Latest Articles

The energy bill negotiations are entering the home stretch.

The conferees were hard at work over the weekend and are meeting this evening at 5 pm EST to have what might be the last official meeting of the conference. All the remaining controversial items are on the table. Will Rep. Barton be able to get support for his MTBE deal? Will Sen. Bingaman's climate change language survive? How much ethanol will the country be required to use by 2012? Tune in and find out.

Missed the early episodes? Catch up with these factsheets courtesy of Rep. Waxman.

Green architect Raphael Sperry answers questions

Raphael Sperry. With what environmental organization are you affiliated? I’m the president of Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility, which is a small nonprofit with a national membership and active local chapters in Northern California, Seattle, and New York City. What does your organization do? ADPSR has a broad mission of advancing peace, environmental sustainability, and social […]

Umbra on green weddings

Dear Umbra, We are having a wedding in Kauai in September and are expecting about 40 guests. I would like to make it as “carbon-neutral” as possible. We’ve already instituted some greening aspects — recycled invitations, recycling at the reception, etc. — but would like to take it a step further. Obviously, air travel is […]

Queen of the Dammed

British royals to bolster green rep with efficient mini-hydro plant On Friday, a local U.K. council approved Queen Elizabeth’s plan to build a mini hydroelectric power plant dedicated to Windsor Castle. The energy-efficient four-turbine plant on the River Thames is expected to supply enough electricity to keep about a third of the castle juiced. It’ll […]

You Put Yer Superweed in There

Herbicide-resistant superweed discovered in field of GM canola Opponents of genetically engineered crops have long warned that genetic modifications could “leak” into other plant species via interbreeding, possibly creating a new breed of hard-to-kill superweeds that would lead farmers to use more and more herbicides. Multinational biotech corporations have long said, ha ha, that’s crazy. […]

Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Lawsuits

Lawsuit shield for MTBE makers dropped from energy bill One of the last remaining roadblocks to the passage of the energy bill has reportedly been removed: According to Senate Energy Committee Chair Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), a provision to shield manufacturers of groundwater-polluting fuel additive MTBE from lawsuits has been dropped from the bill. A similar […]

An outright thumbs down

The ads combined with the Indian proclivity to combine slightly askew English phrases made this article an interesting read. It also highlighted the fact that India is losing the battle to save its biodiversity, thanks in part to the human male's residual instincts to demarcate territory.

Attempts to introduce new species to city ecosystems are often doomed to failure.

An article in Pacific Northwest Magazine discussing Seattle's recurrent Canada goose problems got me thinking. Cities are primarily for people, and they have their own microenvironments. Some animals and plants thrive inside these ecosystems, and some do not. Creatures that can live among us already do. Attempts to introduce other species to please our sensibilities will more often than not turn into expensive failures or chronic damage-control exercises.

Organic snobbery

Julie Powell writes in today's New York Times on the social implications of eating well, which for many people has come to mean eating fresh, organic food. Referring to the "cult of garden freshness" and the "snobbery of the organic movement," Powell sees two negatives that can arise from an overemphasis on such foods: economic elitism and moral superiority.

The chicken at Whole Foods is organic and cage-free; the chicken at Western Beef is not. Is the woman who buys her children's food at the place where they take her food stamps therefore a bad mother?

Powell (thankfully) deviates from the stereotypes of the two stores, delving into the difference between shopping and cooking. She warns not to "assume that everyone at Whole Foods is wise and everyone at the Western Beef benighted."

While the stereotypes are a bit of a straw man, they are not pulled entirely from thin air. Just as with cars, the choice of grocer (for those who have the choice) is "90% social communication and self-branding."

The question is, does this self-branding lead to the two outcomes that Powell mentions?

Readers talk back about lawns, eco-vandalism, labor/enviro alliances, and more

  Re: The Terror of Our Ways Dear Editor: Thank you for putting the difficult topic of eco-vandalism up front. Unfortunately, it was disappointing to read yet another article calling eco-vandalism “eco-terrorism.” The term could hardly be more inaccurate: vandalism damages objects; terrorism kills people. As a fast-growing and visible news outlet, Grist has the […]