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Where do the greenest commuters live? Not Portland
New Yorkers on the evening commute.Photo: Mo RizaQuick: Who are the loneliest commuters in the nation? That would be the residents of Southgate, Mich., where 91.6 percent of workers drive alone. The city with the most pedestrian commuters? That’s Ithaca, N.Y., where 41.8 percent of commuters walk to work (particularly impressive given upstate New York’s […]
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Is the Bloom Box cheaper than solar?
This is part of a series on distributed renewable energy posted to Grist. It originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. The Bloom Box has received a lot of media attention for its plug-and-play approach to electricity from fuel cells. The 100 kilowatt boxes generate electricity […]
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Oil prices soar in spite of sharp increase in U.S. production under Obama
U.S. oil production last year rose to its highest level in almost a decade … As a result, analysts believe the U.S. was the largest contributor to the increase in global oil supplies last year over 2009, and is on track to increase domestic production by 25 percent by the second half of the decade. […]
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How to save the world’s oysters — and eat them, too
Consider the oyster — carefully. Photo: Wally GobetzCross-posted from Cool Green Science. The headlines were enough to make you throw away your shucking knife: “More than 85 percent of [oyster] reefs have been lost due to overfishing, according to a new study,” said The Independent. Foodie bloggers panicked over the news — was it suddenly […]
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People said stuff, reports New York Times’ John Broder
[See update at bottom.] Steve on climate change: “Just givitame straight!” In New York City last week, I found myself in a cab driven by a burly, jovial local named Steve. He’s a jazz bassist and a vegetarian who recycles and composts, but is conservative in his politics, distrustful of government and anything associated with […]
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75 percent of NPR ‘clean energy’ panel has cashed polluter paychecks
You don’t have to been on Big Oil’s payroll to be on National Public Radio’s (NPR) clean energy panel, but it sure helps! I got a chance to watch the taping of this week’s Intelligence Squared debate on clean energy, to air on NPR. The debate’s sponsors sent up red flags right away: The American […]
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What if you updated your electronics like you update your wardrobe?
Photo: George MacklinDesigner and TED fellow Dominic Muren wants you to update your electronics like you update your wardrobe. In other words, he thinks you should be able to replace or update only what gets worn out, instead of tossing and re-purchasing everything you own at one whack just because one part is busted or […]
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Why world food prices may keep climbing
Click for a larger version.In February, world food prices reached the highest level on record. Soaring food prices are already a source of spreading hunger and political unrest, and it appears likely that they will climb further in the months ahead. As a result of an extraordinarily tight grain situation, this year’s harvest will be […]
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James Howard Kunstler: The old American dream is a nightmare
Photo: Charlie SamuelsThe Great Depression gave rise to hobos and Hoovervilles. The Roaring Nineties brought us what New York Times columnist David Brooks termed “bobos in paradise.” Now our current round of layoffs and foreclosures has unceremoniously transferred millions of folks from the “affluent” to the “afflicted” category, exiling them from Brooks’s mythical exurban Eden. […]
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Teaching kids to make ice cream — with snow [VIDEO]
This video has a lot going for it: cute kids, a grass-fed dairy farm, backyard chickens, and — most compelling of all — a recipe for ice cream. But there’s an added gimmick: this isn’t ordinary ice cream — it was made with snow, not some fancy kitchen device. So watch the video and, while […]
