Latest Articles

Castens on TV

The Chicago NBC affiliate recently interviewed Tom Casten about waste heat recovery.  Granted, they chose the second-most attractive member of the Casten family for the eye-candy … but other than that, I think it’s a decent video.

NOAA’s arctic report card shows stronger effects of warming in Greenland and permafrost

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released its annual Arctic report card with grim findings: Temperature increases, a near-record loss of summer sea ice, and a melting of surface ice in Greenland are among some of the evidence of continued warming in the Arctic, according to an annual review of conditions in the Arctic […]

Friday music blogging: Sonny J

For a brief time when I was in grad school I had a weekly show on the campus radio station called Big Dumb Beats. It was at a time in the mid-90s when “electronica” was the next big thing and there was a flood of it aimed shamelessly at mainstream appeal — dance music designed […]

David Rieff on the Gates Foundation’s ‘Green Revolution in Africa’

No development project in the sustainable-ag world generates more controversy than the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations’ efforts around agriculture in Africa. On the one hand, Gates officials say they have learned the hard lessons of the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s — the one that, funded by U.S. foundation cash, brought the […]

European Union sticks by GHG plan, United Kingdom goes for 80 percent cut

Eastern Europeans and others seeking to use the current financial meltdown as an excuse to roll back climate commitment have failed (for now). The BBC reports: European Union leaders agreed to stick to their plan to cut greenhouse gases — despite a surprise demand by Poland and six other member states to drop them to […]

Snippets from the news

• U.S. advances proposal to ease restrictions on mountaintop-removal mining. • Argentina requires companies to buy environmental insurance. • Dutch farmers say E.U. pesticide rules will take down tulip industry. • Eiffel Tower scales back its twinkle. • Energy-producing shoes could power your gadgets.

The story behind the corn industry’s cloying ad blitz

Put that fruit juice down and grab a Coke. Haven’t you heard? High-fructose corn syrup — the ubiquitous sweetener found in everything from soft drinks to ketchup — isn’t bad for you at all. It’s true, because I saw it on TV. As seen on TV. Back in June, the Corn Refiners Association embarked on […]

Federal agencies graded on scientific openness

Some federal agencies are far more transparent than others when it comes to releasing scientific information to the press and public, says a new report card from the Union of Concerned Scientists. A sampling: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission received a B+; NASA, commended for improving its policies following muzzling complaints from climate-change expert James Hansen, […]

League of Conservation Voters releases 2008 congressional scorecard

House members averaged a 56 percent on environmental votes in 2008, and senators averaged 57, which by grade-school standards would mean Congress as a whole got a failing grade on the environment. But the news overall was good today as the League of Conservation Voters rolled out its 2008 National Environmental Scorecard, the ruler by […]

AP: cellulosic ‘not even close’ to being ready to satisfy government mandates

For a while, I’ve been wishing I had time to write a feature on cellulosic ethanol, the allegedly "green" biofuel that’s been "five years away" from commercial viability for about, oh, two decades.  Government mandates — backed by a plethora of tax breaks, grants, and other goodies — require production of 16 billions of the […]