Latest Articles

Why the vegetarian critique of meat-eating should make meat-eaters squirm

Edible Media takes an occasional look at interesting or deplorable food journalism on the web. It’s been a rough couple of months for meat eaters. In late November, the FAO issued a startling report claiming that livestock production emits fully 18 percent of global greenhouse gases — more than all the automobiles in the world. […]

Gore should get up in this thing

Grist’s nonprofit status obviously means we can’t endorse any presidential candidate, and I doubt I’ll personally decide whom to support until much closer to the election. But one thing I will say is that — for all the reasons aptly described in Tim Dickinson’s new Rolling Stone piece — Al should run. Run, Al. Run. […]

U.S. schools get schooled on sustainability

Remember how report card time at school brought a mix of emotions — excitement, anxiety, a little bit of vomit in your mouth? Oh, to be a student again. But last week, the tables were turned as 100 universities across the country were graded in a College Sustainability Report Card released by the Sustainable Endowments […]

And it ain’t pretty

Read this and weep. When we have the Governor, the Lt. Governor, the Speaker of the House, and a senior member of the Texas legislature denying the truth of global warming, we are in bad trouble.

I wrote and sent in this letter in response to the article:

Only if you ignore fossil fuel emissions

(Part of the How to Talk to a Global Warming Skeptic guide)

Objection: The United States absorbs more CO2 into its land than it emits into the air. The world should be grateful.

Answer: As often the case, at the heart of this talking point is a grain of truth. But it does not serve the purpose for which it's been enlisted. According to the U.S. Department of Energy land-use changes in the U.S. between 1952 and 1992 have resulted in a net absorption of CO2. But this is only true of natural CO2 -- the natural flux of CO2 into and out of forests and peat bogs and soil, as well as carbon that's been sequestered as lumber and other wood products. These fluxes are actually much larger than anthropogenic emissions, but they go both ways, whereas fossil fuel burning only emits carbon.

Jeremy Piven gets caught out

I admit it -- the vestigial high school girl in me loves celebrity gossip. Still, I can't help but cringe in sympathy every time the tabloids metaphorically draw and quarter some poor, stylistically challenged starlet for mismatching her bag and shoes or stepping out of her house in sweat pants on a Sunday morning. I happen to be a major fan of sweat pants on Sunday mornings. In fact, if I had the eff-you fortitude to walk down to my local coffee shop in pajama bottoms, I would.

Ethyl alcohol dulls the imagination

What explains The Economist's fascination with ethanol? In this week's issue, Britain's leading current-affairs magazine has published an extended article on "Green America: Waking up and catching up." Although most of the article actually talks about other energy sources besides ethanol, and about state-level efforts to encourage energy conservation and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, the photo editors chose to illustrate it with pictures of ethanol, ethanol, ethanol.

No, not that

Talking about climate change, that is. More evidence that it's the hot political topic of the moment -- even the muckety-mucks at Davos are all abuzz over greenhouse gas emissions:

More adventures in Utah

I first heard about Sundance’s renegade biofuels enthusiasts via email. The folks from Freedom Fuels, a new documentary about biofuels, were in town for Sundance — well, roaming town that is. They weren’t actually in the festival, but they were there to screen their movie regardless, traveling around town in a biodiesel-powered school bus showing […]

Let’s put bison back on the praries

Every once in a while, a pearl tossed to the swine (we Gristmill commenters) by a fellow Sus scrofa domestica (that's for you, Canis) sticks in my ear. Blame this one on amazingdrx. He mentioned that a concerted effort to restore our prairies could sequester underground much of our carbon without any new technology or the warming effect of temperate tree plantings.

Harvesting a mix of prairie grasses to displace coal in a power plant is many times more efficient and ecologically benign than converting it to liquid fuel, and would tie in nicely with the URGE2 concept. I'm not licking boots here. URGE2 is a powerful idea.