Latest Articles

Esteros del Ibera–Buenos Aires, Argentina

Cross-Posted from Biodiversivist To get to this wildlife preserve from Seattle, fly for about 15 hours to Buenos Aires. Rent a car, load it with your family and drive North toward Brazil for a day or so to a small town called Collinia Carlos Pellegrini where you will find a dirt road. Drive down that […]

Hop on the bus, texters

A French lad texting in an appropriate venue.Photo: TopheeNearly two-thirds of Millennials, aged 18 to 29, admit to texting while driving, according to a new Pew Research Center report [PDF]. Texting while driving is “insanely dangerous,” Clive Thompson reminds us in Wired. “Studies have found that each time you write or read a text message, […]

For first time, GM soybeans may be losing favor among farmers

A soybean field in summer. Farmers are getting fed up with Monsanto’s soy seed monopoly. UPDATE: This report refers not to the current year but to the 2009 crop year, which according to the USDA did see a slight drop in US GMO soybean plantings, as predicted. New estimates on the 2010 crop year should […]

Ask Umbra’s pearls of wisdom on gardening

Dearest readers, Ah, spring is in the air. Well, sort of. We’re still technically about three weeks out, but our unusually unwintry weather here at Grist HQ seems to be duping buds into bloom and setting off an outbreak of early onset spring fever, which has, in turn, caused mulch, seedlings, watering, and weeding to […]

Making sense of Wal-Mart’s big green announcement

Wal-Mart made big news today with a major commitment to trim its greenhouse-gas emissions. Here’s the context: Over the past five years the retail giant has taken big, splashy steps to save energy, reduce waste, and sell cleaner products, like compact-fluorescent light bulbs. It’s given less focus to the impact of the factories that churn […]

The Climate Post: Climate bill + climategate = Bill ‘Climate’ Gates!

First things first: Recent political difficulties for the president and key colleagues in the Senate have not removed energy and climate issues from the White House and majority’s agenda. Obama told business executives yesterday that the U.S. economy must start “to put a price on carbon pollution.” He touted his White House’s activities on energy […]

James Inhofe, Senate’s top skeptic, explains his climate-hoax theory

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), one of the world’s most vociferous climate skeptics, is practically giddy these days. He’s argued since 2003 that global warming is a massive “hoax” being played on the American people, and now he believes he’s got more backing than ever before for his claim, from “Climategate” emails to errors in the […]

British Airways plans to get wasted on future flights

Being a good stewardess of resources Next time the state of the planet has you down in the dumps, remember you’ve got a reason to look up. By 2014 British Airways will be filling up with 10% waste to keep landfilling down. Sure, they have airways to go in green, but it’s plane to see […]

Are you a farmer at heart? Start a ‘Crop Mob’

Carbon sequestration: Crop Mob stalwarts Rob Jones, left, and Chris Rumbley create a hügelkultur bed at “the Bog” co-housing community in Carrboro, N.C., summer 2009. Photo: Tom PhilpottA growing number of young people are finishing college and resisting the pressure to plunk down in a cube behind a computer. Others skip college altogether–given the spiraling […]

Talking Vancouver and successful urbanism on the radio

Photo courtesy BinoCanada via FlickrThere’s only so much to say about the Olympics and climate change. If you’re going to have the games, you’re going to have a lot of air-travel emissions (which account for more than half the climate impact of the Vancouver games). The city of Vancouver, on the other hand, presents a […]