Latest Articles

My complicated love affair with a little gray Honda

With car ownership came a nagging suspicion that I was on the wrong side of a Big Issue. My purist environmentalist friends were sure about it: Anyone who gets angry about the wars over oil, they told me, can't have a car and a clean conscience at the same time. I didn't know if it was so simple.

Food safety passes House, skulks back to Senate

Like a fallen eater rising from the mat after a nasty case of food poisoning, the food safety bill staggered back to life yesterday.

Hunting, cooking, and eating squirrel [VIDEO]

You've heard about bugs being the next sustainable protein source, but what about squirrel? You may shudder, but plenty of cultures enjoy this plentiful, tasty meat -- and now, so do I.

Support Clean Development to Save Ourselves

Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed is no stranger to using blunt tactics and messages when it comes to climate change. Last fall, he held a cabinet meeting underwater to drive home the threat rising sea levels pose to his low-lying island nation. A team of scientists in 2008 predicted average sea levels would rise between 2’5” […]

Is EPA running scared from the incoming Republican Congress?

I've been worrying aloud on the blog that the Obama administration doesn't seem to be doing much to prepare for the relentless assault on EPA that's already underway, not only on its coming greenhouse gas regulations but on its entire agenda. Instead, the agency looks to be backing down.

Sex: the next ethical industry?

Few sectors rival the global economic importance of sex, but so far sustainability professionals have left it completely untouched.

Fossil energy knows it's a full contact game — does cleantech?

Cleantech investors, executives, and leaders have a lot at stake, and they should pay attention to dirty energy's increasingly aggressive attacks.

A talk with Charles Marohn, 'recovering engineer' and cofounder of Strong Towns

We discuss how smart planning can transcend politics and why we should let the Tea Party have what they want.

Time to move like the wind to save clean energy

Rep. Ed Markey argues that the framework tax deal announced this week by President Obama and GOP Senate leaders threatens to kill clean energy jobs.

EPA names the nation's top smart-growth cities

When it comes to smart growth, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the smartest cities are New York, Baltimore, Portland, and San Francisco.