Latest Articles

The food price blame game

Tactic No. 1: Create a straw man. Nobody in their right mind can claim that corn ethanol has no impact on corn prices, or that corn prices have no impact on food prices. You can only debate the extent of the corn’s impact. Here’s a conclusion from a study released this year [PDF] that supports […]

Umbra on greening the office

Dear Umbra, The Powers That Be at my job have decided to start a Green Initiative. The project got put on the desk of the office manager, who doesn’t know where to start. I signed up to be a part of the committee, and I was wondering if you had any advice about how to […]

Rumors swirl that Brazilian bombshell’s NFL heartthrob BF caught MRSA

I’ve been writing about the antibiotic-resistant bacteria strain called MRSA for a while. Evidence is mounting that by regularly dumping strong antibiotics into the feed rations of confined hogs, the meat industry is creating virulent bacteria strains that infect humans. My BF’s got a nasty bug! Photo: Daniel Semper. Well, I knew antibiotic abuse by […]

First commercial ship sails through Northwest Passage

CBC News reports: The Canadian Coast Guard has confirmed that in a major first, a commercial ship travelled through the Northwest Passage this fall to deliver supplies to communities in western Nunavut. The MV Camilla Desgagnés, owned by Desgagnés Transarctik Inc., transported cargo from Montreal to the hamlets of Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk, Gjoa Haven and […]

Grist talks to Tom Friedman about ‘green recovery’ and restoring America’s global role

Grist caught up with Tom Friedman, New York Times columnist and author of the recent book Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution — and How It Can Renew America, after his appearance on the “Green Recovery” panel at the Center for American Progress on Monday to chat about exactly that. His […]

Reading the tea-leaves on Obama’s national security staffing

There’s a lot of commentary flying around about Obama’s security team, announced this morning. I recommend Spencer Ackerman. Everybody’s wrestling with the same questions. On natsec, just like with the economic team, Obama is appointing relatively centrist, establishment figures. What are we supposed to make of this? One interpretation is that Obama is abandoning the […]

CAP hosts ‘green recovery’ event

The government in waiting Center for American Progress today organized a panel on “Green Recovery,” bringing together some power-players in that realm to talk about the prospects of getting energy and environmental components into both the short- and long-term vision for economic growth. Two of the players — former EPA administrator Carol Browner and Pennsylvania […]

Fossil CO2 impacts will outlast Stonehenge and nuclear waste

Every few years, people need to be reminded that carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion lasts a long, long, long time. How long? A 2005 study by Geophysicist David Archer, “Fate of fossil fuel CO2 in geologic time,” ($ub. req’d.) concluded that a large fraction of the CO2 emitted by humans […]

Low-carbon roadmap comes into focus — with some notable gaps

In a post-election editorial, Al Gore laid out a policy roadmap for addressing climate change. Gore’s plan looks like a bunch of other plans that have recently landed on the president-elect’s doorstep. I will now do you the favor of summarizing reams of policy expertise in five bullet points, henceforth referred to as the Grand […]

Hansen and Danny Bloom inspire vicious hate speech on web

I interviewed author Mark Bowen a year ago about James Hansen, the great climatologist, with whom Bowen wrote the book Censoring Science. The discussion turned to the intensity of reaction against Hansen from those who refuse to accept the reality of global warming. Bowen mentioned that Hansen has gotten some death threats, though he considered […]