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Urban hawks take flight on New York’s Upper West Side

Photo: Ralph HockensReason No. 137 that I love commuting by bike in New York City: I get to watch baby hawks go to flight school. Last year, I was fascinated and then heartbroken by a pair of red-tail hawks that built a precarious-looking nest over the West Side Highway, produced a trio of hatchlings, then […]

Consumers no longer want to be kept in the dark about food

A new survey came out indicating that (surprise, surprise) only 20% of Americans trust food companies to “to develop and sell food products that are safe and healthy.” While the depth to which food companies’ reputations have sunk is impressive, the phrase from the survey question is both interesting and unfortunate. IBM(!), who performed the […]

Why I’m not freaked out about the Waxman-Markey climate bill

Feeling ambivalent?Will the Waxman-Markey bill spark a full-scale energy revolution? No. Not on its own, not in the next 10-15 years. The short-term targets for reducing greenhouse gases are too low, the renewable electricity standard is too weak, too many offsets are allowed, and there’s too little investment in clean energy. To boot, there’s every […]

Ask Umbra on meating your needs

Send your question to Umbra! Q. Hi Umbra, I was shopping in the commissary (our lovely military grocery store) this afternoon when I noticed the “reduced for quick sale” meat section. [As a former vegetarian], I literally feel the weight of the world when I buy meat … but when I saw this meat, it […]

It’s no time for change, says ad from Gingrich’s group

American Solutions for Winning the FutureThe people who brought you the “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” energy plan have launched a new TV ad opposing the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill, or, as the new 30-second spot calls it, the “national energy tax.” American Solutions for Winning the Future, a group founded by former […]

Frogs in the forest: the new canaries in the coal mine

Dr. Kerry Kriger cracks a smile during his visit to Grist’s Seattle HQ.Russ Walker / GristOn Tuesday, the staff at Grist devoured frogs for lunch.  Well, not exactly. We sat down with conservation biologist Dr. Kerry Kriger of the newly minted nonprofit Save the Frogs! — one of several stops he’s making in Seattle during […]

RE less than G

The next time someone tells you solar is too expensive, send them here (PDF). It’s a contract PG&E signed for a 230 MW solar photovoltaic project, delivering 592 GWh/year. That’s a lot. But the best part? Look at the chart on the bottom of page 3. It won’t tell you the price exactly, but it’s […]

Peterson gets his way with climate and energy bill

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) on Tuesday surrendered to agriculture interests on a key provision in the massive climate and energy bill he introduced with Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). Facing a defection from farm-state Democrats, Politico.com reports that Waxman agreed to change the bill so that “the U.S. Department of Agriculture will oversee the [carbon] offset […]

EPA chief Lisa Jackson on mountaintop removal, climate legislation, toxics, and more

In a wide-ranging interview with Grist, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson hit on a number of hot-button topics. Here are highlights in video and text.  (For more, read the full Q & A.) On mountaintop-removal mining: [T]he current state of the law and regs doesn’t allow us to just change the law and the regs to […]

Blogospheric passions run high on, um, the CBO report

After watching a tedious press conference this morning at which not a single question was asked about the Waxman-Markey bill (after Obama endorsed it!), I’m happy to see that somebody outside the dreary confines of “green blogging” is grappling with it. If it all happens to be obsessively focused on the CBO report, well, I’ll […]