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Woe is Gristmill

It seems that August is vacation season here at Grist. My colleague Lisa Hymas has fled town for three weeks, and as she is the secret glue that holds this place together, expect chaos. There are also other editorial staffers taking vacations at various times, so we're all scrambling to cover for each other. In short: expect somewhat lighter blogging for the next few weeks. And more angst.

Brian F. Keane, renewable-energy marketer, answers questions

Brian Keane. What’s your job title? I’m president of SmartPower. What does your organization do? SmartPower is a national nonprofit marketing campaign that promotes the use of clean, renewable energy as a safe, readily available alternative to coal, oil, and other limited sources of power. In short, we’re the “Got Milk” people for wind, solar, […]

Champion of ‘social ecology’ dies at 85

Murray Bookchin, who championed a democratic and anti-authoritarian vision of environmental politics, died last week in Vermont at 85.

Bookchin has for years been on my must-read list. I write and work from within a tradition he helped shape. As Brian Tokar recently put it in his obit on Counterpunch, Bookchin sought to "reclaim local political power, by means of direct popular democracy, against the consolidation and increasing centralization of the nation state."

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Cut ‘Em

Group tries logging forests to save them In order to save logged-over areas from development while improving wildlife habitat and creating jobs, the Virginia-based nonprofit Conservation Fund plans to … log them more. It’s a counterintuitive approach that’s raising some hackles in the environmental community. The group has been acquiring thousands of acres of less-profitable […]

New report documents water pollution

It's hot. Not "well, duh, it's August" hot -- I mean really hot. I mean having a barbeque in Zimbabwe hot. But this isn't a global warming post; I leave that to the more-than-capable climate bloggers. I'm an oceans guy and this post is about the oceans, or rather, the beaches.

If you're like me, you endure the baking temperatures by reminding yourself that the beach is only a work week away. The thought of a dip in the Chesapeake Bay helps me feel a little cooler (but just a little). So it's no surprise that last week's Washington Post article on the Bay's pollution caught my eye.

Another Nail Polish in the Coffin

Many nail polishes contain shady ingredients A question for all you women, girls, drag queens, trannies, metrosexuals, goths, punks, and so on: have you ever wondered what’s in that nail polish? If you’re in the U.S., one ingredient is likely the nefarious dibutyl phthalate, or DBP, which has been linked to cancer in lab critters […]

Forsmark and Several Fears Ago

Sweden shuts down four nuke reactors after near-meltdown of one The near-meltdown of one of Sweden’s 10 nuclear reactors has resulted in the closure of three additional reactors over safety concerns. It’s also fueled a raging debate in the country over the future of nuclear power. After a short-circuit of the national grid kept power […]

Wouldn’t Be Prudhoe

BP shuts down major Alaskan oil field; poop to hit fan Oil giant BP will temporarily shut down production at its Prudhoe Bay oil field, after “unexpectedly severe corrosion” and a small spill were discovered in an oil transit line on Sunday. That could mean trouble: the Prudhoe field represents nearly half the production from […]

Umbra on running and pollutants

Dear Umbra, I am a runner, and in the summertime it is difficult for me to run during the day because of the heat. Unfortunately, it’s a no-no for me to run in green spaces late at night because they are dark, deserted, and thus quite unsafe. So this leaves me the option of running […]

‘Tis the Season (for a long, pointless discussion in the dark …)

When I lived in North Cambridge in the early 90s, we lost our electricity with depressing regularity during the summer. Suddenly we would be plunged into inky darkness and, with the silencing of fans and air conditioners, radios and TVs, the neighborhood would become eerily quiet, except for one sound. My neighbor had a battery-operated cassette player and, apparently, only one cassette: Madonna's songs from the soundtrack to the movie Dick Tracy. He played it relentlessly, and the tunes wound their way between the houses and down the street until finally even he couldn't take it any more.

Sometimes, in an effort to take our minds off the heat, the darkness, and our neighbor's taste in music, my housemate and I would engage in long, rambling discussions about nothing in particular. One topic we lighted upon was: if forced to choose between the following foods, which would it be?

Round One: tomatoes or chocolate? Round Two: Bread or cake?