Latest Articles

Army brings blenders to figure out what’s killing off bees

Scientists have pondered whether cell phones are the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, which has wiped out about a quarter of the North American honeybee population and poses a threat to a quarter of our food supply. They’ve also wondered if the cause could be a virus. Or pesticides. Or mites. Or all of the […]

Russia stakes claim to North Pole, and more

Read the news items highlighted in this week’s podcast: How Green Is Your Candidate? Will Santa Be Evicted? We Wouldn’t Kid About This Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Crappiness Pimp My Shrimp Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: How Green Is Your Candidate? Tide Died Take Me To Your Seeder

Two actions and two ‘tweaks’

Hansen offers his climate solution -- two important actions and two "tweaks":

Here are some

Last week I discussed the basic arithmetic associated with population and economic growth, which will make it impossible to dramatically reduce greenhouse-gas emissions without major improvements in technology. (Some commenters protested, saying that current technology is sufficient, but they are mistaking the ability to reduce emissions based on current levels of income and population and what emissions will be as countries grow and economies expand.)

Good on ’em

I just got this email from MoveOn.org: Dear MoveOn member, Did you know the U.S. right now gets only 2% of our electricity from clean energy sources like solar and wind? We have the technology. We know people want it. We just haven’t had the political will. But Congress is voting this week on H.R. […]

The Simpsons Movie reviewed

I saw the Simpsons Movie Thursday night. However, I'm not going to discuss major plot details here. As we learned from Pottergate 2007, Grist readers don't like spoilers -- not even fake ones.

The movie definitely has an environmental theme (one highlight was the scene where Nelson bullies Milhouse into expressing climate change skepticism, then punches him in the face, yelling, "That's for selling out your beliefs!"), but you'll have to find out on your own which of the rumors I alluded to in my last post are true.

Distributed power could have saved us some serious pain over there

Earlier this year, it was reported that residents of Baghdad could count on about five or six hours of electricity a day. Last week, it was reported that they could now count on about … one. The Bush administration’s response to this trend is paradigmatically Bushian: it’s going to stop reporting. Seriously: But that piece […]

Interesting stuff on the hottest new green tech

I’ve been waiting for a good excuse to link to Earth2Tech, an interesting new project from internet legend Om Malik’s GigaOm family of blogs. It’s focused on clean tech startups, which as we all know are the hot new thing. I’ve also been waiting for a good excuse to post something about thin-film solar, which […]

An interview with Barack Obama 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. Barack Obama at an Earth Day 2007 event. Photo: Michael Millhollin In his two and a half years in the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama has been active — even hyperactive — on matters of energy and the environment. […]

Harkin wants to boost land conservation

Here’s some reasonably heartening news from CQ.com: The Senate is prepared to write a dramatically different farm bill than the version the House passed last week. The Senate debate will not happen until September or later. For now, Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has promised to increase funding for land-conservation programs far above House […]