Latest Articles

Progress Doesn’t Pay

North Carolina fines driver for not paying taxes on vegetable-oil fuel A kerfuffle in North Carolina shows what might be in store for users of DIY fuel: the state fined a veggie-oil-burning driver $1,000 for not paying fuel taxes, told him to expect a $1,000 fine from the feds, and informed him that he’d have […]

Phosphorus Is Bad Phor Us

Gulf of Mexico “dead zone” still large and in charge As happens every spring, billions of pounds of nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural fertilizer have made their way down the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico, invigorating massive algae blooms that suck up oxygen and create a massive “dead zone.” In 2001, a task […]

Can You Hear the Drums, Hu Jintao?

Sweden hosts Chinese president, global environment ministers What we learned today: while researching eco-news from Sweden, you might stumble upon some juicy tidbits. Like the fact that tennis player Björn Borg was severely bitten by a dog this weekend, or that the organizers of a future museum dedicated to ABBA have found a location in […]

Johnson Pussyfoots

EPA chief will decide whether to regulate greenhouse gases … next year Climatic evidence notwithstanding, U.S. EPA chief Stephen Johnson would like to assure you that snoozers are not losers. On Friday, Johnson told a House special committee on global warming that he’s going to put off making up his mind about whether vehicle greenhouse-gas […]

Water You Waiting For?

Donate to Grist, win a chance at splash-tastic prizes You know how two-thirds of the planet is covered in water? Funny thing: we still need to raise two-thirds of our fundraising goal, and today we’re featuring water-related prizes. See the connection there? See it? Ahem. To show just how grateful we are to those of […]

What rules would you impose to address global heating if you were

America, nominally a democracy, acquired a strange fetish for "czars" during the Nixon administration (how telling).

I remember William Simon being appointed "energy czar" back in the 70s. Like the Romanoffs, he had a fearsome title and did nothing good for most of the people in his country.

Still, it can be a useful exercise to think about what you would do if you suddenly had responsibility for something like dealing with global heating, and you could make the policy changes you thought wisest. What would yours be?

G8 nations agree on weak climate deal, Bush admin tools with Clean Water Act, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: A Jury Of Your Pyrrhus Raptor ‘Round Their Fingers An Ugly Alternative Find ITT on eBay Clean Water Is Highly Overrated

A. Carl Leopold, nature activist, answers Grist’s questions

What work do you do? Mostly the organizations I’m involved with are oriented toward active programs for nurturing quality pieces of nature. I am on the board of the Aldo Leopold Foundation; president of the Tropical Forestry Initiative; founding president of the Finger Lakes Land Trust; on the board of the Black Locust Initiative; vice […]

Your math teacher knew you’d need this stuff someday!

During one of our many discussions here at Gristmill around cutting greenhouse-gas emissions, I did some figuring and realized that, if we started in 2008, we would have three "halving" periods between then and 2050 if we could just cut emissions by 5 percent per year -- not an unreachable goal for people who absolutely waste a buttload of energy.

I've been talking up what I've taken to calling "The 5% Solution" here in Springfield (where the Simpsons live), making contact with a local group to propose starting a campaign for it as a project of the organization, with the idea that it would spread to other towns, cities, and states, and then all over America (insert Howard Dean-like scream here).

This morning, the fellow I've been talking to sent me to this link about something I have not heard of, the Sierra Club's "2% Solution." What?! Have I been left at the gate? Did I invent something well after the patent had already been issued to someone else?

Turns out, no.

The days when they would take whatever you served up are gone

Why does Amory Lovins say that the market is deciding against nukes?