Latest Articles

Mike Pompeo (R-Koch) gets to work slashing EPA funding

Rep. Mike Pompeo.Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. Last night, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) proposed an amendment to the Continuing Resolution that would “sharply cut funding for an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program that collects data on industrial greenhouse gas emissions.” The $8.4 million cut would leave funding for the registry at $3.2 million, unless the […]

The Climate Post: Obama’s new budget would make Big Oil pay for clean energy

The president gives a preview of his budget in his weekly address.Republicans are vowing to fight President Obama’s newly released budget for the 2012 fiscal year. Among other things, the new budget includes a few significant changes to spending on climate and energy research. In the energy sector, it calls for slashing tax breaks and loopholes for fossil […]

A scientist dishes on the wild kingdom beneath our feet

Creature from the underworld: Scanning electron micrograph of an adult water bear (tardigrade).Photo: Goldstein labCross-posted from Cool Green Science. Water bears? Fungi that strangle worms? Roots that send off reconnaissance soldiers (that somehow report back)? There’s a world of bizarre organisms under our feet — millions of species that are also critical for life on […]

Hidden costs, despite being hidden, are costs

Harold Pollack has a post on gold mining making the familiar point that there are all sorts of market failures that support destructive environmental practices. If the mine in question actually had to pay for the costs it imposes — or even pay fair price for the land it occupies — it could never compete […]

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 […]