Latest Articles
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In Japan, a global meeting on local food
“We wanted to connect ‘safe’ foods and the support of organic farming with the survival of family farmers, with the preservation of the environment, with opposition to militarism and imperialism, with demands for social justice, and with our need to work collectively to create a better future.” — A 20-year teikei (CSA) member at the […]
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Ask Umbra’s pearls of wisdom on Earth Day parties
Dearest readers, Oh snap, did you space on Earth Day again? (Newsflash: It’s tomorrow!) No worries, there’s still time (a little, anyway) to pull together something for your office or school—or at least get a head start for next year’s planning. Feeling celebratory myself, I raked through the archives to find some past tips on […]
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Each party has a clean-energy plan in U.K. election
Conservative Party’s “Vote blue, go green” logo.The United Kingdom holds its general election in two weeks, and Jeremy Lovell of Climatewire runs down the plans of the three largest parties for tackling climate change and switching to a low-carbon economy. The plans are all imperfect, but they all exist. The U.K. Conservatives don’t deny climate […]
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Raiding rainforest funds in climate legislation will turn cost projections into fantasy
An endangered unicorn protected by one of the imaginary offsets created if Kerry-Graham-Lieberman raids funds for tropical rainforests.In the ongoing negotiations over the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman bill, different polluters are clamoring for cash to compensate them for not fouling the atmosphere quite so much. One of their targets: the legislation’s set-aside funds for reducing tropical deforestation, which […]
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Michigan woman faces down meat industry, wins [VIDEO]
Lynn Henning checks a stream for CAFO contamination. When government regulators toe the industry line, citizens have to fight back. Photo: Tom DusenberryIn “Chewing the Scenery,” we round up interesting food-related video from around the Web. ——— I write a lot about the meat industry’s nearly unbridled power in this country, which it uses to […]
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Colorado Springs experiments by slashing public services
Courtesy Jasen Miller via FlickrCivic-minded urbanist types like to experiment with collective projects. Apparently, so do people who don’t like civic projects, taxes, public parks, pools, police officers, or firefighters. Famously anti-tax Colorado Springs launched an astounding experiment this year: More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The […]
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Can federal courts help tackle global warming?
If Congress and the president fail to tackle global warming, can courts step in? Can federal judges allow people struggling with the losses of global warming to sue polluters directly? The idea may at first seem crazy. In a legal world obsessed with claims of judicial activism, the image of a judge taking on a […]
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Good news for Earth Day: We can reduce climate pollution and boost the economy, all at once
Putting a price on carbon pollution is an important part of tackling climate change. It’s a way of leveling the playing field, removing an unfair advantage that fossil fuels have always had over clean alternatives. However! Pricing carbon is not the only part of tackling climate change. It’s not even necessarily the most important part, […]
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Power your house with poop
Have you ever thought to yourself, “Man, my family sure does produce a lot of excrement; how can I cash in on this?” Well, according to DVICE, SeabEnergy’s MuckBuster might be just the ticket. “The MuckBuster is a self-contained anaerobic digester, built inside a repurposed shipping container. It can produce renewable energy from any organic […]
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USDA downplays own scientist’s research on ill effects of Monsanto herbicide
Sure, the crops are genetically engineered to withstand Roundup; but what about the soil? What would happen if a USDA scientist discovered that one of the most commonly used pesticides on the planet with a reputation for having saved millions of tons of US soil from erosion was — rather than a soil savior — […]
