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Ask Umbra's Book Club announces Jonathan Franzen's 'Freedom' is next book

Ask Umbra decides to take on fiction and the Oprah Book Club in this month's Ask Umbra Book Club selection. Read about the book and find out when the conversation begins here!

King Coal wins the midterms

In the final year of his remarkable life, Robert C. Byrd, the longest serving senator in US history, did one more remarkable thing. He called for serious dialogue on coal, climate change and the effects of mountaintop removal mining. “To deny the mounting science of climate change is to stick our heads in the sand and say 'deal me out,'” Byrd told his fellow West Virginians late in 2009. And on the EPA’s efforts to rein in the most egregious damage from mountaintop removal, he said, “West Virginians may demonstrate anger towards the EPA…but we risk the very probable consequence of shouting ourselves out of any productive dialogue.” Briefly, there was hope that the mountain state’s elder statesman might pull local politics away from a dead-end logic. Very briefly. Sen. Byrd died in June. By October, the man who would replace him in the Senate thumbed his nose at Byrd’s desire for reasoned discourse and picked up a gun.

The post-election outlook for regional cap-and-trade

It's a toxic phrase in pundit-land, but cap-and-trade is humming along in the Northeast and preparing to launch in California (and maybe other Western states). A Midwestern program is probably dead after victories by clean-energy-hostile Republicans.

Who took your cheese? Could be the FDA

The government's war on unpasteurized milk was something most people could comfortably ignore as being about the fringe. But when the FDA starts messing with people's $22-per-pound raw-milk Camembert ... well, now that's serious.

The Food Safety Modernization Act

We've invited an array of food-policy experts along with a few Grist readers to debate whether there is indeed a food-safety crisis and if so, whether the current legislation before the Senate will protect eaters and punish the right producers.

Electric Bicycle Evolution

I spotted an interesting looking electric bicycle in front of my neighborhood grocery store a while back. The picture you see below came from an owner’s manual I found on the internet. It has some nice features like:   1) A centered kickstand (electric bikes tend to be top heavy)2) Front and rear disc brakes […]

The Times exposes the craziness of the junk-food industry/USDA alliance

On Sunday, The New York Times ran a blockbuster piece on the unholy alliance between the USDA and Domino's to create a monstrously cheesy pizza -- while encouraging healthier eating habits. Here's what this partnership says about our food system and the USDA's role in shaping it.

To block EPA regulations, Koch Industries expands lobbying campaign to children

Regulation Reality Tour, produced by Koch's Americans for Prosperity, featured a SWAT car shaped moon bounce for children, symbolizing EPA Carbon Cops

Watch as I debate energy policy, live on the interwebs!

Given the 2010 midterm elections, what's next for U.S. climate and energy policy? Yeah, you're right: probably nothing! Nonetheless, that's not going to stop me from debating the issue with Steve Everley of American Solutions. It all goes down tomorrow, Tuesday 08 Nov 2010, at 11 a.m. Pacific (2 p.m. Eastern). You can watch it right here.

Acclaimed author Terry Tempest Williams reflects on BP's oil disaster

Author Terry Tempest Williams traveled the length of the Gulf of Mexico to see the fallout from BP's Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. Read the interview