Latest Articles

Bombing yields massive oil spill off Lebanon beaches

The Mother Jones blog has a bit of a scoop, plucked from the Arabic-language press:

It looks like an eco-nightmare is taking place on the beaches of Lebanon. Reports coming in say beaches are being clogged with oil because five out of six oil tanks at the electricity plant in Jiyeh were destroyed by Israeli bombs.

The Lebanese Embassy in Washington confirmed the spill.

Obama leads bipartisan effort to raise fuel-economy standards

Is the sting of $75-a-barrel oil and the threat of World War III exploding in the Middle East enough to convince Congress to finally boost auto fuel economy? Probably not, but a bipartisan coalition of senators led by Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is launching an admirable new effort anyway — the Fuel Economy Reform Act. Barack […]

Just my imagination, once again…

Greenpeace is not having much luck catching illegal tuna fishermen because the fishermen are are not having much luck catching any tuna. However, you can bet they will continue to try as long as the Japanese are willing to pay $50,000 for a single large adult bluefin. You wouldn't think that one or two trips to the local sushi bar a year would help drive tuna to extinction, but that's how it works. Our biodiversity is dying a death from 6.5 billion tiny cuts. This is also why harping at consumers has such limited success. The good news is that this will free up Greenpeace resources to shadow other boats in other waters until whatever they are fishing for goes extinct.

What if our Navy, instead of wandering around killing whales and dolphins with their sonar, were to spend some of their free time helping Greenpeace enforce fishing bans?

Umbra on fridge-freezer efficiency

Dear Umbra, Are there any environmental advantages to the refrigerators with the freezer on the bottom and the fridge on the top? Annette Indianapolis, Ind. Dearest Annette, There are three fridge/freezer configurations: side by side, bottom freezer, and top freezer. In models with comparable storage volume, the least efficient is the side by side. Top […]

Songbirds show high mercury levels

Conservation groups have spent the last few years fighting to make sure that FDA warnings about mercury are actually shared with consumers -- and we're starting to have some real success getting the message out. Many consumers, especially expecting mothers, now know about these warnings and are closely monitoring which -- and how much -- seafood they eat in a given week to avoid mercury contamination. But as The New York Times reports, a recent study shows that mercury has spread further than previously thought.

This "eye-opening" study tested songbirds in New York and found that every one had elevated levels of mercury -- meaning that mercury is now literally finding its way into our back yards.

Nuclear waste accumulating

The Onion: still funny.

Media Shower: Game on!

I don't know if anyone else pays attention to the Google ads in Gristmill, but I just clicked on an ad for the game Xeko Mission: Madagascar and, wow, it sounds really cool! I'm all for creative ways of educating the public and this seems like a great way for families to learn about ecosystems.

And speaking of gaming, I direct you to this New York Times article by Clive Thompson titled "Saving the World, One Video Game at a Time". Here's a taste:

Readers talk back about Wal-Mart, vegetarian jokes, hope for the future, and more

  Re: The Writing on the Wal-Mart Dear Editor: First let me say, I love Grist and appreciate the work you do and, mostly, enjoy the irreverent humor with which you do it. However, being a staunch liberal Protestant, a devoted environmentalist, and an ardent Democrat living in a deeply red state, I found your […]

Farmers’ almanac

Last Sunday, the Wichita Eagle published a long front-page feature on global warming. Not on global warming as "scientific controversy," mind you, but on global warming's potential future impacts on state agriculture (more droughts, more dryland crops), native wildlife (more armadillos, altered bird migrations), and intensified tornado seasons.

Higher temperatures mean more energy in the atmosphere. More energy means more turbulence. More turbulence means greater extremes. More heat waves like last week's. More snowstorms. More thunderstorms. More tornadoes.

Hunker down, Dorothy.

They Weren’t Kidding About the “Future” Part

Feds move forward with clean coal plant — kind of The U.S. government is moving ahead with FutureGen, a $1 billion demonstration clean coal plant — and by “moving ahead,” we mean they’ve decided that it will be built on one of four sites in either Texas or Illinois. The final siting decision will be […]