Latest Articles

Iceland announces it will reinstate whaling ban next year

Rejoining the 21st century is Iceland, who after lifting its 10-year-old whaling ban just a year ago, announced it will reinstate the ban for the coming season because the whaling market just isn't as lucrative as it used to be.

The Iceland announcement marks a victory for whales, though many obstacles remain. Bycatch still threatens the survival of many smaller whale species and sonar disorients whales, which use sound to communicate and to navigate their migration routes.

Solar thermal power deserves more attention, due to its lower cost and relative ease of storage

Solar thermal power is back! Solar thermal gets less attention than its sexier cousin -- high-tech photovoltaics -- but has two big advantages. First, it is much cheaper than PV. Second, it captures energy in a form that is much easier to store -- heat -- typically with mirrored surfaces that concentrate sunlight onto a receiver that heats a liquid (which is then used to make steam to drive a turbine).

Back in the 1980s, Luz International was the sole commercial developer of U.S. solar thermal electric projects. The company built nine solar plants, totaling 355 MW of capacity, in California's Mojave desert. Luz filed for bankruptcy in 1991 for a variety of reasons detailed in this Sandia report.

September 4th event marks new phase in struggle for the planet

I'm incredibly excited about the September 4th Climate Emergency Fast being organized by the U.S. Climate Emergency Council and others. I've signed up and hope you will too, by clicking here. In one week, the number of fasters has grown from 395 to 795 and continues to multiply. Everyone I've talked to about it is instantly drawn to it; people seem to instinctively understand that we need to move beyond the polite letter-writing, lobbying, and yes -- blogging -- that has characterized response to the climate crisis thus far.

In most true crises, people take to the streets if the government doesn't act. What's happening to the planet is a crisis of that scale, but thus far hasn't got the dramatic response it merits. Institutional advocacy just won't cut it; as a recent groundbreaking study by Jon Agnone of the University of Washington shows. As Ken Ward summarized in a recent post here:

1. Protest is significantly more important than public opinion or institutional advocacy in influencing federal environmental law. Agnone found that each protest event increases the likelihood of pro-environmental legislation being passed by 1.2 percent, and moderate protest increases the annual rate of adoption by an astonishing 9.5 percent.
2. Public opinion on its own influences federal action (though less than protest), but is vastly strengthened by protest, which "amplifies" public support and, in Agnone's words, "raises the salience of public opinion for legislators." Protest and public opinion are synergistic, with a joint impact on federal policy far more dramatic than either factor alone.
3. Institutional advocacy has limited impact on federal environmental policy.

Coming in the wake of Al Gore's call for civil disobedience against polluters, this fast could be the start of a vital shift in the strategy of the environmental movement -- getting out of the halls of power where it's easy to have demands mollified with half measures and into the streets: the point at which leaders start freaking out and wondering what you'll do next. Of course, it's always important to keep any protests accessible and sympathetic to the average person. It's necessary to do the organizing in advance to ensure that your action has widespread public support and won't provoke a crippling backlash, but I think we're getting to that point in the climate crisis.

Already some climate big shots have signed up: Rev. Jim Wallis, Vandana Shiva, Dennis Brutus, Sally Bingham, Bill McKibben, Rev. Bob Edgar, Van Jones, Mike Tidwell, Billy Parish, Brent Blackwelder, Ilyse Hogue and many more.

So join me and sign up now!

Huge organic dairy farm skirted organic rules, agrees to behave

One of America’s largest organic dairies has agreed to alter its operations to comply with national organic standards after the U.S. Department of Agriculture threatened to remove its certification for skirting the rules. Aurora Organic Dairy, which sells milk under the label High Meadows and also makes milk for private-label brands including Wild Oats and […]

Developed world scolds China for doing what it does

For 200 years the Western world has plundered the world’s oil and fouled its atmosphere, and despite a recent flurry of happy talk to the contrary, it is still doing so. So it’s rich indeed for Merkel to go to China and ask them to please stop. If I were Premier Wen Jiabao, my response […]

Maybe-extinct Chinese river dolphin maybe spotted

Competing with the maybe-alive maybe-not ivory-billed woodpecker in the United States for Most Ethereal Species, a rare Chinese river dolphin thought to be extinct as of last December may have been spotted recently. “I never saw such a big thing in the water before, so I filmed it,” said amateur creature-spotter Zeng Yujiang. Unfortunately, the […]

College residence halls trending toward green … and not-so-green

I’m excited about this new trend toward green dorm design and decor, such as the Green Campus Program in California wherein new students can tour a dorm room pimped out with, for example, "hemp towels, organic cotton sheets, a reusable elephant grass shopping basket, and bed frames made of recycled train tracks." But I’m bummed […]

Bloggy backslapping

Adam Stein is never wiser or more perspicacious than when he’s, uh, agreeing with me.

Driving Us to Vegetarianism

Animal-rights groups say meat-eating worse for climate than driving With which instrument do you cause more greenhouse-gas emissions: your car key or your fork? It’s a question asked in an advertising campaign by the Humane Society, which, along with other big animal-rights groups, is striving to open consumers’ eyes to an oft-overlooked connection: the climatic […]

My Art Will Go On

Grist reporters and guest brains address Leo’s 11th Hour Superbad may have topped box office sales this past weekend, but Leonardo DiCaprio’s eco-documentary The 11th Hour, which opened in theaters around the U.S. and Canada on Friday, showed moviegoers what’s truly superbad: the state of our environment. The film features dozens of eco-experts talking about […]