Latest Articles

Visiting the Victory Garden outside San Francisco City Hall

  This is a guest post from my travel partner, Todd Dwyer, head blogger for Dell’s ReGeneration.org, where the piece originally appeared. —– Sarah and I have been having a blast so far learning about what people are doing right now to save the planet. Not only have we been treated to the new ways […]

CEPR compares pre- and post-Bush economic indicators

In the final 1980 presidential debate, Ronald Reagan famously ended with a question to the American public: are you better off now than you were four years ago? The folks at the Center for Economic and Policy research wondered, what would our answer be today? So they pulled together a whole range of economic indicators […]

Pulitzers await the enterprising journalist who digs into the RGGI efficiency story

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the first legally binding cap-and-trade system in the hemisphere, kicked off yesterday with the world’s largest carbon credit auction. The program immediately failed. I don’t know anything about the results of the auction, which won’t be made public until Monday, but I do know that whatever happened, RGGI is a […]

Vital video

The best concise explanation of the climate tipping points I’ve seen (11 min.): Wake Up, Freak Out – then Get a Grip from Leo Murray on Vimeo.

Reusable shopping bags not so green if you don’t use ’em

These days, you can’t swing a dead cabbage without hitting a reusable bag. The darlings of the environmental movement (totes, not cabbages) are increasingly being provided free or cheap to green-minded consumers. And they serve a good purpose: four or five reusable bags, used at least once a week, can replace the use of 520 […]

U.K. eco-watchdog: No more coal without CCS

The U.K.’s environmental watchdog agency, aptly called the Environment Agency, has called for the government to prevent the construction of any further coal plants without carbon capture and sequestration. This has always struck me as the issue that every green group and smart politician should rally around. Nobody, literally nobody, openly defends building dirty coal […]

Debate is a go

The McCain campaign says he’ll debate tonight after all. After that he’ll fly back to D.C. to continue his oh-so-helpful role in the negotiations over the financial bailout. Meanwhile, this morning Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said: “A few days ago, I called on Sen. McCain to take a stand — let us know where […]

Last year’s world CO2 emissions exceeded most dire IPCC predictions

The world’s carbon dioxide emissions in 2007 exceeded even some of the direst predictions of climate scientists, growing 3 percent from 2006 according to an annual report from the Global Carbon Project. The climb in overall emissions last year was especially surprising given the economic downturn that was expected to help curb emissions. For the […]

Will chocolate replace coffee as the foodie’s bean of obsession?

In Checkout Line, Lou Bendrick cooks up answers to reader questions about how to green their food choices and other diet-related quandaries. Lettuce know what food worries keep you up at night. —– Dear Grist: So what’s the deal with this “bean to bar” thing I hear about with chocolate? People are calling chocolate the […]

Danish P.M. urges United States to reengage in climate talks

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is in the United States this week to encourage engagement in the negotiations over a new global climate pact between now and the United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled to take place in Copenhagen in late 2009. In a speech before a meeting of the Environmental Grant Makers Association […]