Latest Articles

Umbra on the importance of voting

Dear Umbra, I have a friend who is a fellow environmental studies major, and he says he’s not going to vote because he “doesn’t agree with the system.” I’ve had numerous discussions with him about how important it is to vote, especially when it comes to environmental issues, but he doesn’t seem to want to […]

Michael Pollan and Monanto’s Hugh Grant square off at Google.org forum

What do you get when industrial agriculture’s most famous critic crosses swords with industrial agriculture’s (arguably) most powerful executive? Michael Pollan and Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant squared off at a forum put on recently by google.org (video below the fold.) The topic of the discussion: how to “feed the world” as population expands over the […]

Palin: ‘renewables are not yet proven to be economic nor reliable’

The week before she was chosen as John McCain’s running mate, Alaska governor Sarah Palin was interviewed by CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo about drilling for oil in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve and elsewhere. In measured, lucid tones, Palin produced a veritable tsunami of non sequiturs, misleading claims, and outright falsehoods. One would need to go […]

Severe erosion caused by Hurricane Ike may make many homes illegal

Hundreds of beach houses on the gulf coast of Texas may soon be declared illegal and seized under a state law that prohibits houses from being built (or remaining) between a beach’s high and low tide marks. Hurricane Ike’s 12-foot storm surge and 100-mile-per-hour winds severely eroded many Texas beaches and redrew the tide lines […]

Grist and Dell hit the road in search of a sustainable future

It feels like just a year ago that I was traveling down the Mississippi in search of sustainable cities. Well, I’m on the road again — this time with a much more ambitious itinerary: 15 cities, 15 days, destination: green. I’m in San Francisco right now, but I’m headed all the way across the country, […]

EPA not likely to set standard for perchlorate in drinking water

The U.S. EPA is expected to decide as soon as Monday whether or not to set a standard restricting the amount of perchlorate allowed in the nation’s drinking water, but so far, such a standard looks unlikely. Perchlorate is a chemical found mainly in rocket fuel and fireworks that has been associated with thyroid dysfunction […]

Newsweek takes a look at the presidential candidates’ automobiles

After all that hubbub over houses a few weeks ago, Newsweek decided to look into the vehicle-registration records for the McCain and Obama families and find out how many cars they own. The final count? McCain: 13. Obama: 1. McCain’s fleet includes three 2000 GEM electric vehicles and the Prius that his daughter Meghan drives. […]

In Canadian national election, economic worries trump environmental agenda

Canadian voters regularly told pollsters last year that their top concern was global warming and what to do about it. So when the national election was called for this Oct. 14, the chief opposition party charged out with a bold carbon tax proposal. The other opposition parties also opened their campaigns with carbon tax or […]

One trillion for billionares and pennies for solar?

I was going to post on the money we are pouring into this bailout compared to what we get for green investment. But John McGrath said it for me: …The very first things Barack Obama should do when inaugurated is 1) propose legislation to the U.S. Congress creating single-payer healthcare in America, and 2) initiate […]

Hope dimming for Canadian carbon tax

Not too long after my earlier post was published, even Canada’s biggest carbon-tax booster inched away from the central plank of his election platform. To understand how disingenuous this is, Dion spent months preparing the ground for his carbon tax announcement, which was conducted with huge fanfare and hoopla. Now he’s saying the media are […]