Latest Articles

World leaders say Copenhagen to be a stepping stone

Some very good news on the international front, as the UK Guardian reports today: During a hastily convened breakfast meeting in Singapore, the US president supported a Danish plan to salvage something from the moribund negotiations by aiming for a broad political agreement and postponing contentious decisions on emissions targets, financing and technology transfer…. The […]

The environMENTALIST contest

One of my guilty pleasures is the CBS crime show, The Mentalist.  One-time fake psychic Patrick Jane uses his powers of observation and deduction to figure out the answer to the mystery before everyone else. So here’s the contest for all you would-be environ-Mentalists.  Use your amazing powers of observation and deduction to figure out […]

SuperFreakonomics coauthor replies to “scathing review”

On Monday, The New Yorker published Elizabeth Kolbert’s lengthy review of SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance.  In her 2400-word review, titled “Hosed:  Is there a quick fix for the climate?” she writes: Given their emphasis on cold, hard numbers, it’s noteworthy that Levitt and Dubner ignore what […]

Record high temperatures far outpace record lows across U.S.

Spurred by a warming climate, daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often as record lows over the last decade across the continental United States, new research shows. The ratio of record highs to lows is likely to increase dramatically in coming decades if emissions of greenhouse gases continue to climb. This graphic shows the […]

One doctor’s quest to sound the alarm on ‘wind turbine syndrome’

By the time the pediatrician Nina Pierpont settled in upstate New York, she had already built a rather diverse and full career. As the Connecticut native tells it, she studied birds in the Amazon jungle on her way to earning a Ph.D. in behavioral ecology, then enrolled in medical school, completing a degree and practicing […]

Delaying an international climate treaty: not as bad as it looks

[See update at bottom.] The big news this weekend was that a coalition of world leaders made it official: there will be no full-fledged, legally binding agreement out of the Copenhagen climate talks. Instead there will be a “politically binding” agreement, pledging to work out a full agreement in 2010 — “one agreement, two steps.” […]

Ask Umbra on shower caps, computers, and junk mail

Q. Dear Umbra, I’ve taken to washing my hair less and less often to keep it from drying out. Since I’ve switched to the “no-‘poo” method (baking soda followed by a vinegar rinse) it stays cleaner longer. However, I still take a shower (brief and lukewarm) most days. To keep my curly hair from becoming […]

You never get a second chance to make No Impact — oh wait, yes you do

Dearest readers, Colin Beavan, aka No Impact Man.You’ve perhaps No-ticed the No Impact swirl of late: there’s been lots of buzz about No Impact Man, the New Yorker who committed his young family to a year of zero-waste living, and his eponymous film. In late October, five thousand people participated in the first-ever No Impact […]

One reason Congress might consider scrapping the filibuster

Lester Brown came to our office today and had a nice chat with us Gristers. (Have you watched my diavlog with Brown? It’s must-see tv!) The guy is wicked smart. You really, really should buy his book Plan B 4.0 — it’s the best summation of humanity’s converging ecological problems and the best roadmap to […]

An Appalachian tale

Editor’s Note: Author Ann Pancake grew up in the heart of West Virginia coal country. Her 2007 novel Strange as this Weather Has Been is the story of one family’s struggle against the relentless destruction of its beloved mountains. I went home to West Virginia a couple weeks ago. October is the most beautiful season […]