Latest Articles

Biodegradable wool coffins keep you cozy six feet under

Here’s a win-win if we ever saw one: You can spend eternity in the postmortem equivalent of a Snuggie, AND it’s better for the environment. Corpses are one thing we’re never going to be able to stop throwing away, so it’s worth finding lower-impact methods. Wool coffins are all-natural and fully biodegradable, making them a […]

Fukushima in a decade: Bucolic beach resort or Road Warrior-esque hellscape?

Technology Review's Kevin Bullis points us to a package at Nature, on the long-term impacts of the Fukushima disaster. It's kind of a nice antidote to all the hysterical day-to-day coverage (the leak's stopped, by the way) as viewed through the cold, dispassionate eye of science. That doesn't mean it's rosy: Fully decommissioning the plant […]

Would you vote for the Koch Brothers Appreciation Act?

After watching end-of-life planning become “death panels” and estate taxes become “death taxes,” Democrats are finally figuring out that owning the spin is all about owning the terminology. Accordingly, they’ve been having a grand time proposing amendments to give a more accurate name to the “Energy Tax Prevention Act,” which would “prevent energy taxes” by […]

Obama did not ‘promise’ to veto an EPA-blocking bill

Journalism is hard.Photo: Alex ProimosA few weeks ago, the House of Representatives voted through H.R. 1, their continuing appropriations act. It was full of tax cuts for the rich and slashed funding for the poor, elderly, and vulnerable — the usual GOP stuff. The White House released a statement [PDF] vowing to veto it: If […]

Seven lessons from nature on how to make change

Look closely — what can you learn?Photo: Steve WallThe Center for Ecoliteracy has worked for more than 15 years to make schools greener. During the course of our work, collaborating with thousands of educators and change agents, we’ve learned invaluable lessons about how to tackle the challenge of changing often-entrenched systems. We’re pleased to share […]

The American diet in one chart, with lots of fats and sugars

This is a non-interactive version of the chart. Also check out the interactive version, by Civil Eats and the UC-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism News21 course.Over on Civil Eats, Andrea Jezovit has put together a terrific interactive chart on the U.S. diet. Using USDA data for “average daily calories available per capita, adjusted for spoilage […]

Solar is contagious

This post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. Adam Browning of Vote Solar wrote about a recent study of the peer pressure effect of solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption. The study [PDF] notes that for every 1 percent increase in the number of installations in […]

Foreign oil follies: Stop Obama if you think you’ve heard this one before

President Obama is talking big about reducing our consumption of foreign oil. We predict he’ll be just as successful as his predecessors … After the BP oil spill, The Daily Show did a roundup of past presidential calls for us to use less oil. As Jon Stewart concluded, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool […]

Will the U.S. hog industry ever kick its reliance on low-dose antibiotics?

The editors of Scientific American recently encouraged U.S. hog farmers to “follow Denmark and stop giving farm animals low-dose antibiotics.” Sixteen years ago, in order to reduce the threat of increased development of antibiotic resistant bacteria in their food system and the environment, Denmark phased in an antibiotic growth promotant ban in food animal production. […]

How a carbon-neutral product is made

Making environmentally-responsible products is hard, so kudos to M.E. Heuck Co., houseware manufacturer, for even trying. After more than a year of work with their partner FirstCarbon Solutions, they have unveiled ZEROCA Carbon Neutral Cookware. Yeah, they had to buy offsets to make it totally carbon-neutral, but first they did their best to tamp down […]