Latest Articles

Whether bikers should wait at red lights and more on transportation ethics

Biking around a fascinating city, pondering urban landscapes and human welfare, shaking fists at cabs in a goofy sort of way — what’s not to like? Streetsfilms talks transportation ethics with New York Times Magazine “The Ethicist” writer Randy Cohen while riding around NYC. He unpacks the ethics of riding through red lights and “salmoning” […]

The federal MMS: a wholly owned subsidiary of the oil industry

The Deepwater Horizons rig goes boom, killing 11 people and starting a massive and ongoing oil leak. If the Minerals Management Service had been a functional, independent oversight agency, this disaster would likely have never happened.  (Photo: U.S. Navy) Has the government surrendered its ability to rein in corporate excess? Yes, says the New York […]

Brits are aghast at us Yankee “greens”

U.K. farm owner, “eco-dwelling” builder, and Grist reader JRWoodman offers some perspective on the apparently greenish platform of the new Conservative-LibDem coalition government: The UK’s Conservative party springs out of the old families that lived in stately homes in the countryside and enjoyed country pursuits. To this day if you look at an electoral map […]

Spill-rate lowballing reflects badly on government cleanup oversight

Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.): “Okay. What is the current spill per day today?”Lamar McKay, President and Chairman of BP America: “The current estimate is 5,000 barrels a day.”— From hearings (PDF) held by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Wednesday, May 12, 2010 Still from a May 11 video of oil and gas streaming […]

Two Berkeley chefs make healthy food that kids will eat

Part 3 of Cafeteria Confidential: Berkeley, in which Ed Bruske reports on his recent week-long, firsthand look at how Berkeley, Calif., schools part ways from the typical school diet of frozen, industrially processed convenience foods. Cross-posted from The Slow Cook. And check out the rest of the Cafeteria Confidential series. Berkeley Public Schools Executive Chef […]

Ask Umbra’s Book Club: Time to take action

Dearest readers, Photo: GreenpeaceThanks so much for all your foodie insights this week related to Anna Lappé’s Diet for a Hot Planet (if you missed the live chat with her, catch the replay). One more big question to tackle today. Let’s brainstorm some ideas about how to put the pressure on agribusiness offenders. In the […]

Tools for supporting international action on global warming: American Power Act

The draft of the American Power Act is now out (see NRDC’s first read summary of the entire bill). The core global warming pollution limits in the bill, covering all major pollution sources, are a solid foundation for Senate legislation to put a final bill on President Obama’s desk this year. So how does this […]

Unheard Voices from the Gulf Coast

The Vietnamese community of greater New Orleans makes up roughly half of the fishing industry in the area. They help to supply more than one-third of the nation’s seafood. As our country faces a potential shortage of Gulf shrimp, crab and fish, these workers face complete economic uncertainty. Low-income communities and communities of color have […]

The kind of traffic we wouldn’t mind more of

Rush hour in Utrecht, Holland, is enviable. But do their racks offer this kind of support? Via Buzzfeed. —————————————————————————————————————————————————– Like what you see? Sign up to receive The Grist List, our email roundup of pun-usual green news just like this, sent out every Friday.

Want to phase out a hazardous substance? Dump it in the Gulf!

A U.S. Air Force plane sprays chemical dispersants over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.Photo: Deepwater Horizon ResponseEPA chief Lisa Jackson, along with other EPA officials and representatives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, gave a press teleconference on use of dispersants in the Gulf Wednesday afternoon. I attended and got in […]