Latest Articles

Report: Californians paying too high a price for renewable energy

Is solar costing Californians a wad more than it should?Photo: Emergency Dentists USAAre Californians forking over too much green for green energy? A new report [PDF] from a ratepayers advocacy group found that the price of electricity in 59 percent of renewable energy contracts signed by the state’s three big utilities exceeded the market price […]

It’s like Gadhafi is telling us to get off oil or something

Self-congratulatory poster of Gadhafi in Green Square in Tripoli, LibyaPhoto: QuigiboMoammar Gadhafi is a crazy dictator who is murdering his populace and needs to get a cruise missile shat down his neck, but what we all really want to know is: how are the actions of this homicidal crazypants going to affect our summer vacation? […]

Are the British building the perfect town?

The U.K.’s greenest, cutest town. Image: Red Tree (2004) LLPCharles, the prince of Wales, is building the U.K.’s greenest town. We know what you’re thinking, because we’ve seen Hot Fuzz too: It’s important to be suspicious of British villages that look too good to be true. But Sherford, a planned eco-town that was just approved […]

Climate activist Tim DeChristopher goes to trial

An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law. — Martin Luther King, Jr. Dearest readers, I want to share a story […]

The Chamber of Commerce is darkening our skies

It’s always darkest before it goes pitch black.Photo: Twig is the FutureThis essay was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. In Beijing, they celebrate when they have a “blue sky day,” when, that is, the haze clears long enough so that you can actually see the sun.  Many days, […]

Climate reformists challenge old economic models

A few weeks ago I wrote about the seemingly different futures foretold by climate science and climate economics. The former is filled with peril and haunted by the unthinkable, the latter blithely assured of continued prosperity. Most economic modeling, you’ll recall, forecasts the continued rise of global gross domestic product (GDP) — people in the […]

An exclusive with the artist behind Detroit’s new Robocop statue

An iron pour from Westbrook’s performance at the University of West Georgia’s Art Incend event in October 2008.Photo: Casey WestbrookImagine a 10-foot-high steel bong filled with industrial grade coke that spews fire like Mordor and reaches temperatures hot enough to turn your radiator into a pool of molten slag. In the background, dimly illuminated by […]

Reflecting on a century of economic progress and environmental problems

As the first decade of the 21st century comes to a close, the problem of the commons is more important to our lives — and more central to economics — than a century ago when the first issue of the American Economic Review appeared, with an examination by Professor Katharine Coman of Wellesley College of […]

Bayview Greenwaste provides fertile ground for San Francisco’s urban agriculture revolution

Just a few years ago, they were abandoned freeways, dilapidated back yards, and institutional dumping grounds. But today, thanks to San Francisco’s urban agriculture renaissance, many of these pockets of underutilized land are being transformed. And one local company — Bayview Greenwaste — is playing a key role, by transforming waste into mulch, and giving […]

Why it’s a good idea to put sugar water in your gas tank

Photo: Alexander KaiserWouldn’t it be awesome if we could solve our waste problem and our fuel problem simultaneously, by turning one into the other? Okay, we’re nowhere near the stage where you can just scrape your plate into your car, but there are an increasing number of procedures for turning useless crap into fuel. Most […]