Latest Articles

I’ve seen the future and I can’t afford it: Marketplace’s botched ‘feed the world’ story

Let’s have a real debate about organic vs. conventional agriculture.Photo: Bio BrothersIn a recent report entitled “The Non-Organic Future,” public radio’s Marketplace program considered the challenge to agriculture of feeding a world population estimated to reach 9 billion by 2050. It was, to be frank, a terrible piece of journalism. Short, virtually fact-free, and weakly […]

So what is this Cycle Chic movement?

Cycle Chic is about the "rehumanification" of cycling. Open your closet, put on something you love, get on your bike, and go.

Baddest-ass hybrid in the world to become a reality

Jaguar has announced plans to build a hybrid-electric supercar that goes from 0 to 60 in three seconds — proving once again that green cars aren't just better for the environment; they're also substantially more bad-ass than the belching, muck-fueled dinosaurs they replace. The C-X75 will have an ultralight carbon-fiber chassis and an all-electric range […]

Hot stuff: chile peppers, climate change, and the future of food

Getting hot in here.Photo: Josh KelloggClimate change is the issue of our time. Its ill effects will fall heaviest on the people who have least contributed to it: billions in the global south. But no one will escape the impact of the warming climate, and one place it will manifest most obviously is on our […]

Nixing pollutants could save $76.6 billion in health care costs

Between medical costs and lost productivity for parents, environmental illnesses in children cost $76.6 billion annually, says a new study in Health Affairs. That’s the cost of all illnesses that are correlated with exposure to pollutants and toxins. (Some of the associations are better-documented than others, but many — like lead poisoning, which costs $50.9 […]

What I want for Mother's Day

This Sunday, I will be celebrating my second Mother’s Day. My daughter Hazel (pictured at right testifying with me last year) was born last year a few days prior to Mother’s Day, and so I had the unforgettable experience of celebrating my first mother’s day with both of her grandmothers — we called it the […]

Republican debate: Present Pawlenty vs. Past Pawlenty on cap-and-trade

Tim Pawlenty may have once promoted cap-and-trade as a response to climate change, but now he considers that choice a "battle scar.” Because nothing’s more traumatic than caving to peer pressure. "We all [have ‘clunkers’ on our records], and that's one of mine," he said last night at the first debate in the Republican primary. […]

Critical List: House Republicans demand offshore drilling; climate change eating away at food supply

The House voted yesterday to fast-track new offshore drilling lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Virginia. Look for $0.99 gas within a few weeks. As a group, the drilling bill's primary sponsors raked in more than $8.8 million in donations from the oil and gas industry. Climate change is […]

Cycle Chic in action [SLIDESHOW]

The Cycle Chic movement, started by Mikael Colville-Andersen of Copenhagen, took off in 2006. It’s about the “rehumanification” of cycling. Open your closet, find something you like to wear, get on the bike, and go. Learn more.

Girl Scouts censor Facebook criticism of palm oil in cookies

Critter-killing cookies?Photo: Laura TaylorLooking for a lesson of how not to respond to green consumer demand in the internet age? Check out Girl Scouts USA. The Scouts’ CEO Kathy Cloninger has for several years rebuffed polite requests from individual scouts, major environmental organizations, and others that they make their famous Girl Scout cookies rainforest friendly. […]