Latest Articles

What Monsanto’s fall from grace reveals about the GMO seed industry

Once the darling of Wall Street and the Darth Vader of the agribiz universe, Monsanto has fallen on hard times. The reason may have to do with the essentially over-hyped nature of GMO technology.

China antes up, bets, and bluffs in the new world oil game

Future historians may well agree that the 21st century Silk Road first opened for business on Dec. 14, 2009. That was the day a crucial stretch of pipeline officially went into operation linking the fabulously energy-rich state of Turkmenistan to Xinjiang Province in China's far west.

Farmers and travelers in a tar-sands boomtown

Stratospheric wages draw laborers from around the world to Fort McMurray, Alberta. So how does a booming oil workers' camp become a town?

Anatomy of a Senate climate bill death

Ryan Lizza's recent New Yorker piece provides an interesting insider view of the rise and fall of climate legislation in the Senate. But Lizza gives short shrift to the real reasons Senate passage of climate legislation was impossible in 2010: the deep recession, unified and uncompromising opposition in the Senate, and big spending by oil, coal, and other energy interests. Let's take a close look at these factors.

The city that said no to garbage

If you want to keep garbage out of landfills, you have to stop thinking about it as garbage. Instead, think of it as resources. This is how Jack Macy thinks. He developed San Francisco’s trailblazing composting program and is currently Zero Waste Coordinator for the city. Here, he shares the city’s secrets to success.

San Francisco watches its waste line

Most cities send thousands of tons of unwanted flotsam and jetsam to landfills every day. But in San Francisco, garbage is treated like a resource that shouldn't be wasted. And that means formulating a plan to reduce the city's garbage output to zero. Yes, that's right: zero.

Google makes big bet on offshore wind power along East Coast

Google is backing an underwater power transmission system that could bring a wind turbine boom to the Atlantic.

The incredible shrinking Manchin

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin is running for the Senate and running scared from the Tea Party. In his latest ad he shoots cap-and-trade legislation. With a rifle. Here's why he's flailing to the right and why he's wrong about everything.

NPR's Scott Simon on adoption and environmentalism

NPR host Scott Simon wants to encourage people to consider adoption, yet he's suspicious of people who might do it for environmental reasons.

Talk of Tianjin Climate Conference: China and U.S. Companies Are Electrifying The Car

TIANJIN, China – Whatever the differences that irked delegates from China and the United States during the six days of climate negotiations that ended here on Saturday, divisions principally defined by how each would control carbon emissions and measure progress, the unmistakable conclusion reached by most of the delegates and participants is how closely tied […]