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Get set for a new wave of small, distributed power generation projects

One of the most positive and interesting developments in sustainability is the spread of distributed power generation -- small, locally rooted projects built and maintained by the communities they serve.

According to Ted Bernhard at Clean Edge, this stuff is just on the verge of taking off:

A project on the effects of coal mining in Appalachia

Photographs and oral histories from Coal Hollow -- a project on the effects of coal mining on poor Appalachians in West Virginia -- will be on display at the Southeast Museum of Photography on the Daytona Beach campus of the Daytona Beach Community College from August 31 - October 29.

Whether or not you make it down to Florida, check out the book and DVD. The kind of poverty that wouldn't be out of place in the most desolate developing nations exists in the hills of our own American Southeast, and very few people seem to give a damn. Every American citizen should have to look these people in the eye.

A mini-spiel on global warming

Here's Al Gore's short appearance at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards:

Republican dollars go to Green candidate in PA senate race

Rick Santorum's campaign is funneling Republican dollars to the Green Party candidate in the (extremely tight) Pennsylvania Senate race. Why?

A commitment to open and fair debate, of course.

Or perhaps Republicans are just tired of the lesser of two evils, and they want to bust up the system, maaan.

A brazen move from an agency shot through with industry players.

Cows that feed solely on pasture perform a valuable service: they transform what's inedible to us -- grass -- into a rich source of protein and other nutrients. And when such cows are raised in moderate numbers, they can actually improve the health and biodiversity of grasslands. Moreover, cows evolved to eat grass, so the pasture model is clearly the most animal-friendly way to create beef.

To me, the grass-fed concept exemplifies responsible agrarianism: it's energy efficient (it relies on no vast, petroleum-guzzling corn fields), it enhances rather than degrades the ecosystems it relies on, and it forces us to eat mindfully and in season.

If we insisted on raising all of our beef on ample pasture, every American would be able to savor the privilege of eating beef only, say, every couple of weeks -- and less during the grazing season, when cows are fattening up.

Which sounds about right to me.

Leave it to the USDA -- that hothouse of food-industry flackery -- to attempt to screw it all up.

Umbra on greener golfing

Dear Umbra, I am getting an early start on my Christmas shopping this year, and always try to find sustainable gifts whenever possible. My father is an avid golfer. I have been pleased to see that the golf community’s efforts to be more ecologically sensitive have been making news lately. I would like to treat […]

Zero emissions vehicle symposium coming up in Sacramento

Everyone who is anyone in the zero-emissions-vehicle world will be at the Zero Emissions Vehicle symposium in Sacramento, Calif., Sept 25-27.

Ben Ovshinsky on ECD-Ovonic's hydrogen work.

Martin Eberhard on the latest from Tesla.

And Wednesday is all plug-in hybrids, all the time.

I can't freakin' wait.

On the subject, CalCars recently announced its intention to start a for-profit PHEV company.

And with PG&E taking the unprecedented step of including a bill insert asking its 5.5 million customers to join the plug-in partners campaign, plug-ins are getting some serious momentum.

A guest essay from enviro legend James Gustave Speth

The following is a guest essay from James Gustave Speth, dean of the Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and author of Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment. The opinions expressed here are his personal views.

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Thanks to an outpouring of first-rate science, excellent media coverage, and a resurgent Al Gore, the U.S. public may have turned an important corner in acknowledging global warming as a real and serious threat. To see Gore's An Inconvenient Truth in theaters alongside Nacho Libre and the usual fare is extraordinary indeed.

But if Americans take the next step and ask, "OK, what do we do now?" we encounter five other truths, most of them also inconvenient. They do tell us what we must do, however, and by when.

There’s something wacky in the D.C. water supply

The intersex part aside, here's evidence that there is something in D.C.'s water that may also explain why our elected officials so often seem to be, well, nutjob freaks of nature.

Well-Fed

It’s now oh-so-easy for federal employees to give to Grist Do you earn your bread and butter in the employ of the U.S. federal government? Have we got a deal for you! You can now donate to Grist through the Combined Federal Campaign; we’re recipient No. 2338. It’s tax-deductible and simple as pie. If you […]