Latest Articles

Umbra on insulation

Dear Umbra, I recently discovered that our attic is not insulated. While I live in the fairly warm climate of San Diego, we’ve been hit by a cold spell the last few weeks and I’ve cranked on the heater. I’d really like to insulate my home and was wondering what is the most planet-friendly method […]

The report may pass over some of the worst dangers

The report hasn't even been released yet, but one of the big stories around this Friday's release by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the conservative edge to the final product, which does not fully account for the melting of the Greenland and/or Antarctic ice sheets.

GOP strategist Frank Luntz argues enviros are failing — and they’re mean to boot

Frank Luntz, the famed Republican pollster and messaging consultant who helped to shape Newt Gingrich’s 1994 Contract With America, thinks environmentalists are mean. Frank Luntz. The author of a new guidebook on politically effective language, Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear, Luntz is credited with popularizing use of the […]

New study scares the ess out of us

A new "semi-empirical" method of estimating sea level rise shows that earlier techniques underestimated the likely rise, according to research published in Science online.

And also: ew

After the Washington Post published a long (and I would say incomplete) thumb-sucker on whether cloned livestock could be organic, the USDA shut the door on that possibility.

Arch Coal gets the go ahead for record-size strip mining permit

Eight years after a federal judge prevented Arch Coal Inc., one of the biggest and most active players on the West Virginia coal mining scene, from obtaining a permit to mine 3,113 acres near Blair, WV in Logan County, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued the permit instead. Though slightly smaller in size at 2,278 acres, the "dredge-and-fill" permit nevertheless allows Arch's Spruce No. 1 Mine to bury nearly seven miles of streams and is the largest permit ever issued in the history of mountaintop-removal mining in West Virginia.

Two notes

A couple of things to note. One, don’t miss Amanda’s interview with famed Republican language massager Frank Luntz today. I’ll be very interested to hear people’s reactions. Also, scroll down to the bottom of the interview. What’s that you see? Why, it’s a comment box! Yes, you can now comment directly on stories on Grist […]

There’s nothing healthy about the American Dietary Association’s addiction to corporate cash.

Hey, the American Dietetic Association is having a big convention in Philly next fall. The ADA, which represents 65,000 dietitians, claims to … … serve the public by promoting optimal nutrition, health and well-being. ADA members are the nation’s food and nutrition experts, translating the science of nutrition into practical solutions for healthy living. Ah, […]

Hey, We Made a Boo-Boo

Yellowstone grizzlies may lose protections, while also losing food source What do beetles, pine trees, grizzly bears, and global warming have in common? Check it: the U.S. plans to lift Endangered Species Act protections for Yellowstone-area grizzlies. But that move may be premature. Enter: high-altitude whitebark pines, the seeds of which are Yellowstone bears’ main […]

One if By Land, Zilch if By Air

New U.S. nuclear-security policy draws fire from critics The safe, clean Nuclear Regulatory Commission has revised its security policy, drawing criticism from members of Congress and others. The new policy addresses terror attacks by land, water, and computer, but leaves air defenses to the military. Instead of adapting suggested measures including no-fly zones, protective cages, […]