Latest Articles
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What are you seeing out there?
Saw a black bear with two very cute cubs today. Stopping by a local grocery to pick up some things, I went to note the sighting on their nature sightings board ("what are you seeing? when? where?") and was amazed by the number and types of animals people were recording: there were so many that there wasn't a scrap of room for mine: there were moose, bear, foxes, fishers, mink, eagles, and even a goshawk already up there ... none of which is remarkable in western Mass., which went from being largely deforested for agriculture as late as a century ago, to now being roughly 70 percent wooded. But the ritual of noting in such a public place what's scampering around strikes me as a good one.
So if you're seeing interesting wildlife near you, or have spotted some on your summer trips, leave your fellow Gristers a comment about it.
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An interview with John Edwards about his presidential platform on energy and the environment
This is part of a series of interviews with presidential candidates produced jointly by Grist and Outside. Update: John Edwards dropped out of the presidential race on Jan. 30, 2008. John Edwards. Photo: Rachel Feierman John Edwards has gone to great lengths to outshine the top Democratic candidates with an aggressive environmental platform. On the […]
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Brazil …
… realizes that global warming is going to hurt it too, and starts to come around on the notion of market mechanisms that could prevent further deforestation in the Amazon, one of the principal global sources of greenhouse gas emissions. This is good news — it needs to become more profitable to save the forest […]
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An oasis amid slaughterhouses and monoculture
When you make the three-hour drive from Des Moines to Sioux City (pop. 100,000), the heart of Woodbury County, nothing you see raises your hopes for a good dinner. All along the way, lush farmland lies smothered by what seems like one big blanket, alternately colored light and dark green: corn and soy. At a […]
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Sleep tight!
I would be remiss if I did not point out that legendary climate scientist Jim Hansen finds it "almost inconceivable that ‘business as usual’ climate change will not result in a rise in sea level measured in metres within a century." That’s some scary sh*t. Hansen seems way out ahead of what any glaciologist is […]
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Grist’s own Tom Philpott and his farm get written up
Grist’s own Tom Philpott is apparently too humble to draw attention to the media adulation with which he is being showered. It’s a task I’m happy to take up. The Winston-Salem Journal has a fantastic long piece on Maverick Farms, the small organic farm Tom runs with his co-conspirators. As the piece describes in detail, […]
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Are wack
In his SOTU speech earlier this year, Bush proposed updating and reforming CAFE standards. Skeptical? Good. You’re not stupid. As I wrote here, one of his reforms is to make the whole CAFE system "attribute-based," meaning different mileage standards would apply to different classes of vehicles based on their, um, attributes — mainly size. This […]
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It’s not the same as a carbon tax, and it’s not cool
I’ve noticed that lots of people talk about a carbon tax and a gas tax as if they’re interchangeable, or the same thing, or connected parts of some larger package. That’s bad. Please stop it. A carbon tax is just that: a tax on carbon content. It could take numerous forms, but it’s generally agreed […]
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A note to the environmentally self-righteous
Frequently, when a small, incremental measure to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions is proposed, environmental commentators argue that it should be rejected. Why? Because it is a "distraction," a way of enabling us to continue our horrid, depraved lifestyle, methadone for our addiction to iniquity, a sop to our corporate overlords, mere playing of games, a highly […]
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