Latest Articles

Yes, we caused Snowpocalypse, says new study

Photo: Bruna CostaWe’re gonna need a bigger boat, preferably one with two of each animal. Studies published in this month’s Nature look at the link between CO2 levels and heavy rains and floods, and find that the increase in intense precipitation over the last 50 years can’t be explained by natural variability. The question of […]

What doesn’t kill you makes you gourmet

Editor’s note: The following essay and map are excerpted from Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas and are republished with permission by UC Press as part of Grist’s California agriculture series, an exploration of the people, farms, and issues shaping the state. Click for a larger version. The Bay Area is a tale of two […]

Company gives lumps of coal to children

The coal gift bag. Photo: Russ MaddoxThis week, we got an email from Seward, Alaska, where our friend Russ Maddox was shocked at what his 9-year-old granddaughter brought home from a field trip last week to Aurora Energy Service’s Seward coal loading facility: The gift bag included cellophane wrapped coal candy, a real lump of […]

10 green ideas that are facing extinction

Photo: Geek Calendar Clean technology is full of ideas that may or may not work out, for any number of reasons — modular nuclear, distributed power, humanure. Whether it’s economics, physics or simple incompatibility with existing infrastructure, here, via Michael Kanellos (the David Pogue of clean technology) are 10 ideas that could work, but probably […]

Silicon Valley solar firm buys East Coast’s biggest photovoltaic installer

Volunteers install a solar PV array in Brooklyn, N.Y.Photo: 350.orgCalifornia solar companies are continuing their eastward expansion, with Silicon Valley’s SolarCity on Wednesday acquiring the residential operations of one of the East Coast biggest solar installers, groSolar. With the acquisition, SolarCity, California’s largest residential solar installer, will move into Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and […]

Reinventing the supermarket: How New York’s Eataly falls short

Eataly is nice, but there’s still plenty of room left to reinvent the supermarket.Photo: Samantha DeckerThe American supermarket experience hasn’t changed much in a half century. It’s basically a connect-the-dots problem each consumer solves differently: How do you get in, get the things on your list, avoid those annoying people with the slow-moving carts, and […]

FDA’s crackdown on raw-milk cheese based on flawed data analysis

Italy’s celebrated Pecorino di Farindola, pictured here, is now and has always been made from raw milk. We can get this right, peopleHas there been a serious jump in illnesses from raw-milk cheese recently? You might think so if you’ve read recent major pieces in The New York Times and The Washington Post — or […]

Chevron to Ecuador: What’s ‘apologize’?

A judge in Ecuador has delivered the world’s biggest environmental spanking to pollution giant Chevron, as a judgment for faulty drilling gunking up the country’s rain forests: An Ecuadorian judge on Monday ordered Chevron Corp. to pay $8.6 billion to clean up oil pollution in the country’s rain forest in what is believed to be […]

Busting 4 myths about solar PV vs. concentrating solar

Although both produce electricity from the sun, there are significant differences between solar photovoltaics (PV) and concentrating solar thermal electricity generation. This guide provides answers to the most pressing questions about the two solar technologies. 1. Isn’t concentrating solar power cheaper? No. Five years ago, the two technologies were relatively comparable, but in 2011 there’s […]

Social network for mass transit almost redeems social networks

Photo: Sveter SveterMan, what did we do before we had smartphones to answer all of life’s questions? Wracking your brains to remember who played Chunk in “The Goonies”? You can haul out IMDB at the bar. Wondering where to go for dinner? There are apps to tell you the best place within walking distance of […]