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You should totally apologize to BP

There have been a lot of apologies flying around this week. BP CEO Tony Hayward to the U.S. people. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) to Hayward and BP. Now it’s Twitter’s (and your) turn to tell BP just how totally sorry it is for everything. It’s been a rough week. DrogoBoffin via Twitter@DrogoBoffin: #Imsorrybp That Kanye […]

Friday music blogging: Freelance Whales

The music of Freelance Whales has an immediate warmth and familiarity that’s either comforting or derivative, depending on your perspective. You could mistake them for Postal Service from across the room, what with the sweet, earnest alto vocals of front man Judah Dadone, but the instrumentation isn’t electronic. Rather, there’s a huge array of guitars, […]

Anti-BP antics are angry but artistic [SLIDESHOW]

Photo courtesy Infrogmation via FlickrThe Gulf of Mexico oil spill has triggered the usual stages of grief: Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Elaborate costumes. Nudity. Protesters in New Orleans, New York, Washington, D.C., and other cities have been getting creative — and naked — with their responses to the Gulf spill. Let’s just say a whole lot […]

Urbivore’s Dilemma, Week 2: Sticks and leaves, burdock root, and two stalks of asparagus?

The rather mysterious contents of Box No. 2.(Jennnifer Prediger photos) It’s week two of my journey as a CSA shareholder, which I’ll be chronicling in this Urbivore’s Dilemma series. (Read the first installment.) It’s been quite a learning curve so far. Not just from the vegetables and how to cook them, but also learning what […]

Tom’s Kitchen: An early summer’s fried rice with sautéed greens

Many people claim they don’t have time to cook fresh meals “from scratch.” In Tom’s Kitchen, Grist’s food editor discusses some of the quick and easy things he gets up to in … well, his kitchen. Forgive the lame iPhone photography. My three food groups, representin’ on one plate.(Tom Philpott)When I think about nutrition and […]

Hottie bikers in Miami Beach, Complete Streets in St. Louis

Ten minutes of biking a day and you too can look like this.Decobike.comSpend enough time watching the Senate dither on the climate threat/energy quest/defining challenge of our time and it’s easy to lose sight of the sanity and localized progress happening around the world. A few quick examples: Miami Beach added a bike-sharing program to […]

On Capitol Hill, a week of sorry spectacles

Was it me, or did it seem like everyone in Washington this week was wearing a name tag that said, “Hi, I’m Sorry.” For all the hours of congressional testimony, all the badgering questions and evasive answers, the gestalt of the nation’s capital could be summed up in two words: “My bad.” The four top […]

Rejoice! Grist cracks “Top Ten Ethanol Enemies” list

The writing life can be a rocky one. You slog it out in the trenches daily, trying to make a living and a difference. Progress can be slow, or nonexistent. And then you get an honor! And your dim worldview brightens. Such was my delight yesterday, when news came via Twitter and the Corn Corps […]

Should Obama be talking more about climate change?

He Who Must Not Be Named?In his new book The Climate War, Eric Pooley describes how the message of climate campaigners has evolved from one focused on, well, climate (“polar bears”) to one dominated by national security, green jobs, and competitiveness. He calls this latter version the “Trojan Horse” message, one that tries to smuggle […]

What's Next for Climate Change Negotiations?

COP 15 and the Copenhagen Accord were widely criticized and a successor Protocol by 2010 is unlikely. Regardless of what happens at Cancun, climate change will be addressed in one form or another.             Prior to Copenhagen, the Bali Action Plan proposed several objectives; only “limiting global temperature increase to 1.5-2° Celsius” appeared in the […]