Latest Articles

Coping with Coal Ash's Health Effects

This is the latest in our series of community coal ash profiles. This piece was written by Sierra Club Apprentice Lydia Avila. The community of Joliet, Illinois, identifies as many things – Midwestern, humble, and hard-working. Yet they also identify with something much less positive: being collateral damage. According to Joliet residents, they don’t even […]

Why we need to change the way we spend on transportation

We've been doing transportation planning wrong for generations. And our economy is paying for it.

Groups with ties to Karl Rove break fundraising goals, push money to party of climate zombies

Money from secret donors is pouring into conservative groups and they're planning to use it to put out even more attack ads in the weeks ahead.

Tar-sands bathrooms are eco-friendly, which makes up for all that other stuff

Sorry, marketers, it's going to take more than biodegradable shampoo bottles and "Lakefront Property" signs to clean up the Alberta oil sands.

A green guide to getting along for parents and the childfree

In the interests of fostering camaraderie between green-minded parents and childfree people, here are some cross-cultural communication tips.

China Clean Energy Development in Action: Seeing the Coda-Lishen Battery Plant in Person

While I was at the climate negotiations in Tianjin, China I had the chance to take a side trip to see clean energy development in action.  A group of us went to the Coda-Lishen battery plant.  After days of climate negotiations where countries talked about efforts to deploy clean energy and reduce global warming pollution, […]

Can your toilet flush 20 golf balls? [VIDEO]

Will it blend? If you can blend golf balls (or an iPad), then the next logical question is, of course, will they flush? Take a look at this ridiculous promotional video for a water-saving toilet.

Are the politics of public investment really easier?

I'm somewhat dismayed to see the normally sharp Ezra Klein falling for the goofiest parts of the new Breakthrough/Brookings/AEI report. In fact he seems on the verge of drinking the Breakthrough kool-aid entirely. Consider this my attempt at an intervention. In particular, I want to take issue with the notion that investment is some sort of political skeleton key that can bypass the vicious partisan fighting that's characterized energy policy these last few decades.

Koch brothers' Tea Party connections confirmed [VIDEO]

The billionaire Koch brothers claim they are not connected to the Tea Party. But a new video shows David Koch at an Americans For Prosperity gala.

Phone book litter banned in Seattle, nation's first opt-out city

Phone book litter has been banned in Seattle. That means no more bulky yellow books in plastic bags on doorsteps, unless residents opt in.