Latest Articles

Glacier gumshoe seeks secrets of climate change in ice

It takes a certain kind of person to gather ice cores from remote glaciers, cart them back to a lab, and unlock the clues they contain about the climate record. Such a person needs to be hardy and skilled enough in the field to lead expeditions loaded with equipment into some of the world’s most […]

Should we prefer investing in renewable energy to cleaning up the dirty stuff?

A couple weeks ago, Michael Levi at the Council for Foreign Relations (one of the best energy analysts out there; bookmark his blog) wrote a post called “In Defense of CCS.” (For non-nerds: CCS is carbon capture and sequestration.) I’ve done plenty of bashing of CCS, so I read it with interest. It is structured […]

Off Shore or Off Oil? (Video)

Just days before the BP Deepwater oil spill, American Petroleum Institute’s Rayola Dougher described the risk, as she new it, of offshore drilling: “Even if you have a rig that breaks loose, even if you have a catastrophic event, the most that can spill is what’s in that pipe.”  What does a catastrophic event look […]

A video smorgasbord of sustainable-food speakers

How we let our biology end up in the hands of Nestlé and Unilever and General Foods, we can leave to cultural historians to figure out, But we know now that in order to take back the ownership and responsibility for our health, and the biological integrity of our oceans and our land, we have […]

Is the Gulf oil spill spinning out of control?

Top Hat, Top Kill, Junk Shot, Hail Mary. I don’t know about you but it sure feels like nobody’s going to stop this leak. Even BP CEO and chief spinmeister Tony Hayward is lowering expectations. This mess is officially out of control. “Plug the damn hole” Presidents don’t do impotence — usually. But while BP […]

Disaster in east Tennessee

The coal ash that spilled from a failed impoundment at TVA’s Kingston plant in eastern Tennessee filled the Emory River, creating huge mounds of toxic waste that locals called ashbergs.Photo: Sarah McCoinA special Facing South investigation. Shortly before 1 a.m. on Dec. 22, 2008, a dike holding back an 84-acre pond of wet coal ash […]

Parking lots to parks: Designing livable cities

Can you spot the public transportation in Tel Aviv’s car-centric city?Photo: david55king via FlickrAs I was being driven through Tel Aviv from my hotel to a conference center in 1998, I could not help but note the overwhelming presence of cars and parking lots. It was obvious that Tel Aviv, expanding from a small settlement […]

Despite Pundit Claims, Offshore Drilling Support is Down Significantly

Seizing on a recent NBC/WSJ poll (PDF) showing 60% of Americans continue to support offshore drilling, several journalists and pundits have implied that support for offshore drilling has not declined sharply in recent weeks. As I’ll show below, this is absolutely false. Bill Schneider, National Journal: Nor has the oil spill caused public support for […]

In wake of Gulf spill, should this be the summer of energy reform?

The New Yorker‘s Elizabeth Kolbert tells how the 1968 Unocal oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., spurred public outrage that prompted Congress and President Nixon to pass the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Air Act-cornerstones of American environmental law — and create the EPA. “BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill makes the […]

Show how much you–and BP–care with a commemorative oil spill T-shirt

streetgiantIf you want to do something about the Gulf oil spill and you’re one of those people who likes to wear their heart on their sleeve, try this on for size: a commemorative T-shirt of BP’s legacy in the Gulf of Mexico. You’ll be giving the shirt off your back with every purchase, because all […]