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Ozone-depleting asthma inhalers being phased out

Asthma inhalers containing ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons will be phased out by the end of 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Friday. The phaseout of CFCs is required under the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty that the United States actually deigned to sign on to. Alternatives to CFC inhalers use hydrofluoroalkanem as a propellant; HFA […]

National Association of Manufacturers releases anti-climate legislation video

If you want a sense of the kind of opposition the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act is up against from industry groups, you’ll find a crystalline example in a video just put out by the National Association of Manufacturers. It’s an attempt to stoke fear and anger about the legislation, primarily through the artful deployment of […]

Best Buy tests free e-waste recycling program to ease its eco-impact

Electronics retailer Best Buy announced on Monday that it’s testing a free electronic-waste recycling program in 117 of its stores in the Baltimore, Minneapolis, and San Francisco areas, plus a few other select stores in the East and Midwest. Customers can bring in up to two e-waste items per day for free recycling, including TVs, […]

Ocean acidification to weaken coral reefs, make islands more vulnerable to storms

Acidification of the ocean could make low-lying island nations like the Maldives and Kiribati more vulnerable to storms since it can significantly weaken coral reefs, according to a new report. When the oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, carbonic acid forms, which makes it more difficult for sea critters like coral and starfish to […]

Lieberman-Warner climate bill hitting the Senate floor

After months of hearings, haggling, and revision, a climate change bill will reach the floor of the Senate this week. The showdown over the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (CSA) marks the first time the full chamber has focused on a dedicated piece of global warming legislation since 2005, when the McCain-Lieberman climate bill was voted […]

Dingell issues another glimpse at where he stands on climate legislation

The world is still waiting with bated breath for climate legislation from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where chair John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee chair Rick Boucher (D-Va.) are supposedly collaborating on bill. In the meantime, the committee has been issuing a series of “white papers” on climate legislation. Last […]

Tales from a trek to Ethiopia with a Seattle coffee roaster

I have spent the past year traveling the globe with Seattle coffee roaster Caffé Vita in their search for coffee, and I have the more enviable and slippery task of seeking out stories. Many Grist readers know that coffee is the second most heavily traded commodity on the planet, but unlike the elephant in the pole position (oil), we hear very little about the realities of the cherry-red fruit on which we are also dependent.

As long as Grist lets me, I will throw out some thoughts from the coffee road, and the other "tablemaking" adventures in which I routinely find myself. Ethiopia is considered the birthplace of coffee (although Yemen likes to take credit as well) and many a book could be written about what separates coffee production in Ethiopia from the rest of the bean-producing countries. Coffee is essential to the culture -- over 50 percent of the crop stays in country. It is not a colonial crop, and the passionate relationship to the bean results in some unprecedented global showdowns. But today I am pondering the tension between the two main stimulants in the land of Sheba.

The latest sorties in the war over nuclear power

There have been several good entries in the never-ending nuclear debate lately. I’m pulling several together into one post, so all the vicious arguing can center in one comment thread. Fun! In a long, detailed, and devastating cover story in The Nation, Christian Parenti asks, “What Nuclear Renaissance?” Peeling away the hype and PR, he […]

Friends of the Earth not all that jazzed about Lieberman-Warner

Friends of the Earth has been running a campaign for months to convince senators to oppose the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act if it’s not significantly improved. “The Lieberman-Warner bill comes nowhere close to doing what scientists say we must to have a shot at avoiding catastrophic outcomes,” said FOE President Brent Blackwelder in a statement […]

Global warming is no Mickey Mouse

“Really, who cares about Mickey Mouse … But if we can’t get global warming right? An easy question as fundamental as global warming? Then we’re really fucked.” — Creative Commons founder, intellectual property rights theorist, and political reform advocate Laurence Lessig