Latest Articles

Umbra on vegetarian remorse

Dear Umbra, I’ve been a vegetarian for almost 10 years. I started when I was 15, on pretty much a whim just to see if I could do it, but since then I’ve come to appreciate what I’m doing for my body and the planet. Lately, though, whether from boredom or subconscious protein cravings, I’ve […]

Strengthening community is an important benefit of eating locally

The following is a guest essay originally posted at AlterNet by David Morris, vice president of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

Some 30 years ago NASA came up with another big idea: assemble vast solar electric arrays in space and beam the energy to earth. The environmental community did not dismiss NASA's vision out of hand. After all, the sun shines 24 hours a day in space. A solar cell on earth harnesses only about four hours equivalent of full sunshine a day. If renewable electricity could be generated more cheaply in space than on earth, what's the problem?

A number of us argued that the problem was inherent in the scale of the power plant. Whereas rooftop solar turns us into producers, builds our self-confidence, and strengthens our sense of community as we trade electricity back and forth with our neighbors, space-based solar arrays aggravate our dependence. By dramatically increasing the distance between us and a product essential to our survival, we become more insecure. The scale of the technology requires a global corporation, increasing the distance between those who make the decisions and those who feel the impact of those decisions. Which, in turn, demands a global oversight body, itself remote and nontransparent to electric consumers.

New Russian bomb not as eco-unfriendly as a nuclear weapon, says official

Russia has tested the world’s most powerful vacuum bomb, with an explosion as powerful as a nuclear weapon. But don’t get the wrong idea: the Russian deputy armed forces chief of staff wants to stress that “the action of this weapon does not contaminate the environment, in contrast to a nuclear one.” And to think […]

An open letter from 13 governors to U.S. automakers

As you know, today automakers lost their big lawsuit in Vermont — the judge ruled their their objections to higher tailpipe emission standards were, um, silly. Now, the governors of 13 states have sent an open letter to the automakers. "We do not believe it is productive for your industry to continue to fight state […]

John McQuaid explains the lessons we should have learned from Hurricane Katrina

In an new series in Mother Jones, John McQuaid reports on what we should have learned from Hurricane Katrina. McQuaid knows what he’s talking about — three years before the storm, he coauthored an award-winning series predicting all-too-accurately what would happen to New Orleans if it were hit by a big-time hurricane, and he’s since […]

Warming globe will have major security issues, says think tank

The security implications of climate change resemble those of nuclear war, a security think tank said today. “Fundamental environmental issues of food, water, and energy security ultimately lie behind many present security concerns, and climate change will magnify all three,” wrote the International Institute for Strategic Studies, which foresees collapsed governments, heightened racial and ethnic […]

Vermont judge rules that Calif. and other states can implement tough tailpipe emission standards

Big news: the lawsuit by U.S. automakers attempting to block California and 14 other states’ adoption of tough new tailpipe emissions standards has lost: A federal judge on Wednesday rejected the U.S. auto industry’s attempt to block California and 14 other states from setting tough new fuel economy standards, saying the industry had not proved […]

Judge rules against Big Auto, says states can regulate emissions from cars

States should be allowed to restrict greenhouse-gas emissions from cars, and Big Auto should just deal, a federal judge ruled today. Right now, the only real way to curb the emissions is to improve gas mileage; when Vermont decided to adopt California’s strict emissions rules, automakers sued, claiming that the state was illegally regulating fuel […]

Harvard economist disses most climate cost-benefit analyses

Harvard economist Martin Weitzman has a new paper in which he points out that the vast majority of conventional economic analyses of climate change should carry the following label:

WARNING: to be used ONLY for cost-benefit analysis of non-extreme climate change possibilities. NOT INTENDED to cover welfare evaluation of extreme tail possibilities, for which a complete accounting might produce ARBITRARILY DIFFERENT welfare outcomes.

In short, if you don't factor in plausible worst-case scenarios -- and the vast majority of economic analyses don't (this means you, William Nordhaus, and you, too, Bjørn Lomborg) -- your analysis is useless. Pretty strong stuff for a Harvard economist!

Western U.S. littered with abandoned mines

Earlier this month, two sisters fell into a mine shaft in Arizona while riding an all-terrain vehicle. It was a terrible tragedy, but, unfortunately, not an unexpected one: an estimated 500,000 abandoned mines litter the U.S., mostly in the West. Even though the oldest mines were closed almost a century ago, many are still leaching […]