Latest Articles

Is the starfish story really just bunk?

The estimable biodiversivist wrote, in another thread, that "What we do as individuals is insignificant compared to changes in carbon neutral energy generation and transportation infrastructure."

Which is both true and not true, I think. It reminds me of the story about the little tyke throwing starfish stranded on the beach back into the water, and being told by the parent that it didn't matter, leading the child to say, "It does to this one."

Cute story, all chicken-soupy-for-the-environmentalist's soul and such -- but is it really just bunk?

And Maybe We’ll Finally Clean Out That Closet

Daily Grist taking day off tomorrow, back on Thursday You know how, after you’ve been working for months on end, you get a hankering for a day off? You’re not sick, but you feel a little burned out, and you’re pretty sure tending to your own needs would help you do your job better, so […]

Pep Rally

PepsiCo buys a lotta renewable-energy credits, tops EPA green power list The U.S. EPA released its quarterly list of the top 25 buyers of green power yesterday, with the No. 1 slot filled by a new kid in the renewable-energy biz. That would be PepsiCo, which vaulted to the top of the list by announcing […]

Let My River Go

Unleashing Mississippi River could be key to restoring Louisiana wetlands Painfully aware that their state is sinking, Louisiana politicians are pushing a $50 billion plan to fight wetlands erosion by unleashing the Mississippi River. The river built much of the southeastern part of the state over time, through sediment deposits. But levees and other restraints […]

Are We Having Fund Yet?

Neglect, underfunding cause Superfund cleanups to dwindle Twenty-seven years ago, Love Canal prompted the feds to invest resources in cleaning up America’s most toxic sites and start shaking down the polluters responsible for creating them. But a new study from the Center for Public Integrity finds that underfunding of Superfund in recent years has severely […]

Or They Could Stop Waging War

Report says U.S. military needs to wean itself from oil A report commissioned by the Pentagon says the U.S. military needs to break its oil addiction. The country used an average of 16 gallons of fuel per soldier per day in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2006, compared to four per soldier per day in the […]

Face Offset

A campus organizer takes a critical look at going carbon neutral These days, college is about more than keg stands and beer pong: students all over the country are taking stands on global warming, pushing their schools to move toward climate neutrality. Nathan Wyeth, an undergrad at Brown University, is one of those students. But […]

Hey, That’s Half the Battle

Bush chats with Merkel and Barroso, agrees climate change is a problem U.S. President George W. Bush met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and E.U. President Jose Manuel Barroso at the White House yesterday, chatting about international trade, air-travel policy, missile shields, and The Most Important Issue of Our Time. Though no climate action steps […]

Some students don’t want to go carbon neutral

As an undergrad at Brown University and a veteran organizer with the Sierra Student Coalition, Nathan Wyeth has his ear to the ground on campus sustainability issues. In this occasional column for Grist, Wyeth will report on what's afoot at the campus grassroots level and how he and his fellow students are making their voices heard.

As of today, 202 colleges and universities have pledged to move toward climate neutrality, or net-zero global warming emissions, with the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment. I've been part of a student group pushing Brown University to do the same.

But debate over the legitimacy of the "carbon offsets" that make climate neutrality possible is growing as fast as the number of companies, institutions, even countries that have committed to buying them. Are carbon offsets legit? And what does climate neutrality really mean?

For the past few months, I've been considering a phrase tossed out by my friend and fellow student organizer Billy Parish: climate positive. Consider it a step beyond climate neutral (which never had a very inspiring ring to it anyway) -- when institutions or individuals not only take responsibility for their own impact on the climate and our future but go beyond this to have a positive climate impact on the community around them.

New report says federal cleanup program wasting away

Image reprinted with permission from the Center for Public Integrity. A drop-off in both government action and funding has all but stopped the push to clean up America’s most toxic sites, posing health and environmental threats all over the country, according to a comprehensive series of reports released last week by the Center for Public […]