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US Airlines Say they are “Green” while fighting Anti-Pollution Efforts

If an airline claims to be “green”, but is actively working to gut carbon pollution standards what would you do?  Since that is exactly what America, Continental, and United airlines are doing, major environmental groups sent a letter to the airlines asking them why they are spending their customers’ money on lawyers and lobbyists in […]

Keystone pipeline spilled tar-sands oil 11 times in past year. Do we really want to supersize it?

The routes of the existing and proposed Keystone pipelines. Image: RL MillerThe State Department is currently weighing whether to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry tar-sands oil some 2,000 miles southward, from Alberta, Canada, to Houston and Port Arthur, Texas. It would be an expansion of the now-operational Keystone pipeline that goes as […]

Critical List: Oil industry clinging to subsidies, Monsanto continues world takeover

Oil industry leaders will testify before Congress today. Their message: Cutting oil subsidies is discrimination! Expand oil and gas production, instead, because that’s somehow good for everybody. And, anyway, oil companies pay more than enough taxes, if you ask the oil companies. If you ask anyone else, they pay a lower rate than the average […]

The most danceable fracking explainer you’ll see today

"My Water's On Fire Tonight (The Fracking Song)" is "Why Does The Sun Shine?" for fracking. ("Your groundwater is a mass of incandescent gas …") It explains enough about hydraulic fracturing — what it's for, how it works, where it can go wrong, why your sink just went up in flames — for you to […]

I have cancer — a personal meditation on technology, sustainabity, and social context

I have cancer, but thanks to modern medicine, in terms of health it may be no big deal. The surgeon will use a scalpel to remove a thin layer of tissue from the floor of the mouth along with a tiny bit of the connection to the tongue. Then a laser will cauterize it, minimizing […]

Factory farms the only way to ‘feed the world’? Not so, argues Science paper

To “feed the world” by 2050, we’ll need a massive, global ramp-up of industrial-scale, corporate-led agriculture. At least that’s the conventional wisdom. Even progressive journalists trumpet the idea (see here, here, and here, plus my ripostes here and here). The public-radio show Marketplace reported it as fact last week, earning a knuckle rap from Tom […]

New green zone spreads in Iraq

A new green zone is sprouting in Iraq, but it’s not the kind you think. It’s a grassroots one pushed by a new culture of conservationists whose currency is reeds. The recent environmental history of Iraq is a tale of two men. Saddam Hussein had a horrific impact on the ecology of the country, principally […]

Bill Gates’ blind spots

So right, and yet so not-quite-rightPhoto: Suzie KatzWhen Bill Gates first jumped into the energy discussion with a big TED talk, I wrote a post called “Why Bill Gates is wrong.” In retrospect, I should have been a bit more diplomatic. I should have started with a post called “Why it’s super-fantastic that someone as […]

The art of campaigning for high-speed rail

What if we recruited artists and designers to help sell the American public on the idea of high-speed rail?Illustration: Chris MurphyEarlier this week, the federal Department of Transportation announced $2 billion in new awards for 22 intercity rail projects that will improve the speed, aesthetics, and range of our existing rail system, while also studying […]

Climate crisis fueling Mississippi River’s historic floods

The Mississippi River flooding part of downtown Memphis.Photo: Chris WielandThe Mississippi River is experiencing its second “500-year flood” since 1993. That’s no freak occurrence — scientists say it’s a result of human-made carbon pollution changing our climate. “All extreme weather events are now subject to human influence,” said Peter Gleick, a climate and water scientist […]