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A report from the Environmental Media Awards

Buenos Diaz celebrates with Trippin’ producer Elizabeth Rogers. © Alex Berliner, Berliner Studio/BEImages. Six months ago, I traded the comfy coffee hangouts of Seattle for the vermilion sunsets of L.A. I wanted to expand my universe, to write for movies and television, to not have so many Birkenstocks in my direct line of sight. So […]

From Schwing to Schadenfreude

“Hot blogger” no longer oxymoron If actress/model/mega-fox Amber Valletta tells us to raise the alarm about mercury in seafood, we’ll raise the alarm. Of course, if Amber Valletta told us to hop on one foot and bark like a poodle, we’d do that too. That’s the kind of dignity we have here at Grist List. […]

Readers talk back about vegetarianism and soy

  Umbra’s column on the environmental impact of soy vs. that of meat inspired readers of all stripes — OK, mostly the stripes that are anti-soy — to share their opinions. Here’s a sample of the deluge that hit our inbox, and there’s a whole lot more posted in Gristmill, our blog. Dear Editor: What […]

Germany’s environment minister on eschewing nukes

Five years ago, Germany officially decided to shut down all its nuclear plants by 2020. This past May, the second of 19 plants went offline.

Outgoing German environment minister (and member of the Green Party) Jurgen Trittin has a succinct piece on BBC explaining the government's rationale and arguing for seeing the policy through.

Far from being a necessary element in Germany's quest to meet Kyoto targets, he says, "technically speaking, this base-load relic of the past is standing in the way of flexible and intelligent electricity production." Word.

Encyclopedia Brown and the case of the missing map

Not really sure what to make of this. Apparently the government's map of the Arctic Refuge is gone -- poof, vanished. Why on earth, you're wondering, does the government only have one detailed map of the Refuge? I don't know. Why was it sitting behind some file cabinet? You got me. Was it thrown out deliberately or by accident? Nobody knows. Does it matter? Felicity Barringer thinks maybe so:

A Journey of a Gazillion Miles Begins With a Single Inch

Wal-Mart declares it’s going green After months of scattered signs — green-built Supercenters in Texas and Colorado, a program to conserve thousands of acres of land through The Nature Conservancy — Wal-Mart executives have made it official: Their company is going green. Or, well, greenish. In a speech at a biz school yesterday, CEO H. […]

Exhaust in Translation

Green cars all the rage at Tokyo Motor Show The most buzzworthy attractions this week at the 39th Tokyo Motor Show weren’t the biggest or the most powerful but the most eco-friendly. Hoping to dazzle drivers battered by high gas prices, automakers debuted a dizzying array of low-pollution, high fuel-efficiency vehicles — some electric, some […]

When It Rainforests, It Pours

Amazon logging damage: now with twice the depressingness You know all that damage logging has done to the Amazon rainforest? It’s not as bad as you thought. It’s twice as bad! Researchers have developed a way to wring far more detail out of satellite photos, a bittersweet accomplishment in light of the results. Turns out […]

Kenya’s president sells out national parks for politics

If pieces of land could speak, that's the question the 155 sq. mile Amboseli National Game Reserve in Kenya might be asking itself. The Game Reserve was, until earlier this month, a National Park -- it was run by national authorities. President Kibaki, breaking half a dozen laws and procedures, degazetted Amboseli. He downgraded it to a Game Reserve, and gave control and management of it to the Maasai people who live in the area. The Maasai have no training or background in wilderness management or infrastructure maintenance.

Makower thinks the retail giant might just be turning over a new leaf

We debated whether to write up this story of Wal-Mart's alleged "going green" in Daily Grist, but at a quick glance it seemed trivial and a bit self-serving. But Joel Makower, who knows as much about these matters as anyone, thinks there may be something to it.

I, for one, am skeptical that the great, great Wal-Mart turnaround is nigh. But I'm also not ready to write off Lee Scott or his company as sustainability poseurs. I believe we'll see a steady stream of new initiatives coming out of the company's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters in coming months.

He even quotes an anonymous colleague tantalizingly saying, "This has the potential to be the fastest turnaround ever on sustainability and the most comprehensive." If that were true it could have potentially epochal consequences. As Joel notes, Wal-Mart may account for as much as 1% of China's entire GDP. That's a lotta skrill.

Of course some folks will say that "green Wal-Mart" is an oxymoron. Activists of virtually every stripe have legitimate beefs with the company. But the thing here is to be dispassionate. The 'Mart has more power than many governments. It is, for good or ill, here, and enormously influential. If even a fraction of its power can be turned to stimulating green markets and establishing green practices, it could be a game changer.