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What Gourmet’s critics missed

Hard times aren’t always the worst times for magazines. In 1941, with the economy still depressed and the nation on the verge of war, a magazine called Gourmet hatched. In the years since, Gourmet sprouted into the nation’s most celebrated and influential glossy food magazine. But this week–in the wake of another Great Crash and […]

The U.S. military’s battle to wean itself off oil

Don’t ask what kind of mileage it gets.In the summer of 2006, Marine Corps Major General Richard Zilmer sent the Pentagon an unusual “Priority 1” request for emergency battlefield supplies. Stationed at a temporary base in Fallujah, Zilmer was commanding a force of 30,000 troops responsible for protecting Al Anbar, the vast territory in western […]

Ask Umbra on climate weapons

Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, What does a carbon offset do today for the planet? It seems to me like these vehicles are more for our guilty conscience than for real change. What do you think? Ingrid G.Chicago, Ill. A. Dearest Ingrid, Get involved in the climate fight — become a Climate […]

A scary new climate study will have you saying ‘Oh, shit!’

“Oh, shit.”They say that everyone who finally gets it about climate change has an “Oh, shit” moment — an instant when the full scientific implications become clear and they suddenly realize what a horrifically dangerous situation humanity has created for itself. Listening to the speeches, ground-breaking in their way, that President Obama and Chinese President […]

Teabaggers erupt at Lindsey Graham: ‘Wussypants, girly-man, half-a-sissy’

Cross-posted from Wonk Room. Right-wing activists across the nation are enraged by Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) decision to work with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to craft comprehensive climate and clean energy legislation. In an op-ed published in Sunday’s New York Times, Graham and Kerry discussed their agreement on a framework for mandatory global warming pollution […]

Roland Burris (D-Ill.)

Roland BurrisSen. Roland Burris sent this letter to Grist reader Kevin Wolz in early October, responding to questions about the senator’s stance on climate legislation.  Burris says he supports many aspects of the Kerry-Boxer climate bill introduced in late September, particularly the provisions on nuclear power, agricultural offsets, and clean coal. Dear [Constituent]: Thank you […]

Lester Brown on his must-read new book “Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization”

October 13, 2009 Notwithstanding the Superfreaks, a lot of good books on global warming and its solutions are coming out right now (see “The Invention of Lying about Climate Change“).  One of the best is Lester Brown’s “Plan B 4.0:  Mobilizing to Save Civilization.”  In his book, Brown lays out the too-little-discussed but devastating impacts […]

Nobel Prize in economics a big boost to commons and blow to corporate control

You’ll be hearing a lot about the “commons” for the next few days. It’s about time. There are celebrations taking place around the world — and not just by people, but maybe in the plant and animal kingdoms as well — for Oslo’s award of the Nobel Prize for Economics to Elinor Ostrom. Not only […]

‘SuperFreakonomics’ is ‘patent nonsense’

Any religion, meanwhile, has its heretics, and global warming is no exception. That staggeringly anti-scientific statement (page 170) is just one of many, many pieces of outright nonsense from SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance. In fact, human-caused global warming is well-established science, far better established than any […]

Robert Casey (D-Penn.)

Robert CaseySen. Robert Casey sent this letter to a Grist reader in early October in response to questions about his stance on climate legislation.  He affirms that climate change is a serious problem and that he intends to work toward legislation to curb greenhouse-gas emissions.  He also talks up “clean coal” and touts his efforts […]