Latest Articles

Review of a converted 3Prong Power plug-in Prius

The world is waiting for the major car companies to offer electric vehicles. But you — you are accustomed to instant gratification. This is America, after all, and you want to plug-in now. Well, you don’t have to wait for the Big Three to get out of their corporate jets and get to work. You […]

CNN cuts entire environmental, science, and technology news staff

CNN announced yesterday that it is cutting its entire science, technology, and environmental news staff. Columbia Journalism Review takes a good look at the implications. The network has tried to assure folks that this doesn’t mean they’re axing their environmental coverage. “We want to integrate environmental, science and technology reporting into the general editorial structure […]

New policy would divest bank from mountain obliteration

In light of the crappy news from the EPA, which seems ready to make mountaintop removal coal mining easier by loosening restrictions on burying Appalachian streams with mining rubble (when’s the “protection” part of this agency going to speak up?), there’s this bit of hope in NRDC’s blog about Bank of America, which just revised […]

Youth delegates in Poznan stage mock ‘Jeopardy’ game to get message out

Photo courtesy David Wargert and Energy Action Coalition   It’s day four of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations in Poznan, but it feels like I’ve been here for months. I’m up before the sun rises and in bed after midnight; the action is nonstop in between. I am one of […]

The AP’s climate conference footprint fetish

“The AP writer couldn’t see the forest for the trees.” — Terry Tamminen “The fact is, we live in a glass house today, folks, and sometimes we become part of the story whether we want to be or not.” — Lex Alexander What a difference vision makes. Last week, CJR Observatory’s Cristine Russell wrote about […]

Taking on corporate America’s faves

Activists occupy Environmental Defense’s offices.

Bush policies cause U.S. GHG emissions to soar 1.4 percent in 2007

OK, this isn’t entirely news to readers (see here). But the Energy Information Administration’s just released final report [PDF] covers pretty much everything a climate junkie could possibly want to know about U.S. GHG emissions in 2007. The bottom line: Total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2007 were 1.4 percent above the 2006 total … […]

Long forgotten, chestnuts are coming back with a vengeance, and make a delicious holiday pudding

  Nuts about chestnuts.   I first learned about chestnuts from “The Christmas Song” (most likely, the Chipmunks’ version), not from tasting one. That happened much later. A couple of years ago, a farmer brought locally grown chestnuts to the back door of the restaurant where I worked. My coworkers and I were excited to […]

Time to slice up the tomato industry?

What happens when a few large buyers dominate a market? Anyone who keeps up with my posts — still there, mom? — knows what’s coming next: The buyers gain the power to dictate to dictate terms and conditions to sellers. For farmers, the results of concentrated markets are devastating. As a few giant companies like […]

Poznan: Least-developed countries present CO2 targets of 350 ppm

The big international climate conferences, at least the ones I’ve been to in Kyoto, the Hague, and elsewhere, are pretty much the same: caffeinated, adrenalized, endless, chaotic, and incredibly hard to read. Much goes on behind closed doors, and small signals from the big players at the last minute generally make the most difference. I’m […]