Latest Articles
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Why America’s greenest mayor got no love
Seattle Times environmental reporter Craig Welch profiles one of the more puzzling characters in recent urban politics, Seattle’s now-former mayor, Greg Nickels. The piece treads some of the same ground as my profile of Nickels last month: after demonstrating national leadership in rallying mayors on climate change, Nickels received no political credit back home. Seattle, […]
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To address obesity, the First Lady will need to cast a wide net
Michelle Obama’s anti-childhood obesity agenda would have kids a little less round ’round the middle.White House Flickr streamWhile we await Michelle Obama’s speech this Wednesday to the United States Conference of Mayors that will likely launch her new campaign against childhood obesity, I thought I’d offer a little perspective as well as a few bits […]
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After another massive recall, will the beef industry grope for techno fixes?
In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat and livestock industries. ——— Massive burger recall: what would Meat Wagon be without one? The Obama administration still hasn’t chosen a director of the USDA’s FSIS — the office charged with overseeing the safety of the nation’s meat supply. Meanwhile, the new year […]
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Tales from a D.C. school kitchen: What does ‘fresh-cooked’ really mean?
Ed Bruske recently spent a week in the kitchen at H.D. Cooke Elementary School in the District of Columbia observing how food is prepared. This is the first of a six-part series of posts about what he saw. Read parts 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Cross-posted from The Slow Cook. And check out the rest […]
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Wild and Scenic
If you are reading this, you are likely sitting in front of a computer. Which will make it easy to do yourself this favor: open your calendar, scroll forward about a year, and circle the date of the next Wild and Scenic film festival. I just spent the past few days in Nevada City, CA–and […]
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Climate and Race
A boycott in Montgomery, Alabama; a march on Washington; “I Have a Dream;” a bridge in Selma; a Nobel Prize; a balcony in Memphis—the flaming arc of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life is now inscribed in American mythology. But in December 1955, when King was an unknown 26-year-old Baptist minister first thrust into leadership, the […]
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Stephen Colbert on mountaintop-removal mining [VIDEO]
A couple weeks back, I covered a new paper in Science that constitutes the most comprehensive survey yet of existing scientific data on mountaintop removal mining. The conclusions were so stark and, frankly, horrifying that the scientists involved went the unusual extra step of calling for an immediate moratorium on the practice. Trust Stephen Colbert […]
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Senate needs to get back to work on clean-energy bill, says Washington rep
Copenhagen may not have been a giant leap for mankind, but it was a step forward. So as the Congress returns to work this year, its post-Copenhagen duty remains the same as its pre-Copenhagen responsibility: to pass an energy bill that both jump-starts the United States’ economy and screws down the nation’s carbon pollution. There […]
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Stephen Colbert on mountaintop-removal mining
Monday night on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert hosted scientist Margaret Palmer in a brilliant takedown of the Obama administration's recent decision to greenlight more mountaintop-removal mining permits.
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Michelle Obama vows to ‘move the ball’ on kids’ diets
White House flickr streamHer husband got dealt a difficult set of cards in taking over the post-Bush II presidency–and has arguably played them quite badly. He now finds himself in a tight political corner: caught between an emboldened Right, an angry Left, and a shrivelled middle. But Michelle Obama abides, as fabulous and beloved by […]
