Latest Articles
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New Agtivist: Shakirah Simley wants to preserve justice
Shakira Simley at the San Francisco Underground Market.(Photo by Monica Jensen/SF Public Press via Flickr) In our New Agtivist interview series, we talk to people who are working to change this country’s f’ed-up food system in inspiring ways. Shakirah Simley is a food justice activist with an unusual weapon: pectin. She’s the founder and creative […]
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California: Jerry Brown kicked off clean energy revolution once, aims to do it again
Jerry Brown, then and nowTrivia questions for energy geeks: Which state approved the country’s first energy-efficiency standards for appliances? The first green building codes? The first big wind farms? And who was governor when all those fine things happened? The answer is California under Gov. Jerry Brown — aka Governor Moonbeam — who just happens […]
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Acid rain is back, and thanks to farming, worse than ever
When you gargoyle with acid rain, you’ll get that grin wiped right off your face.(Nino Barbieri via Wikimedia)Policy makers, environmentalists — even Republicans — like to congratulate themselves on the “victory” over acid rain. As this American success story is usually told, acid rain’s effects were addressed by a 1990 update to the Clean Air […]
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Tell me again why we mandate parking at bars?
They’re not all this big, but you get the pointPhoto: jgrimm FlickrOne of the silliest barriers to green urban development is mandatory sprawl, i.e. local zoning codes that require sprawl-style development, even when consumers (in the “free” market) want to buy property in walkable, compact developments. And one of the craziest examples of this dilemma […]
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Why, yes, mass transit stations should always have a slide
I submit that slides automatically up the fun factor of nearly any place in the world. Try to think of a place that is solemn or ordinary. Say, a church or a transit tunnel. But then if you happen to be in Oruro, Bolivia, like I was, you could get a rush of glee from […]
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Obama Vows To Go Where No Man Has Gone Before: Passing and Signing Climate and Energy Legislation
Given the emotional reserve of a man whose aides once referred to as “no drama Obama,” the president is getting pretty fired up about energy. On Wednesday President Obama concluded an all hands cabinet meeting at the White House by publicly declaring again his resolve to develop a “new energy strategy that the American people […]
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Home improvement giant invests in energy retrofit startup
Photo: aka Kath via FlickrI usually don’t write about companies’ funding announcements, unless the amount of money raised is particularly eye-popping. But when Recurve announced Wednesday that it had scored $8 million in its latest round of fund-raising, what caught my attention was who decided to invest in the San Francisco energy retrofit startup. Along […]
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Fannie and Freddie attack clean-energy plan
Few new ideas brighten the faces of clean-energy advocates as much as Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, the Berkeley-born financing tool that’s spreading quickly throughout the country. The three-year-old model has put rooftop solar panels, high-efficiency furnaces, and other home improvements within reach of thousands of American homeowners, and there’s hope it could reach […]
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G20 leaders to meet and discuss global warming … but only a little bit
G20 leaders meet at the 2009 London summit.Photo: Downing Street via Flickr On June 26-27, leaders from the 20 largest economies will meet in Toronto, Canada, as a part of the Group of 20 summit. These countries represent 85 percent of the world’s global warming pollution and 83 percent of the world’s economic output. So […]
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They shoot unicorns, don’t they?
Grist reader Scott Hess sent in this photo in response to today’s post about Big Pork threatening legal action over the marketing copy for Canned Unicorn Meat. It immediately made me think of a concept my friends at Boing Boing long ago pioneered: a “unicorn chaser” — a mind-cleansing antidote to stories of a gross, […]
