Latest Articles

Clean coal, dirty press

The coal industry cannot be liking the kind of coverage they’re getting on, e.g., ABC. (Watch that video and tell me Joe Lucas doesn’t look like a buffoon.)

John Tierney is the country’s worst science writer, not Gregg Easterbrook

Science blogger extraordinaire Tim Lambert (aka Deltoid) has called me out. I wrote: Tierney is easily the worst science writer at any major media outlet in the country. Pretty much every energy or climate piece he writes is riddled with errors and far-right ideology, including this one. Lambert writes that he “must, however, disagree with […]

The right questions

This WaPo op-ed on the electrical grid is ho-hum. Turns out we need to improve the grid! But one thing jumped out at me: For real long-term progress, our leaders must invest in research so that we can find a way to capture and permanently store carbon emitted by coal-fired power plants. If we can […]

WALL-E takes top honor and Quantum of Solace disappoints

The best eco-movie of the year is Disney/Pixar’s Wall-E — easily one of the best movie dystopias ever. It ranks with Blade Runner, Brazil, A Clockwork Orange, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, the Matrix, Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green, and the first two Terminator movies. Yes, Hollywood loves dystopias. Perhaps because it is one (OK, […]

Report highlights vital fact on energy: Efficiency gets cheaper the more you spend on it

A while back I did a roundup of reports. I left one out because I wanted to highlight it in its own post: Synapse Energy Economics Inc.: Costs and Benefits of Electric Utility Energy Efficiency in Massachusetts [PDF] Massachusetts recently passed the Green Communities Act, which significantly ramps up the state’s utility efficiency programs, mandating […]

Umbra on eco-actions for kids

Dear Umbra, In my city, environmental awareness might as well be some late-night, budget infomercial that nobody thinks about except to laugh at. I’m trying to organize a series of interactive presentations in area schools to educate and engage kids in a more progressive approach to greening up our lives and our city. Many of […]

Vandana Shiva’s powerful Soil Not Oil

Edible Mediatakes an occasional look at interesting or deplorable food journalism. —– In a recent essay in The Nation, the critic William Deresiewicz made a pungent observation about the U.S. cultural scene: An iron law of American life decrees that the provinces of thought be limited in the collective consciousness to a single representative. Like […]

Institutions, motivations, and assumptions in economic analysis

A belated Merry Christmas, everyone! Yes, it’s possible that most of Grist’s readers are not Christian (I’m not, for one). But December 25 is the day celebrated as Christmas by much of the world; it’s a declared holiday in many countries and cultures, whether or not we buy into its religious significance. It is, therefore, […]

Will carbon cap-and-trade be the next Ponzi scheme?

Even as the tsunami of Bernard Madoff’s busted Ponzi scheme was submerging hapless rentiers around the world, another esoteric financial enterprise quietly took a step forward this week. At a couple of hundred million bucks, this new venture is just spare change alongside Bernie’s 50 billion. But in time it could grow to rival Madoff’s […]

The insurance industry is making strides on climate, but has further to go

After another year full of unpleasant surprises, you’d think the insurance sector would be ratcheting up its response to big risks like climate change. The U.K. industry has about $15 trillion of assets under management, so the potential to play a significant role in getting others to factor in climate change looks substantial. A new […]