Latest Articles
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Why Bill Gates is right
Bill Gates speaking at the TED conference.Photo: jurvetson via Flickr“If you gave me only one wish for the next 50 years,” declared the world’s wealthiest man during last week’s TED 2010 conference, “I can pick who is president, I can pick a vaccine … or I can pick that [an energy technology] at half the […]
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New research: synthetic nitrogen destroys soil carbon, undermines soil health
Just precisely what does all of that nitrogen ferilizer do to the soil?“Fertilizer is good for the father and bad for the sons.”–Dutch saying For all of its ecological baggage, synthetic nitrogen does one good deed for the environment: it helps build carbon in soil. At least, that’s what scientists have assumed for decades. If […]
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EPA’s Jackson establishes deliberative path to control global warming pollution
Big oil, the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), and senators including Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are whipping up hysterical fears that the Environmental Protection Agency will use its existing authority under the Clean Air Act to immediately restrict global warming pollution for even the smallest of emitters. For instance, NAM President John […]
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Garden Girl TV: Indoor gardening, part one
I’ve taken over a small section of my house, the sun porch, and dedicated it to my indoor garden project for apartment dwellers as well as for the seedling factory for all my outdoor garden beds. This part of my house is south facing and gets pretty good natural light. I wanted to capitalize on […]
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Obama’s ‘director of game changers’ talks energy breakthroughs
Arun Majumdar, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, spoke at the University of Washington last Friday on the need to fund ambitious energy research.Grist photo/Jonathan Hiskes When the Soviet Sputnik beat American satellites into space in 1957, the U.S. tried to reclaim its technological edge by creating the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which […]
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Seattle to go carbon neutral?
Over at top-notch young Seattle news site Publicola, Erica Barnett brings news of what could be a momentous decision by the Seattle City Council: to set about making Seattle a carbon-neutral city. From the Council’s 2010 Priorities: CARBON NEUTRALITY Adopt a carbon neutral goal for Seattle with specific milestones and implementation steps, along with a […]
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Cleveland, worker-owned co-ops, and new ideas for a flailing economy
Is the way forward for our ailing economy to be found along the banks of Lake Erie? Despite talk of a recovery, the national economy remains in shambles. In Sunday’s New York Times, reporter Peter Goodman brought devastating news: Economists fear that the nascent recovery will leave more people behind than in past recessions, failing […]
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What the heck is a Bloom Box and will it solve the world’s energy problems?
The internet loves mysterious product unveilings, especially those promising to revolutionize the world and how we live in it. (Think Apple’s iPhone.) But few (except for maybe the iPhone) actually live up to the hype. (Or so I hear. Anyone wanna get me an iPhone?) CEO K.R. Sridhar is starting to peel back the layers […]
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Newsweek plays fast and loose with facts in climate story
Another day, another major media outlet libels Michael Mann — and James Hansen. In a new black eye for Newsweek, their lengthy attack on climate scientists has been exposed as relying on massaged data and tawdry innuendo. While they have already corrected a number of mistakes, they left a bunch in, and decided not to […]
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Sen. Mark Udall: “I think it’s crucial to price carbon”
Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.)Mark Udall — son of legendary enviro-friendly Arizona Rep. Morris “Mo” Udall — had been a member of Colorado’s House delegation for 10 years when he won the race to replace retiring senator Wayne Allard. Just 17 days into his first term, Colorado’s other senator, Ken Salazar, left to head up Obama’s […]
