Latest Articles

Is there a toxic mercury hot spot near you?

Chances are you’re near one.Image: Sierra Club/Google MapsDo you live around Clearfield, Penn.? The Shawville coal-fired power plant is spewing more than 1,500 pounds of toxic mercury into your air and water every year. Live near St. Louis? The Labadie coal-fired power plant emits more than 1,400 pounds of mercury every year. And if you […]

Why did environmentalists pursue cap-and-trade and was it a doomed strategy?

We’re starting to see pieces of counterfactual history on the climate bill in The New Republic and elsewhere based in part on a widely debunked “false narrative.” Since cap-and-trade has been so vilified by the entire right wing and even some on the left, I thought I would try to set the record straight on […]

Obama Has His First Opponent To Campaign Against: Extremism

In 2008, Americans were fed up. Wars, a terrible economy, dishonesty, a drift from our core beliefs. That November, Barack Obama said, “Change,” which may basically have meant, “Not that.” Not that direction for America. Not that economic policy. And it worked. America didn’t want that. America wanted something different. Now, reasonable people can debate […]

Government-backed corn ethanol lurches on, paving a road to nowhere

During the Bush II administration, I used to groan that the closest thing we had to a concerted policy response to climate change was the federal government’s slew of goodies for corn-based ethanol. It was a monumentally depressing situation, because propping up corn-derived fuel is expensive and (despite industry hype) doesn’t actually do much, if […]

Earth Day Aftermath – – Hope or Despair?

On Earth Day last week, I saw a burger wrapper tossed from an old Buick and was stunned that anyone still thought it was OK to use our shared city habitat as a personal dumpster. Later that same day however, I saw a homeless man pick up a Styrofoam cup from the gutter and drop […]

Infographic: Should you coal-power your life?

More reasons to avoid coal, courtesy of David Malki ! of Wondermark: Made of carbon Finger cancer Costs literally millions of dollars Absurd "pimptastic" modifications Impossible

Even an adorable child can’t make KFC eco-friendly

You gotta love 10-year-old Cole, who got into environmental activism after a second-grade school assignment (to "become an environmental activist" — who knew it was this easy? Just get to 'em early and tell 'em to do it). Cole found out that McDonalds was sourcing its paper packaging from endangered forests in his home state […]

We’ve already slowed greenhouse-gas emissions

Given that the Republicans in power are clearly willing to go to the mat to make sure we make no further strides towards improving the environment, this is good news: Even if the government takes no further action to regulate greenhouse gases, our emissions will grow much more slowly than predicted in coming years. In […]

BP’s still making bank

Looks like the past year hasn’t been so bad after all for BP, which today reported a 16 percent increase in profits over the first quarter of 2010. The company reported $7.2 billion in net earnings — compared to $6.2 billion for the first three months of last year. The company sold off a bunch […]

For half the nation’s population, it’s dangerous to breathe the air

Close your eyes and stick your finger into a map of the United States. (A map. A big piece of paper with a picture of the country? Okay, look it up on Google Images, we'll wait.) Chances are you just poked a county with dangerous levels of ozone or particle pollution in the air. Nearly […]