Latest Articles

My Intentional Life: Crash Pad

Gabriel is moving into a building where he and his new roommates are taking a crack at a more intentional lifestyle. But is this place ready for them?

Rising Temperatures Raise Food Prices

Around midnight on Wednesday, August 11th, a group of commodity analysts will gather at a meeting site in the massive South Building of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington, D.C. Once they are assembled, the door will be locked. Cell phones will be collected. Phone and Internet lines will be disconnected. Short of […]

Dirty Energy Money Fuels Congress

As Congress begins August recess, those of us who care about America’s addiction to oil, climate change, and a clean energy future have been scratching our heads (or kicking the walls), wondering why, after historic levels of pressure we can’t even pass an oil spill response bill, not to mention a real clean energy or […]

An anti-corn elitist helps harvest … corn

Up to my elbows in corn, I explain why -- despite recent dead zone and ethanol rants -- I am not against the grain.

'Environmentalism' can never address climate change

There's been a lot of talk lately about what went wrong on the climate bill, but it's always struck me that the original wrong turn was the introduction of climate change to American politics as an "environmental issue." It is the mother of all framing errors -- the one from which all others flow.

Be more like Manhattan to save the earth, and don’t go halfway

The greenest place to live is a dense city like New York, David Owen argues in his book Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability. We chat about urban vs. rural living and pitfalls of "decorative transit" and "density light."

Baltimore seeds city farms as path to sustainability, jobs

Forget "Homicide" and "The Wire." In some Baltimore circles, there's now a lot more talk of sustainability and green living than of the murder rate, and ambitious plans for workforce training and job opportunities are under way -- on places like Great Kids Farm and Real Food Farm.

Elena Kagan's childfree status: The mean take and the green take

Pundits have seized on the fact that new Supreme Court justice Elena Kagan has no kids. Even "feminists" say she comes up short for being childfree.

The spill is gone, but uncertainty haunts the Gulf

Will sea life be permanently damaged by the huge dose of crude? Will consumers ever eat anything that's been swimming around in that toxic soup?

Can the climate bill's death help build a living climate movement?

Environmentalists who want to solve the climate crisis need to stop using institutional barriers and opponents' unfair tactics as an excuse for failure, and instead build a grassroots movement that can overcome both. Such a grassroots movement must put forth exciting, attractive policies to fight climate chaos, rather than limp, pre-compromised proposals nobody can work up enthusiasm for.