Latest Articles
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Kyoto stove wins $75,000 FT climate change innovation competition
We all hate packaging, but the Kyoto box is that rare thing — a cardboard carton that’s part of the solution. It’s also the winner of Forum for the Future’s Climate Challenge competition with HP and the Financial Times to find the year’s best climate change-tackling innovation. After voting by FT readers and mulling over […]
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Big Ag: give us carbon credit, but don't cap our emissions
As Congress gears up to consider climate legislation, agribusiness is getting sweaty palms -- and for good reason.
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Somebody hide Tom Friedman’s ball
“Where is my ball?” Editor’s note: See David’s follow-up post to this piece. … Tom Friedman has done stellar work on green issues lately. He’s certainly given them a higher profile than any dirty blogger could. So I guess he’s owed some latitude. But his recent column is a disaster: wrong on the merits, politically […]
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RPS, EERS and energy politics
I think this one’s got it! There is a belief that with the Democratic shift in Congress, we finally have the votes to get a national renewable portfolio system (RPS). I don’t buy it. As I pointed out here, a “pure” wind-and-solar-only RPS means a wealth transfer from Eastern to Western U.S., and no political […]
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Is ethanol’s Congressional free ride coming to an end?
The Congressional Budget Office just released a paper looking critically at the relationship between ethanol, food prices and carbon emissions. But it gets better. The CBO blogged about it!Bedtime for corn ethanol?Photo: Big Grey Mare Most ethanol in the United States is produced from domestically grown corn, and the rapid rise in the fuel’s production […]
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Food writers and the state of the oceans
Yesterday, I criticized New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman, a writer I admire, for calling for red snapper in a recipe, without noting that red snapper is severely overfished. Today, Bittman responded. Below find Mark’s response, with mine underneath. In short, this was a screw-up, and for that I apologize, and thankful for the […]
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Researchers: Food industry looks to tobacco for inspiration
Apparently, Big Oil isn’t the only industry that has cast an admiring gaze at Big Tobacco’s track record of avoiding regulation and accountability for decades. Over on Yale Environment 360, there’s an interesting interview with Kelly D. Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, on parralels between the […]
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Drill, baby, drill
A veteran of the Manhattan Project is developing technology that could make it easier to tap geothermal energy locked deep underground. Potter Drilling It’s the archetypal Silicon Valley story: Unknown entrepreneur toils away on a Big Idea in an anonymous office park until discovered by one of the Valley’s legendary deep-pocketed investors. Another boy wonder […]
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Expect sparks as the Senate takes up energy legislation
If debate in the Senate last week over some relatively non-controversial energy measures was any indication of things to come, we can expect fireworks over energy policy when legislators return from their two-week April recess. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee took up the first four components of its pending energy package last week, […]
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Stalking the wild leeks of spring
On-ramp to flavorPhoto: dano272Early-spring walks in the woods are rewarding on their own. But while you enjoy those first few sunny days after a nourishing spring rain, why not look for things that can feed your belly as well as your soul? The woodlands here in the upper Midwest are teeming with gourmet goodies in […]
