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Grist’s guide to green iPhone apps

Wondering what brand of toothpaste is the most eco-friendly? There’s an app for that. Need to know which species of fish on the menu were caught sustainably? There’s an app for that. Long to plant a tree with every swish of your PhoneSaber? There’s not an app for that … yet. But check out the […]

American Climate Energy Security bill still makes things worse.

“The girl’s not playing with a full deck, Giles. She has almost no deck. She has a three.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Faith, Hope and Trick. The American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) repeals the recently won authority the EPA has to regulate greenhouse gases, and replaces that authority with a loophole ridden […]

Coal ash contamination imperils July 4 festival goers in Tennessee

The city of Kingston, Tenn. plans to hold its annual July 4 “Smokin’ the Water” celebration tomorrow at a public park near Watts Bar Reservoir. The event is expected to draw as many as 25,000 people with festivities including raft races, boating and swimming. But the park is only a short distance downstream from the […]

Big Coal does not want you to see this film

As a groundbreaking clean energy counterpart to this summer’s extraordinary Food, Inc. documentary on the agribusiness, the long-awaited “Coal Country” film on the cradle-to-grave process of generating our coal-fired electricity will be hitting the theaters next week with the big bang of an ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosive. And Big Coal ain’t happy. Here’s the trailer: […]

GOP: Solar powered jobs can go to hell (or at least limbo)

The clock was ticking … till it stopped.Courtesy Osha DavidsonJust ten days ago, Arizona state Senator Barbara Leff (R-Paradise Valley) stood before a House committee, making the case for a bill she had written. “The Quality Jobs Through Renewable Energy Bill,” was needed, she said, to make Arizona the leader in solar [power].” Not just […]

Counting Senate votes on a climate bill

Track the debate and take action >>> UPDATED: 9 Oct 2009 The House already passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act (aka Waxman-Markey), so now the ball is in the Senate’s court.  Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) introduced a climate bill on Sept. 30. For now, here’s a quick breakdown of […]

No, Jeff, there’s not a debate about the science of climate change

Climate change is happening. The science is sound. But plenty of people and organizations with various motives (all dubious) are spending millions to sow seeds of doubt among the American public. Following on our in-depth series, How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic, Grist will launch an occasional feature that tracks the latest global warming […]

U.S.-Russia climate and energy efficiency cooperation: A neglected challenge

This piece was co-written with colleagues from the Center for American Progress: Julian L. Wong, a Senior Policy Analyst, and Samuel Charap, a Fellow. The summit between President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in Moscow on July 6-8 comes in the middle of a packed international schedule of bilateral and multilateral meetings for […]

The Climate Post: Has the political climate changed?

First things first: The U.S. House of Representatives last week narrowly voted to overhaul the nation’s energy economy by limiting industrial greenhouse gas emissions, boosting efficiency, and developing renewable electricity sources. The American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act would limit, or “cap,” annual pollution and allow industry to buy and sell, or “trade,” credits […]

Climate-news poem: Breath-catching edition

They’re not just poems, they’re vaguely educational poems! Check ’em out. After the fence-jump frenzy, this week is sweet relief.Bill passed! And all react to that with gasps of disbelief. Just breathe.Yet as it was each time the bill got closer to the floor,We must remember that it’s in for hurdles, many more. The good […]