Latest Articles

Seventh Generation launches anti-toxics campaign with wee gimmick

Seventh GenerationAt first blush, one’s enthusiasm for the Million Baby Crawl would seem to depend largely upon three things: 1) enthusiasm for babies, real and animated; 2) a penchant for baby-related puns (we’re going to rattle Congress!); and 3) interest in frittering away time on the interwebs. But that does a disservice to the intention […]

Europe places outcome of Copenhagen squarely on Obama

The chief negotiator for the European Commission announced this afternoon in Barcelona that the failure of the U.S. Congress to pass legislation before December has doomed the chances for success in Copenhagen. A climate protest at the Barcelona talks: World leaders with ‘big heads’ moving cash from an aid money box to a climate money […]

Gore on the Daily Show: extended dance remix

You know how sometimes Jon Stewart gets all smarmy and sycophantic when he has on a guest he actually admires? And you know how Al Gore has a reputation for being a bit stiff on occasion? Let’s just say they seemed to bring out those qualities in each other last night — or, as Stephen […]

Consumer Reports finds BPA traces in common canned foods

Bisphenol A, commonly abbreviated as BPA, is vile stuff–not the kind of thing a smart species knowingly introduces into its ecosystem. And if a species were to willfully foul its nest with BPA, it would at least be wise to keep it out of direct contact with food. That’s because BPA is an established endocrine […]

Blowing up our clean energy future

Last week, blasting began on Coal River Mountain in West Virginia. This is a part of the country where dynamite routinely goes off—turning the region’s historic mountain ranges into dust for the tiny coal seams that lie beneath their surface. But Coal River Mountain is special, or, rather, you can decide whether it becomes special. […]

Climate psychology in cartoons: clues for solving the messaging mystery

Illustration courtesy Ian Webster/CREDFor the climate-change message to finally sink in, for the 64 percent of Americans who don’t believe in the problem (according to a recent Pew poll) to start changing their minds, the place to begin might be the local high-school gym. Have a respected teacher—maybe from the science department—lead a public presentation. […]

What does recent Senate drama on the climate bill mean? Peak Boxer

There’ve been some weird goings-on in Congress around the Kerry-Boxer clean energy bill over the past few days. So let’s take a step back and try to get a handle on how the story is unfolding. In the House, the development of the Waxman-Markey bill was a relatively orderly process. Waxman took control of the […]

Congressional watchdog issues update on coal ash regulation efforts

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency still does not know the exact number of coal ash dumps at the nation’s power plants, but it’s moving ahead with plans to regulate them. Those are among the findings of a report [PDF] released last week by the Government Accountability Office on the status of EPA’s efforts to improve […]

Why developing countries cannot afford failure in Copenhagen

The African delegation insisted today in Barcelona that its decision to walk out on negotiations Tuesday was necessary in order to jolt the intransigent European Union and other developed nations to move forward with serious discussions, rather than obstruct progress by bringing only lofty rhetoric and no numbers to the negotiating table. The plan seems […]

Gaming cap-and-trade: Should we worry?

Worries about “gaming” or market manipulation sometimes crop up as an objection to cap-and-trade, often with reference to recent shenanigans in the financial markets. Some fear that a cap-and-trade system could be manipulated to artificially raise — or lower — permit prices to generate profits for a few at the expense of consumers. While distrust […]