Latest Articles

Can teaching art to future scientists help save the planet?

A special report from Gainesville, Florida. Robert Ponzio, art instructor and chair of the Fine Arts Department at Oak Hall School took to the skies Sunday above Florida’s Kennedy Space Center in a specially modified, G-FORCE ONE aircraft. Working in a near weightless environment traditionally reserved for astronaut training and scientific experimentation, Ponzio hopes to […]

Weather-sealing and funding for existing transit offer quick ramp-ups, fast paybacks

David Roberts asks: Another key question is how much money could be pumped into building sector energy efficiency, and how quickly. The feds and states do some weatherization of low-income homes through LIHEAP, but those are not large agencies and probably couldn’t handle tens of billions dumped on their heads. Beyond that, what? To answer […]

The World Community Grid sets its sights — and processing power — on clean energy

IBM’s World Community Grid is a global network of computers linked up to become a single super-computer. The processing power of idling computers is put to use number crunching solutions to AIDS, Dengue Fever, um, Human Proteome Folding, and, now, clean energy: The mission of the Clean Energy Project is to find new materials for […]

Obama folks trumpet meeting with enviros in new video

The Obama transition team just released a video of their energy and environment working group meeting with leaders of several major environmental groups to discuss the transition plan the groups have put forward. In the video, you’ll see Mark Tercek, president of The Nature Conservancy; World Wildlife Fund president Carter Roberts; Kevin Curtis, deputy director […]

BREAKING!

Al Gore still not running for president ready to accept a job in a presidential administration. We’ll keep you updated on new developments in Gore’s unwavering, years-long refusal to get back in government as they unfold!

Biochar

Biofuels Digest rounds up the evidence of increasing interest in biochar — a potentially carbon-negative source of power.

NYT columnist makes a late bid for dumbest paragraph of the year

It’s widely agreed that Bill Kristol’s tenure as a New York Times op-ed columnist has been a fiasco — not for Kristol, whose flat-footed, me-too hackery is old news, but for the Gray Lady, who showed the extraordinary bad judgment to pick him. Most of Kristol’s stuff is instantly forgettable, but yesterday brought what I […]

Christie Todd Whitman

I got a bit lost in the rush, but I hope everyone got a chance to read Jonathan Hiskes’ interview with Christie Todd Whitman on Friday.

Over 1,000 gallons of oil spilled off California coast

Over 1,100 gallons of oil spilled off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., Sunday when a pump line on an offshore oil rig sprung a leak, causing a mile-and-a-half-long oil slick that state regulators said was mostly cleaned up by Monday morning. In 1969, the same rig was the site of a massive, 200,000 gallon […]

Scientists call for cleanup of Chesapeake Bay

Marking the 25th anniversary of a pact between local, state, and federal agencies to clean up Chesapeake Bay near Washington, D.C., a group of scientists on Monday called for a brand new plan to save the fragile area, arguing that the largely voluntary $6 billion plan now in place has done little to solve the […]