Latest Articles

How to be ‘Fast, Fresh, and Green’ in the kitchen [book review]

Like recycling, listening to NPR, and caring about the World Cup, everyday cooking has become a de rigeur activity for those with certain class and cultural aspirations. And that’s as it should be. We need more home cooks. If diversified, human-scale, community-directed farms are going to thrive, then a much broader swath of the population […]

EPA: Without American Power Act, one percent chance of avoiding catastrophe

Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. The American Power Act may be President Obama’s last chance to pass comprehensive climate legislation and prevent catastrophe this year. The legislation, drafted by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — before Graham dumped his commitment to a cap on carbon pollution — is in […]

PR lessons from a 1960 oil trade group [VIDEO]

The oil drilling and oyster industries both extract things from coastal waters, so it’s no surprise they’ve been interacting for decades. Here’s a cheesy 1960 video from the American Petroleum Institute that gives a fun look into that relationship, and the industry-funded science that keeps it humming: I don’t know the full background, but Louisiana […]

The climate bill would cost you up to $146 extra a year; what does that mean?

Can we wipe out the worst of global warming?Yesterday, EPA released its long-awaited analysis of the American Power Act, Kerry and Lieberman’s Senate climate bill. What most journalists and pundits have seized on is this finding: between 2010 to 2050, the legislation would cost the average American household between $79 to $146 extra a year. […]

Plan B

Oil spill got you down?  Worried that Congress seems utterly incapable of rising to the challenge of climate change?  Does the steady stream of big problems and limpid solutions have you seriously worried about the future viability of life on Earth?  Well, good news, my friend: scientists have discovered Plan B.

What Is Our "Right" to Opt Out of the Industrial Food System?

Slavery. Women prohibited from voting. No home schooling allowed. No interracial marriage. These were all official government policy at one time in America’s history, and have since been rejected by the courts. Now, the courts should break with another major taboo: restrictions on our access to food, most notably, raw milk. That’s the argument being […]

Buy Freedom Bonds Now

The BP oil disaster is certainly not the first oil spill in US history, but it could be the last. Nor is this the our worst oil spill – – a Chevron refinery leaked over 250 million gallons of oil and refined product into aquifers beneath Los Angeles for decades before it was discovered in […]

Obama’s Oval Office address on the BP oil spill

Grist gives you choice excerpts from Obama’s Oval Office address, which took place yesterday night. On the immediate crisis: Already, this oil spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced. And unlike an earthquake or a hurricane, it’s not a single event that does its damage in a matter of minutes or days. […]

Tennessee fines TVA $11.5 million for coal ash spill, but is it enough?

The state of Tennessee has assessed an $11.5 million penalty against the Tennessee Valley Authority for the December 2008 coal ash spill from a holding pond at its Kingston power plant in Roane County. The fine is the largest ever imposed by the state’s environmental regulators — but some affected residents say it’s not enough. […]

Obama has spoken, now let's act

We applaud President Obama’s plan for the restoration of the Gulf Coast and his commitment to comprehensive climate-change legislation. As the President stated yesterday, we must embrace a clean-energy future. We must unleash American innovation and position our country at the global forefront of a clean-energy economy. We must create millions of good, green jobs […]