Latest Articles

Industrial meat comes with antibiotics and endocrine disruptors

A few years ago, scientists released one of the first studies to examine how diet can affect your exposure to toxic substances. In that case, researchers had a group of Seattle schoolchildren eat an organic diet for five days a week. Almost immediately, pesticide levels in the children’s bodies dropped to almost undetectable levels — […]

Where things stand on the Kerry-Lieberman climate bill

The Kerry-Lieberman (nee Kerry-Graham-Lieberman) climate and clean-energy bill is set to be introduced on Wednesday. Given all the chaos that’s surrounded it for the last few weeks, it’s worth taking a step back and taking a broad look at the current political dynamic and the chances for a successful outcome. Here’s the one-sentence summary: Chances […]

Elena Kagan, climate realist

Photo: White House / Lawrence Jackson Here’s the dirt on Earth-hating Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan: On more than one occasion she was so consumed by her work that she accidentally left her car running overnight, a longtime “friend” told the New York Times. But it’s worth looking beyond this personal eco-foul to examine Kagan’s […]

Criticizing Cap-and-Dividend by inventing something worse

Sean Casten’s  criticism of Cap-and-dividend[1] seems to indicate that he had a really bad day. Implying that former  former CEO Peter Barnes, and former software corporate executive Senator Maria Cantwell are Marxists is simply not a propitious way to begin a critique or proposal.  The substance does not seem any better. One of his criticisms […]

‘Love seats’ flirt with creating better bus times

Kadaver off the Record Copenhagen’s buses are introducing another way of getting around while you get around town: “love seats,” or “kærlighedssæder.” (Gesundheit!) A social experiment of Danish bus company, Arriva, these special spots aim to make things a little cozier for those would-be cuddlers who haven’t been feeling the love on public transit. “You […]

How environmental groups are protesting the oil spill

Since the scale of the BP catastrophe began to register, there have been a lot of questions swirling around the political implications of the spill. Will it help or hinder efforts to pass a climate bill? Should environmentalists seize upon the opportunity to galvanize public support like never before behind an aggressive shift towards clean […]

Senate climate bill is coming Wednesday

The big day is almost upon us. And the two amigos are confident about the Wednesday launch of their long-awaited climate and clean energy jobs bill. In a joint statement, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) write: We are more encouraged today that we can secure the necessary votes to pass this legislation […]

An oil spill looks a lot bigger in your (yes, your!) backyard

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is big. Twenty-five hundred square miles big. But that oily mess is out in distant ocean waters, not your backyard, making it difficult to relate to the scale of this petro-tastrophe. Helpfully, Google Earther Paul Rademacher makes it easy to imagine what the oil spill would look like in […]

Health risks of potassium bromate maybe not so ‘Fringe’

Fringe mad scientist Walter Bishop goes postal over potassium bromate The sci-fi TV show Fringe had a surreally satisfying sequence in the May 6 episode, available on Hulu.com, in which supposedly mad scientist Walter Bishop goes food shopping. Walter, who in the series spends a lot of time in alternate universes, is holding a box […]

Oil spill update: The ‘junk shot’ solution, BP’s poor safety record, right-wingers discredited

“Eww.” A toxic-smelling trail of “dispersed” oil in the Gulf.Photo: National Wildlife FederationDown $350 million so far and its much-hyped containment dome done in by clumps of icy slush, BP is mulling other options to shut off the gushing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  It might try again with a smaller dome.  Or […]