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A strange and old-fashioned way to start a hip, cutting edge conference

I’m in a session about “Energy, Climate Change & Resource Nationalism” with General Bruce Wright, commander of U.S. Air Force in Japan, and Dr. Liam Fox, Shadow Secretary of State of Defence and Member of Parliament in the UK. These are old-school guys, fairly conservative, and they’re painting a grim picture. China is ravenous, buying […]

A look at the Emmy’s eco-efforts

The carpet may still have been red at the Emmy Awards last night, but the entire production definitely had a tinge of green. As reported in Grist List on Friday, the event included a solar panel canopy over the grandstands outside, hybrid and alternative-fuel vehicles for transporting stars, locally grown and/or organic food in the […]

Industry to Bush administration: “Please regulate me”

Long-standing shared love for voluntary standards aside, businesses and manufacturers have begun asking the Bush administration to begin regulating industry’s health- and planet-ruining ways. A variety of factors have contributed to the turnaround, including tougher regulations enacted by states, a Congress unafraid to crack down, publicly apparent failures of voluntary standards, and a flood of […]

Discover Brilliant: Intro

I’m here at the introductory talk at the Discover Brilliant conference. The focus of the three-day event is on those areas where entrepreneurial energy and profit overlap with lower environmental impact. Everyone is here to figure out who’s making money, who’s investing where, and what the next big tech will be. The vibe is refreshingly […]

A Grist special series on parenting and health

Got kids? Got thoughts on kids? Come on over to our parenting blog to chat. Among environmentalists, a common rallying cry is to protect the planet “for our grandchildren.” It’s a lovely sentiment, and a powerful notion — that the choices you make today affect generations yet to come. But what about the generation spattering […]

As long as GE funds coal, its net impact is far from green

Let me pull a few excerpts from a recent WSJ story on the progress of GE’s much-touted "ecomagination" campaign: “I don’t want to change the economic flow of the company,” [CEO Jeffrey] Immelt says. So GE continues to sell coal-fired steam turbines and is delving deeper into oil-and-gas production. Meanwhile, its finance unit seeks out […]

Parenting photos and advice from Grist readers and staff

Click photo to launch slide show. To help kick off our series on parenting and health, we asked Grist readers and staff to send us photos of their little ones, along with advice on how to weave a green outlook into everyday life. Here’s what a few of them had to say — share your […]

New York attorney general subpoenas energy companies over disclosure of coal-plant risks

A new weapon has been brought to bear in the war on coal, and it’s aimed right at the corpulent industry’s soft underbelly: risk. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo just sent out a round of subpoenas to energy companies. He wants to see internal documents demonstrating that the companies — AES Corporation, Dominion, Dynegy, […]

New York state investigates power companies’ emissions on behalf of shareholders

New York state used a new tactic last week to try to prompt coal-fired power plants to clean up their climate changing emissions: concern for shareholders. State attorney general Andrew Cuomo sent letters and subpoenas to five coal-lovin’ power companies on Friday requesting internal documents and questioning if investors had been given adequate information on […]

On PETA’s latest campaign

Just ’cause I love poking the hornet’s nest, I thought I’d weigh in on this brouhaha about PETA, vegetarianism, and environmentalism. As I see it, there are three core questions: 1. Should citizens of conscience become vegetarians? To me, the answer to this question is pretty obviously yes. I don’t see how it can be […]