Latest Articles

Southern California Edison signs another big photovoltaic farm deal

Solar farms could be sprouting in the Nevada desert.Photo: FotowatioSouthern California Edison on Wednesday announced another big photovoltaic power plant deal, this time to buy electricity from a 250-megawatt solar farm to be built by First Solar. Add that contract to 831 megawatts’ worth of photovoltaic power purchase agreements the Los Angeles utility signed with […]

Bush’s Johnson stood up for climate

Stephen Johnson, former EPA administrator under Bush.Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Yesterday, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) released a 2008 letter [PDF] from Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson to President George W. Bush saying that the science supported “a positive endangerment determination” on carbon pollution, and proposing an action plan to curb emissions […]

Ask Umbra Book Club: Did Paleolithic hunter-gatherers eat healthier than we do today?

Corn of plenty? Maybe not so much.Photo: Big Grey MareDearest readers, Welcome to the second day of our conversation of At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson. You can catch up on yesterday’s chat here. If you have yet to get a copy of the book, jump in anyway. As a […]

Town centers are the new death panels

Photo: Matthew ReichbachOh, those Teabaggers — always smacking you in the face with something unpleasant. This time it’s self-righteous outrage at the socialist erosion of our Freedom Sprawl. Because in the real America, you get in the car just to go to your kitchen. The Virginia state government is moving to require “urban development areas” […]

Report: U.S. in fast lane to put 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015

More like this are on the way.Photo: Dave Pinter When President Obama in his State of the Union address called for 1 million electric cars to be on the road by 2015, skeptics scoffed. But in a report [PDF] released Tuesday, the Department of Energy basically said no worries. We’ve already arrived at our destination. […]

Smackdown: Climate science vs. climate economics

As I see it, there are two incommensurate stories being told about climate change. I’m not talking about the largely fake debate between those who say climate change is happening and human-driven (scientists) and those who say it isn’t (the GOP). I’m talking about two different ways of envisioning what we can expect in a […]

Bad food makes kids dumber, study says

Look, ma! No nutrients!Photo: Amanda WestmontA new study says 3-year-olds who mostly eat processed foods have lower IQs five years later. (So Pop-Tarts and Sunny-D are why we’re “falling behind” China in math and science?) The study, cited in The Guardian, examined the diets of 14,000 wee Britlets, based on what their parents reported feeding […]

China: the neverending traffic jam story

Transportation experts say there’s barely enough space on the roads in China’s largest cities for the 35 million cars that were bought during the past decade of frenzied consumerism. Photo: Remko TanisThis piece was written by Melinda Burns. The new Great Wall of China is the “Great Wall” of cars stuck in city traffic, researchers […]

Will US international climate funding be cut?

The Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee Hal Rogers (R-KY) just proposed significant cuts to US international funding.  While the proposal he just released doesn’t spell out the exact cuts for different programs and categories of funding, we expect that the Majority Members of the committee will recommend cuts to US international climate funding.  Such […]

Definition of car-dependency: Using a car to steal a bike

Photo: K. SteudelHere’s how car-dependent we are as a culture: Even bike thieves don’t ride bikes. Police in Iowa City report that a man who could have committed one criminal act — stealing an expensive bicycle — instead decided to commit two by drunk-driving his Jeep over to get it, rather than just riding the […]