Latest Articles
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Can the Gulf oil spill be environmentalists’ Arizona moment?
A May Day protest against Arizona’s immigration law.Photo courtesy th.omas via FlickrWithin a week of Arizona’s new racial-profiling bill becoming law, the “1 MILLION Strong AGAINST the Arizona Immigration Law SB1070” group on Facebook climbed to nearly 1.3 million people. Via Facebook and emails and phone calls, I’ve been asked to attend vigils and marches, […]
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Poorly timed Sodexo ad boasts ‘safer’ oil rigs [UPDATE]
UPDATE: Only a few hours after I posted this, Sodexo took down the video. Sorry if you weren’t able to have the same WTF?! moment I had, but Sodexo made the right decision. UPDATE: We tracked down a file of the original video for your viewing pleasure. Call it bad timing, tone deaf PR, or […]
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CJR puts Philpott in the hot seat
(Bart Nagel Photography)Grist Food Editor and indefatigable reporter Tom Philpott recently spent some quality time on the other side of the tape recorder, for an in-depth Columbia Journalism Review interview about class and the U.S. food system. In the piece, titled “Food Fighter,” Philpott fields the de rigeur “is organic too expensive” question with aplomb […]
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With Gulf-spill facts in short supply, spin takes center stage
You spin me right round …Photo: Pip WilsonFor all the fire-hose coverage of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, it’s a story with startlingly few known facts. We don’t know how much oil has actually spilled out. We don’t know where or when it will hit land. We don’t know exactly what’s in the chemical […]
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Chemical dispersants being used in Gulf clean-up are potentially toxic
Coast Guard workers spray Corexit in a 2007 Berkeley, California, cleanup. It is not yet being used on Gulf of Mexico beaches. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)We finally know the main two dispersants that BP and the U.S. government are using to treat the ongoing Gulf spill. Both, by their maker’s own admission, have the “potential […]
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Does America cause cancer?
(Grist/iStockphoto)A new government report [PDF] suggests that comedian Bill Maher was on to something when he joked in an interview last year with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson that “America causes cancer.” The report, released today, says that thousands of industrial chemicals in our environment are indeed making Americans sick, and its findings cannot be easily […]
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Using too much lawn fertilizer?
Photo courtesy of roel1943 via Flickr Brace yourself. Here comes another of my thought exercises, again inspired by my latest reading of The Red Queen-Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley. Another word of warning–random bursts of dripping sarcasm can be found in places you may not always expect it. Ever wonder […]
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Road Map, Not Regulations, Will Bring Coal Free Future
Note: This is a guest post by Stephanie Pistello, Ben Evans, and Jeff Biggers, co-founders of the Coal Free Future Project. In the wake of the worst coal mining disaster in 40 years, compromise and political machinations this spring have resulted in a regulatory crisis of failure; workplace safety in the mines, including the black lung […]
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A farm by any other name
Our new farmhouse and outbuildings.Photos: Steph Larsen In Green Acreage, Steph Larsen chronicles the sprouting of a small but sustainable Nebraska property. ——————————— Last December, I bought the farm. Clearly I mean this in the literal, not euphemistic, sense. (Although I’ve spent some time pondering why the phrase “bought the farm” means “to die,” but […]
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Betting site sets odds on BP containment dome
From our sports department a press release, we learn that at least one online gambling site is taking bets on whether BP’s underwater mega-dome will be successful. BP is attempting an unprecedented engineering feat to deal with the Gulf oil spill: a 100-ton, 40-foot-tall, steel pollution-containment chamber. If all goes well, the dome will be […]
