Latest Articles

Yeah, that’s right, I’ve been to boot camp

A couple of months ago, I promised (threatened?) that I’d be starting a new column called Sexy Retrofits. Now I’m making good on that notion — but so much news has been swirling around on the topic lately that I’m forced to start with a round-up. Now with more bullet points! Yesterday I had the […]

Why you shouldn’t recycle that bright-orange paper

One of the thorniest questions I used to get as a recycling educator for the awesome grassroots recycling company EcoCycle in Boulder, Colo., was why ‘astrobright’ papers weren’t recyclable. You know this stuff: the super-dyed paper used by everyone from bands to Girl Scouts to make posters announcing their bake sales and death-metal guitar battles. […]

Must-see TV on ABC tonight — “Earth 2100: Is this the Final Century of our Civilization?

Tonight at 9 pm on ABC, “Bob Woodruff explores what might be the worst case scenario for civilization.” Hurray for the mainstream media exploring the worst-case scenario aka Hell and High Water! I am very interested in your thoughts on this show — before and after. One of the most commented on posts of this […]

NPR: Organic ag rises in India

Wouldn’t a bit of atrazine liven up this scene?India is a major player on the global stage–hub of the information-technology market, the world’s second most populous nation, and a nuclear power to boot. It would be a global-scale calamity if India’s food security became compromised–and that is exactly what’s happening, as NPR’s Daniel Zwerdling showed […]

Cheerleading for Waxman-Markey — not!

Gimme a ‘B’ … B!  Gimme a ‘minus’ … Minus!  What’s that spell? My friend A. Siegel wrote on his blog last week (and republished on DailyKos and Grist): Joe Romm, who has been cheer-leading Waxman-Markey recently (despite much on-the-record work that provides a basis for highlighting its inadequacies), says that it might (MIGHT) give […]

Memo to Washington Post: Editorial page editor Fred Hiatt just recycled a right-wing WSJ op-ed

Fred Hiatt keeps delivering self-inflicted body blows to the dwindling reputation of the Washington Post editorial page. His latest punch to the Post’s kidney (or is that groin?): Running a misstatement-filled piece trashing the House climate bill by one-time Reagan administration chief economist Martin Feldstein — just two weeks after the uber-right-wing Wall Street Journal […]

‘Garbage Dreams’ explores life in Cairo’s garbage villages

Eighteen million people live in Cairo. They produce 13,000 tons of garbage every day, and they have no waste disposal system. Ew. Mai Iskander presents Al Gore with a drawing made by the children at The Recycling School in Cairo.Courtesy Garbage Dreams via FlickrBut the trash also presents an opportunity. For the past 50 years, […]

We’ve got no choice but nukes and carbon-capture tech, says Jeffrey Sachs

Economist Jeffrey Sachs said carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology and nuclear energy will be necessary to avoid catastrophic climate change, comments made as part of a presentation at the Asia Society in New York Monday night. Jeffrey SachsFile photo courtesy the Earth Institute at Columbia University“Carbon capture better work, because they [China] are not […]

Around the Americas mission raises sails — and awareness

Photo: Sarah van SchagenSomewhere off Canada’s Pacific Coast, the wind is filling the colorful octopus-adorned sails of the Good Ship Ocean Watch as it weaves its way clockwise around North and South America on a “voyage of discovery.” Manning that ship is a crew of seasoned sailors, educators, scientists, and writers — with a singular, […]

Climate change is sexist

This is the second dispatch by Population Action International from global climate change talks in Bonn, Germany.  Read the first. A Bangladeshi woman searches for drinking water after a cyclone.Photo: Abir Abdullah/OxfamOne of the under-reported issues about climate change is its dramatic affect on women.  A side event I attended this afternoon, organized by the […]