Latest Articles
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Organic farmers better at pest control, study says
Such large-scale pesticide application may actually reduce yields, a new study finds.Dovetailing nicely with Grist contributor and would-be farmer Steph Larsen’s account of her battle with the hated corn borer, a new study from Washington State University suggests organic growing techniques offer better pest control and larger plants. But first, let’s be clear: The debate […]
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Can we get on the road to major emission reductions by starting with a cap on stationary sources?
President Obama hosted a bipartisan group of Senators at the White House on Tuesday to talk about the path forward on comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation. He made a strong case for passing a bill that “makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy” by holding polluters responsible for their emissions. As expected, there […]
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TV weathercasters and news directors are distorting climate coverage
Just a few months ago, we learned that one out of four weathercasters surveyed [PDF] thought global warming wasn’t really happening, and another 21 percent weren’t sure yet. Now a new survey [PDF] reveals that 21 percent of TV news directors don’t think climate change is real, and 26 percent are unsure. Bottom line: Almost […]
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Green tech investment surges
President Obama examines a solar panel with Solyndra executives.Photo and caption: The White HouseGreen tech is back in the green. Global venture capital investment in green technology companies reached $4.04 billion in the first half of 2010, exceeding — slightly — the record set in the boom year of 2008, according to a preliminary report […]
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Now you can actually just buy LEED certification
We are facing an unprecedented environmental crisis in the form of climate change (with the world at its all time hottest in recorded history right now) and yet we have a firm (and I use that term lightly) called Carbon Solutions Group sending me emails like the following: In short, it says: "You can BUY LEED credits for almost nothing! Green power is getting so cheap!"
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Democrats may waste last chance for clean energy win
With the final seconds ticking down on the Congressional clock, President Obama and Senate Democrats emerged from a White House summit with Republican moderates Tuesday still lacking any plan to score a last minute win for clean energy. Wasted opportunity Establishing a price (any price) on carbon pollution through a(n increasingly weak) cap-and-trade system continues […]
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Robert Cluck: Texas doctor, Republican mayor, clean-air champ
Deceptively clear skies over Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.Courtesy jacorbett70 via FlickrPhysician Robert Cluck spends his mornings working at Arlington Memorial Hospital and his afternoons as mayor of Arlington, Texas, a city of 375,000 that has one of the worst ozone problems in the country. Seeing children with asthma in the emergency room has led him […]
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The public is ready for clean energy legislation. Is the Senate?
Jonathan Cohn, writing at his new must-read blog, has a fascinating piece on the policy implications of the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The gist of his argument is that the public push for clean energy policy — in the form of marches on Washington and calls to Congress — is more […]
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Senator Robert Byrd: An Appreciation
This post was co-written by Mary Anne Hitt of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, who is also a native West Virginian. On September 21, 2006, grandfather and former coal miner Ed Wiley took the final steps of a 455-mile walk that began in the coalfields of West Virginia and ended in Washington, DC, at […]
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Battling the bugs — and the temptation to use chemical WMDs
Going off to war against the weed-lurking worms. (Steph Larsen) I’m at war with the common stalk borer. As much as I believe in sustainability and chemical-free agriculture in theory, I’ve never been more tempted to use insecticides as I am right now. For years, the signature for my email has been a quote from […]
