existing nuclear […]

Nearly 1 million Bangladeshis rely on solar panels for electricity

Less than half of Bangladeshis have access to electricity, which is essential for economic productivity and the kind of night-time illumination that allows kids to study after dark. (Hey, not everyone is as determined as Abe Lincoln.) So the World Bank is spending to get solar-powered light systems installed where the (notoriously unreliable) electrical power […]