Latest Articles

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

WI GOP Senate candidate Ron Johnson owns over $100,000 in BP stock, supports Great Lakes oil drillin

Ron Johnson, a wealthy business executive and leading Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin this year, is beginning to receive scrutiny for his extremist views.  Last month he was asked whether or not he agreed that “man-caused global warming is a proven fact.”   His reply: I totally disagree…I’m always surprised that people think this […]

Energy efficiency helps homeowners avoid foreclosure

Energy-efficient homes have significantly lower default and delinquency rates than typical homes, according to an internal analysis conducted for a major financial institution last year. Here’s yet another reason why it makes no sense that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have effectively killed Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), a financing tool that has helped make […]

Seven reasons BP would like to forget last weekend

It’s been 81 days since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank in the Gulf.Photo: U.S. Coast GuardIt should have been a good weekend for BP. Its latest plan to staunch the geyser — lowering a tighter cap over the spewing pipe — is ahead of schedule, and its two relief wells, which could stop […]

A good question from the Sierra Club’s chief

The Sierra Club can claim some expertise in stopping dimwitted ideas: It’s helped block the construction of 128 coal-fired power plants, concrete and measurable victories in the oft-murky struggle against climate change. New Executive Director Mike Brune turns this record into a good question in the new Sierra magazine: Here’s an immediate challenge for all […]

Are kickbacks from Kellogg and others driving school-food purchasing?

D.C. Public Schools in the last two years have taken in more than $1 million in corporate rebates — referred to by some as “kickbacks” — paid by giant food manufacturers as an inducement to place their brands on kids’ cafeteria trays at school. Documents I obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that […]

Ask Umbra on the dangers of BPA in canning lids and canned food

Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, My wife and I belong to a CSA. We are getting some cucumbers that I would like to try and pickle. My wife says the lids to the classic mason jars have BPA in them. Do you know how much of a concern this is in the context […]

Climate & Energy Bill Will Do More For Health Than Health Care Legislation

This post was co-authored by Dr. Rahul Rajkumar, a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. As oil and gas continue to spew out of a broken pipe at the BP spill site in the Gulf of Mexico, those of us who rode on the health care reform bandwagon have to wonder if we […]