Latest Articles

Removing roadblocks to the growth of renewables

On Friday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration released new monthly statistics for renewable energy output as well as output of traditional forms of power.  The good news is that renewable energy in May, the latest month for which statistics have been compiled, is at its all-time highest level, accounting for 13% of total power.  The […]

Sustainability conferences can be boring and terrible

If you’re reading this post, you know that sustainability conferences are now so ubiquitious that you can’t swing a cat without hitting one. This is so cool–because it means the word is getting out big time. But as is my nature, I find myself massively dissatisfied by most (though not all) events, which typically bore […]

Let’s (re)do school lunch

Are corndogs a vegetable? There has been a cultural revolution in this country over the last 50 to 75 years, a sort of intellectual cleansing that has removed from most people’s minds any understanding of food, of cooking, of the pleasures of the kitchen and table, and replaced it with the language of the drive-thru, […]

Ask Umbra on flying less

Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, Do we really need to fly less or do we need planes that are more fuel efficient? Am I assuming correctly when I say that planes have little or no emissions standards? I didn’t see that mentioned specifically in your previous article on planes and trains. So […]

The computer has spoken: Copenhagen will be a failure

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita uses game theory to predict all sorts of geopolitical and business outcomes. Don’t ask him about global warming…Courtesy NYUCancel your plans for flying to Denmark this December. Send the polar bear suits back to the costume shop, and quit boning up on all those U.N. acronyms (IPCC … UNFCCC … AWG-LCA […]

Caption needed! UPDATE: Caption found

When you discover a picture of Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack posing with Cookie Monster and broccoli, it’s caption contest time! Submit captions below in comments. Funniest idea gets a priceless Virtual High Five. UPDATE:  The winner of the Virtual High Five is … Ed Abbey! Scroll down to see the new caption. Thanks for playing! […]

New Obama forest plan leaves roadless rule intact

The Obama administration will defend the Clinton roadless rule that has been ping-ponging in the courts for nearly a decade, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said in Seattle on Friday. If courts can’t resolve the forest-protection conflict, the administration will create its own roadless rule, he said. Vilsack laid out a broad vision for the […]

Solar wars

Note to utilities: solar is popular with your customers.  Earlier in the month in Colorado, Xcel proposed a scheme to charge their customers who install a solar installation an extra fee.  After 5 days of intense public outcry, they withdrew the plan.  For now. And in New Mexico, Public Service of New Mexico  (the largest […]

An ‘agri-intellectual’ talks back

Photo illustration by Tom Twigg / Grist A lot of folks have asked what I think of the essay “The Omnivore’s Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectuals,” by Missouri corn/soy farmer Blake Hurst, published in The American, the journal of the right-wing American Enterprise Institute. My first reaction is that I’m thrilled this debate is taking place. […]

Four Democratic senators call for delay on climate legislation

Four moderate Democratic senators — all considered swing votes on climate legislation — want a climate bill put off until next year. They say Congress should focus on passing health-care legislation. “The problem of doing both of them together is that it becomes too big of a lift,” Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) told Bloomberg. Sens. […]