Latest Articles

Costco agrees to stop ravaging the oceans

Photo: Sharon MollerusIt only took eight months for pressure from Greenpeace to make food-hoard purveyor Costco stop selling threatened fish. Twelve species that appear on Greenpeace’s “red list” were also appearing on Costco’s shelves. Activists finally made the wholesale giant revise its seafood policies, but first they had to open up economy-sized whoop@ss: Over 100,000 […]

Google-backed startup claims energy efficiency breakthrough

Photo: Marcin WicharyOn Wednesday I joined a cadre of other reporters who had been summoned to the Googleplex in Silicon Valley for what was billed as the launch of a clean tech startup that has developed a revolutionary new technology. The big reveal came as we sat around a conference table at Google Ventures, the […]

Why space travel should remain a spectator sport

Space shuttle Discovery at its final launch, looking awesome and polluting like crazyPhoto: NASA Yesterday’s final launch of the space shuttle Discovery provided some amazing images, and probably made a few of us look wistfully at the sky and think of space panoramas (or in my case space poop and space laundry, because I just […]

Growing her own tobacco in Brooklyn [UPDATED]

It is, after all, just a plant.Photo: NancyThe time when having a chicken in your Brooklyn backyard was interesting has long since passed. I mean, heck, everybody has chickens these days, right? Or at least bees. Maybe even red bees. But even in a borough where hipsters regularly tote hoes up to rooftops to tend […]

Forbes writer: GMO labeling would violate corporate speech rights

Civilization goes on in the Netherlands, despite the menace of mandatory GMO labeling. Photo: GMO CompassIn a blog post on Forbes.com, Glenn Lammi, general counsel for the right-wing, pro-business think tank the Washington Legal Foundation, goes on the attack against Mark Bittman’s recent New York Times op-ed column calling for the labeling of genetically engineered […]

The Corn Ultimatum

I am not a fan of our corn ethanol policy as I made clear made clear during the last food crisis (see “The Fuel on the Hill” and “Can words describe how bad corn ethanol is?” and “Let them eat biofuels!“).  In a world of blatantly increasing food insecurity — driven by population, dietary trends, […]

Your guide to a great green weekend in Portland

Portland’s swanky Sapphire Hotel.Photo: Sarah Gilbert Can you think of a greener city than Portland? Nope, didn’t think so. The City of Roses occupies a warm, squishy spot in the hearts of many a biker, climate hawk, and nature-lovah. We asked you to share your fave local breweries, organic cafés, and green hangouts, and compiled […]

Rolls Royce electric car will let blue-bloods go green

  Here’s what needs to happen for electric cars to become the new industry standard: They need to be seen as sexier, manlier, and more upscale than original fossil-fuel flavor. We know, we know, but don’t shoot the messenger. Fortunately, Rolls Royce is now making inroads into the last one (and maybe the first) by […]

Montanans rally against mega-loads to the tar sands

Activists in Montana and Idaho are fighting back against these monstrosities.Iconic authors and outdoorsmen David James Duncan and Rick Bass have an important new book that they wrote in response to the notorious “haul” this month of gargantuan machines (“mega-loads”) to Alberta, Canada, constructed in South Korea for use in the tar sands. Besides the […]

The Climate Post: Tension over Middle East oil

Will Gaddafi sabotage Libya’s oil pipelines to spite protesters?Photo: Crethi PlethiOver the past week, the unrest in the Middle East deepened, with growing protests in Bahrain and Libya, and more draconian measures by the countries’ leaders to quash the opposition. Libya is a significant oil exporter, and the first member of the Organization of the […]