Latest Articles

At present, offsets are impossible to verify

It is time environmental writers to stop accepting PR spin, and double check claims of "carbon neutrality" whether they come from giant corporations, the Super Bowl, or a really cool film festival.

Carbon offsets are almost always either an honest error or a scam.

It’s time for enviros to adjust to winning

I had hoped to leave my ill-tempered rant behind, since the subject obviously irritates the hell out of me, my irritation obviously irritates the hell out of everyone else, and as was pointed out, the whole subject is something of a distraction. But as I’m now being compared to (called?) a rapist, I suppose I […]

The Mile-High Clubbed

Prince Charles gets environmental award, pisses off environmentalists When is a green not a green? Some say it’s when he jets across the Atlantic to accept an award for … being green. Prince Charles raised eyebrows this weekend as he made a quick trip to the U.S. to receive the Global Environmental Citizen Award from […]

Upward Mobility

ExxonMobil says it’s taking climate change seriously — seriously Guess who said this about climate change: “We know enough now — or, society knows enough now — that the risk is serious and action should be taken.” No, not some dirty hippie, but an executive from oil behemoth ExxonMobil. (Ow, our jaw!) Greenhouse-gas reduction has […]

NYT columnist gets it right

Paul Krugman is generally on target, so it’s not surprising that when he turns his gaze to ethanol, he nails it. He points out that despite considerable pre-release hype, the administration’s SOTU "energy plan" consists of little more than a reliance on ethanol. After reciting the by-now-numbingly-familiar drawbacks of corn ethanol, he writes: Still, doesn’t […]

Valley of the Dollars

Clean-energy investments add jobs, moolah to Silicon Valley Remember the U.S. excuse for not adopting green policies, the one about hurting the economy? Yeah, that’s out the window. A new report says Silicon Valley added 33,000 jobs in 2006 after five years of job losses, thanks in large part to gigantarific investments in green technologies. […]

We’re All Alright

Blair, McCain lead pep rally at World Economic Forum Let’s start the week with a bit of rhetorical optimism. In a high-profile speech this weekend at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland — a gathering of leading politicians and businessfolk from around ye olde globe — British Prime Minister Tony Blair offered a hopeful […]

Good stuff I saw, good stuff I missed

I caught two other environment-relevant films while at Sundance that should be of interest to Gristmill readers, and there are a few more I missed that you should be on the lookout for as well. First is Manufactured Landscapes, a film by Canadian director Jennifer Baichwal that follows renowned photographer Edward Burtynsky. Burtynsky is widely […]

Shocker

Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! Turns out global trade in ethanol disadvantages developing nations. Who coulda guessed. What are the options open to developing nations? You think they’ll just pull out of global ethanol trade, ’cause of how unfair it is? Um, no. They’ll raze their rainforests and carbon sinks, pushing […]

So many goodies, so little time

Another week or two has passed, and you know what that means … links out the tuckus! (Speaking of overload.) Let’s start with three Washington Post columnists, in descending order of quality. First up we have Warren Brown, who compliments the president on understanding the oil problem but breaks the bad news — to him […]