Latest Articles
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Ads aim to humanize climate scientists, but are they doing enough to make themselves more lovable?
Do the new ads from the Union of Concerned Scientists make climate scientists more huggable? Climate scientists smeared in the “Climategate” spectacle have been cleared of wrongdoing in one investigation after another — but they’ve still got a lingering image problem. The play’s the thing: With a new ad campaign, the Union of Concerned Scientists […]
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Ask Umbra’s Book Club: Isn’t the ocean an all-you-can-eat buffet?
Dearest readers, What did you think of Sylvia Earle’s The World Is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean’s Are One? I must say, it left me awed and inspired. They don’t call Earle “‘Her Deepness” for nothing. The book has such depth and range — from how whales play to the perils of ocean […]
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Kick your industrial-beef consumption up a notch with Emeril!
Emeril Lagasse, industrial beef’s new best friend(Red Marble Steaks)Far be it for me to lament the state of food television. Don’t get me wrong — watching a man lurch about a stage kitchen, bellowing canned slogans (“Bam!”), and pandering to the studio audience, destroys my appetite. But people receive pop culture in multiple and unpredictable […]
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Cleaning up Gulf oil, one f-bomb at a time
Two guys are “mad as f–k” about all the sh*t Big Oil has undammed in the Gulf of Mexico, and they’re hoping the rest of the internet is too. Nate Guidas and Luke Montgomery are the organic-eating, vegan minds behind the dirty-mouthed campaign to Unf–k the Gulf. They’ve created a t-shirt to raise funds for […]
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Solar projects continue to shine despite dark economic times
Three years into a decade-long project to install 3,000 megawatts of photovoltaic arrays, California is almost halfway to its goal.Photo: Flickr via Jason Levine DesignAs the Great Recession drags on in California — unemployment rate: 12.4 percent, state government in a state of collapse — the solar boom continues. The Golden State’s decade-long program to […]
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Of course population is still a problem
There are already 6.8 billion of us …Photo courtesy James Cridland via FlickrFred Pearce keeps on saying that population growth is no longer a problem. He said it again yesterday as part of his World Population Day message. In Fred’s view, it’s very simple. Fertility rates have come down sharply over the past half century. […]
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Washington Post asks why Gulf spill isn’t leading to green progress
The Washington Post brings the serious gloom and doom today with a front-page story: “Historic oil spill fails to produce gains for U.S. environmentalists.” It’s making the rounds among green groups and climate activists. Lead environmental reporter Juliet Eilperin and David A. Fahrenthold write: This year, the worst oil spill in U.S. history — and, […]
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Chamber of Commerce rents its roof to Fox News, Fox News refuses to critically report on the Chamber
Two of the leading organizations pushing disinformation on climate science and clean energy are the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (see “Luddite Chamber seeks “the Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century” on global warming) and Fox News (see Fox News blurts out its agenda: “First, stop cap-and-trade, which could send these groups trillions,” and then […]
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To the population doomsayers: What do you propose?
Fred Pearce’s recent blog post on why population is not the issue shouldn’t be controversial; it’s what most sensible environmentalists have been saying for over a decade. But a quick perusal through the comments section and it is clear that there are still many in the environmental community who think population is the main culprit […]
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Chicken expert Gail Damerow answers readers’ questions
Grist’s recent Q&A with chicken expert Gail Damerow, the author of the best-selling Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens, elicited several questions from readers. Damerow took time out from her busy farm in Tennessee to answer them via email. Q. From Jean Kaiwi: I live in the country where everyone has roosters. The local chicken guru […]
