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Policy fixes to unleash clean energy, part 5

Now we come to the fun part. If you could build a dream spouse, what would he or she look like? Describe their personality, sense of humor, and relative similarity to Kelly LeBrock. It’s fun to think about, and utterly unrealistic. So too with the question we now build to. If you were king, had […]

Ask Umbra on political activism, donating light bulbs, and BPA in canned food

Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, A while back, you said that political activism was really important. I think I can tear myself away from my new(ish) organic garden long enough to do a little, but I’m not sure what to do. How can I be politically active with my busy schedule? Jon […]

Friday music blogging: Midlake

With their beguiling 2006 album The Trials of Van Occupanther, Texas band Midlake were at the leading edge of a wave of beard music (Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes), but their sound was idiosyncratic, mixing Fleetwood Mac and Fairport Convention, ’70s California hippie rock and mystical ’60s English folk harmonies, in a way that sounded […]

USDA releases strict new pasture rules for organic dairy

In October 2008, the USDA proposed changes to the standards that govern organic dairy farming. Before, organic certification required farmers to give their cows “access to pasture,” which some large dairies chose to interpret, well, rather loosely. How now, organic cow? On Friday, the agency released its final rules on the matter. Pasture standards for […]

Cantwell’s climate bill gathers steam

There’s an interesting insurgency that may give lie to recent predictions of federal failure on cap and trade. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) has a modified “cap and dividend” bill, called the CLEAR Act, that’s slowly but surely picking up momentum. On Wednesday, the Washington Post gave it a nod: Is there no alternative between simple do-nothingism […]

Year of the Tiger Brings in Fewer Tigers than Ever

According to the Chinese lunar calendar, February 14, Sunday, begins the Year of the Tiger. The largest of all cats, the tiger is one of the most charismatic and evocative species on earth. It’s also one of the most threatened. WWF estimates that there could be as few as 3,200 wild tigers left in the […]

Pom-Pom club: Just how ‘Wonderful’ are pomegranates?

In Checkout Line, Lou Bendrick cooks up answers to reader questions about how to green their food choices and other diet-related quandaries.  ————— Dear Checkout Line, For months now, I can’t seem to walk through my local natural-food market without smacking into a vast display of pomegranates — and I usually put one in my […]

We’re kicking butt on coal

Bummed out about Copenhagen, the U.S. Senate, that expensive-sounding kggrstch emanating from somewhere in your transmission? Well, here’s some good news to sip and enjoy: the amazing success of the fight to stop new coal plants. Consider the situation in early 2007. At that time the Energy Department released a survey showing 151 new coal […]

A treat for your Valentine: grass-fed steak in red-wine sauce

In Tom’s Kitchen, Grist’s food editor discusses some of the quick-and-easy things he gets up to in, well, his kitchen. ———- In my kitchen, beef is a precious ingredient. After years of writing the Meat Wagon column, the only beef I’m interested is of the grass-fed variety–preferably from cows raised on a nearby pasture. In […]

Where's Biodiversivist now?

This picture (taken by my eldest daughter from a car ) is your first hint–more to follow. I had no idea what these were. They look like a cross between a capybara and a jack rabbit, which makes perfect sense from an evolutionary perspective once you find out what these are and where they live. […]