Latest Articles

Still trying to make environmental sense of the massive bailout now underway

I like to think of myself as a reasonably cynical person, at least in matters of finance. When I started reporting on Mexico’s markets in 1998, Russia had just defaulted in billions of debt. Russia and Mexico had virtually no direct financial or trade relationship, yet large investors punished Mexico anyway. (To be fair, Mexico […]

Seven tips on green campus organizing from a Harvard pro

Leith Sharp. When Leith Sharp left her native Australia for a five-month tour of the U.S. and Europe in the late 1990s, she could hardly have guessed that she’d be gone for a decade. But that’s exactly what happened. Sharp had spent five years piloting eco-efforts at the University of New South Wales, in a […]

Immelt: yay RPS!

I’m on a conference call, listening to Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE, chat with Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, about energy. I don’t have a recording, but I tell you, Immelt sounds more and more like a standard greenie — he’s stumping for a national RPS, 10-year extension of renewable tax credits, and a price […]

A purely local approach would double or triple costs

This is one more attempt to kill a zombie myth: the notion that local generation of renewable electricity can substitute for long-distance transmission. I can see where this comes from — the sun shines almost everywhere, and the wind blows strong within a few hundred miles of most places where it doesn’t, right? If we […]

Physicists group urges U.S. to embrace energy efficiency

A group of some 46,000 physicists urged the United States on Tuesday to dramatically improve its energy efficiency in the interest of becoming more energy independent, saving money, and staving off climate change. The group, the American Physical Society, said of such a program, “the opportunities are huge and the costs are small.” Smart folks. […]

The automotive revolution: how fast?

Wall Street Journal senior editor Joseph B. White attempts to dump some cold water on the "automotive revolution" everyone’s all giddy about: This revolution will take years to pull off — and that’s assuming it isn’t derailed by a return to cheap oil. Anyone who goes to sleep today and wakes up in five years […]

Umbra on wine bottle stoppers

Dear Umbra, Here’s a question I couldn’t find an answer to in the Grist archives: What kind of plastic is being used for the corks in wine bottles? If I decide to put a bottle in the cellar for several years, will the plastic leach into the wine? Thanks for your help! Holli B. Portland, […]

2008 Arctic sea-ice melt second-meltiest ever

Sea-ice melt in the Arctic this year was the second-largest on record, falling just short of 2007’s all-time record melt, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The slightly larger ice cover this year is hardly cause for celebration, though; sea ice may have covered more of the ocean’s surface overall, […]

Renewable energy promotion policies: transparent

The previously discussed finance mechanisms tend to hide the costs of building renewable generators by concealing the actual cost per unit of electricity and costs for the ratepayers or taxpayers as a whole. In an era when so much is hanging on energy policy, it makes more sense to consider policies that do not pull […]

House energy bill includes oil-shale provisions that alarm conservation groups

The energy bill that passed in the House last night also permits forward movement on commercial oil-shale development, a provision added to the legislation on Monday. The provision repeals the current moratorium on finalizing regulations regarding oil-shale production, and would allow states to decide whether or not to permit oil-shale development on federal lands within […]