Latest Articles

Ask Umbra chews the fat with Moby

Whatever you do when you meet Moby (eventually, we all will), don’t tell him you enjoy his book. “That’s a strange word to use,” he said when I did the very thing I’m telling you not to do. My face briefly turned the same shade as my hair as I attempted to explain how exactly […]

Climate change more effective than diplomacy for India and Bangladesh

For all the bad rap that climate change gets, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to look on the bright side of things. Tensions have been rising between Bangladesh and India for the last 30 years over who owns New Moore Island. But rising seas have made the island no more. Problem solved! (Unless, like LOST fans, […]

Why are we propping up corn production, again?

News flash: high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a lousy product. As Tom Laskawy reported here Tuesday, a recent study by Princeton researchers found that rats fed chow laced with HFCS gained more weight than rats fed equal calories of table sugar. All processed sweeteners add empty calories to food; but calorie for calorie, HFCS appears […]

Celeb couple awkwardly asks you to dim the lights for Earth Hour

On Saturday at 8:30 p.m. local time (wherever you are) join 30 U.S. states, 3,100 U.S. cities, 121 countries, and celeb couple Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen (in both their homes), by turning off your lights for World Wildlife Fund’s 4th annual Earth Hour. And what a more inspiring couple to promote the event than […]

New homes are cropping up in cities, not suburbs

Today in conventional wisdom–busting news, we learn that grimy old cities are attracting more residential construction than the bright suburban frontier. Urban redevelopment is outpacing fringe sprawl by a solid margin, according to a new EPA study of the nation’s 50 largest metro areas. It’s a “fundamental shift in the real estate market,” says the […]

Live Chat with Tom Philpott

Editor’s note: The chat’s now over, but you can replay it in full. What are the best seeds to use for my container garden? What is the deal with organic pineapple? These are just a couple of the questions from March’s Live Chat with Tom Philpott. And if you’ve been dying to know Tom’s favorite […]

Do you prefer your green space pre-packaged?

This enlightened group of Spanish nightstalkers are fed up with shrinking urban green space. Worried that the most greenery people see nowadays comes in plastic containers with a sell-by date, they decided to prank up the limelight on an ugly corner of Madrid with their Packaged Vertical Garden. We think their style packs way more […]

Canada Rules

The undemocratic design of the US Senate is a huge obstacle to progress in the Northwest. How did the Senate get set up in the first place? Richard Rosenfeld, writing six years ago in Harper’s answers that question. The 1787 Constitutional Convention created the Senate in a triply split vote won by states representing just […]

Pledge to End Mountaintop Removal in 2010

From Nell Greenberg. I have spent the last two years working to end the devastating, unjust practice of mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR). This is a practice that requires dynamiting the tops off of ancient Appalachian Mountains and contaminating families’ drinking water for a tiny tiny amount of our nation’s coal. I don’t live in […]

The Climate Post: Once more unto the breach, dear friends

First Things First: President Barack Obama signed health care reform into law this week, exposing a rarely acknowledged political pre-existing condition among the pundit class: despite the conventional wisdom, no matter how many years experience a given observer has had in Washington, whatever political party you favor — nobody ever really has any idea what’s […]