Latest Articles
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Me, heading to Germany to learn about distributed renewable energy
This week, I’m going to be traveling to Berlin under the gracious auspices of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, a German progressive nonprofit that does work on clean energy. Exciting! It’ll be my first time in Germany. Aside from saying the words “schnitzel” and “spätzle” as often as possible (schnitzel! spätzle!), I’m going to be attending […]
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Big Ag demands right to pollute California’s Central Valley
A Central Valley field.Photo: calwestThe Los Angeles Times details a brewing skirmish over agricultural runoff being fought in California’s Central Valley. At issue are proposed regulations that would for the first time force farmers to address fertilizer and pesticide runoff from their fields. A group of environmental organizations is pushing for the regulations, as the […]
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Climate change kills our buzz, and vice versa
Grist’s offices are in Seattle, so we take this one really seriously: Climate change is threatening Costa Rica’s coffee crops. Coffee’s a fussy little plant, and it can’t handle extreme temperatures, so yields are going way down as temperature inches up. And if you think that’s a buzzkill, try this: An independent study by a […]
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FedEx’s Republican CEO wants you to buy an electric car [VIDEO]
Clean energy: not a partisan issue, says FedEx's CEO. That's why he commissioned this slick little promo, which sums up everything that's wrong with our current transportation infrastructure but stops just short of mentioning peak oil. That's OK, because the facts speak for themselves: The U.S. uses a quarter of the world's oil. Seventy percent […]
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The rallying anthem for the new green movement: Let’s all unf*ck it up!
Okay, maybe we're a little late on this one, but seriously: If you saw it already and you don't want to see it again, GET OUT because it is amazing. Everyone else, take a listen — NOT AT WORK, it is chock-full of swears. Clap your hands! Sing along! Help unf*ck it up! I'm going […]
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Hundreds ride to support Brooklyn bike lane [VIDEO]
Well, if supporters of the Prospect Park West bike lane in Brooklyn are a bunch of terrorists (as some bike-lane opponents might have it), they are very effectively disguised as cute little kids and their parents. Streetfilms has the evidence. Yesterday, hundreds of bike lane supporters showed up to ride the controversial lane, which has […]
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Shark fin soup and sautéed kitten: the cultural politics of cuisine
Enjoy your dinner meow.Kitten photo: Art SiegelWhat garnishes a kitten best? One of the corners in the long-standing battles between cultural relativists and absolutists is the question of food consumption, or what the Princeton sociologist Michaela DeSoucey speaks of as “gullet politics.” Sometimes it is the smallest moments that serve to clarify debates that elsewhere […]
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Ball o’ confusion: Ask Umbra on non-toxic exercise balls
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, I want to buy a stability ball and some purport to be PVC-free and made of non-toxic vinyl. Is there such a thing? RoseNew York City If that ball is vinyl, this scene isn’t as healthy as it looks.Photo: Adria RichardsA. Dearest Rose, I give you snaps […]
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Paris to be powered by body odor
Okay, not quite. But the City of Lights is fast becoming the City of Innovative but Slightly Bizarre Energy Solutions, including new ways to harness the heat you might otherwise not want to touch. Sewer water: French children are probably too classy to be delighted by this the way American children would be, but last […]
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Susan Sarandon explains mountaintop-removal mining in 60 seconds [VIDEO]
If most of us have a notion of mountaintop-removal mining, it's that somewhere in Appalachia a bunch of extras from Winter's Bone are getting their view spoiled by some trucks and TNT. But these are real people, and the environmental catastrophe they're experiencing — entire counties turned into flattened moonscapes like you'd expect after a […]
