Latest Articles

Where There’s a Shill, There’s a Way

USDA pays freelance writer to tout Farm Bill’s green cred In an effort to manufacture some green credibility, an Agriculture Department agency hired a freelance “journalist” to produce five articles on the conservation benefits of its Farm Bill programs. Paid at least $7,500 for his work, freelancer Dave Smith was instructed to push his stories […]

High energy costs don’t get in this brewery’s way

Hey, I don't want to get a reputation. But here's more news from the beer-and-rising-energy-costs front: The New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colo., is hopping on alternative energy instead. To wit: The company uses methane captured from its wastewater to help power its facilities, and uses a biodiesel blend in its delivery trucks. No big surprise from an outfit whose employees voted, waaaay back in 1998, to make it the nation's first wind-powered brewery.

When it comes to sustainability, New Belgium is "pretty impeccable," fellow beermeister Garrett Oliver of the Brooklyn Brewery told Fortune Magazine in 2003. "They're the people the rest of us look up to."

If the Military Can’t Pollute Freely, the Terrorists Have Won

Pentagon asks Congress for exemptions from environmental laws, again For the fourth time in as many years, the Defense Department has appealed to Congress for exemptions from major environmental laws — this time it’s air and hazardous-waste laws, as part of the 2006 defense authorization bill. In congressional testimony last year, a senior Pentagon official […]

We Can’t Handle the Truth

Court rules that Cheney may keep task-force deliberations secret In a major political and legal victory for the Bush administration, a federal appeals court has ruled that Vice President Dick Cheney is not obliged to release records on his secretive 2001 energy task-force meetings, effectively ending the long-running legal challenge brought by the Sierra Club […]

USDA caves to vegetarian pressure.

Several Gristmillians have advocated that going veg is good for the environment.

Vegetarians were a little miffed when the USDA announced its new food pyramid, er, pyramids without providing dietary recommendations for a plant-based diet.

Well, someone must have been listening, as "Vegetarian Diets" is now listed under MyPyramid.gov's "Tips & Resources."

Interestingly, it seems like the USDA's definition of the term "vegetarian" leans more toward "vegan," as they specifically provide tips for "lacto-ovo vegetarians." I would have expected the opposite.

However, the folks over at PCRM make the point that this information is only available on the website and not in the printed literature ...

But such online resources don't meet the needs of consumers who do not or cannot use the Internet. What the country really needed was a simple graphic conveying a clear message about how to improve our eating habits.

And for those of you who missed it, go back in time to read our fearless leader's thoughts on using the MyPyramid concept for green purposes.

And while we're on the topic of graphics to convey good practices, I also refer you to Sustainable Business: A Declaration of Leadership, from the archives. (Okay, I know this has nothing to do with food or vegetarians or pyramids, but I just wanted to point out there is some good stuff buried under all the other good stuff.)

Wired reports on the new power generation

We Americans sure do like labels don't we? (And I'm not talking about food labels.) That's right, in addition to soccer moms cruising around town in hybrids and flexitarians buying their food stuffs at Whole Foods and the like, we now have "hygridders."

What's a hygridder? According to a Wired article:

... people who are both middle of the road and off the grid. Across the US some 185,000 households have switched from the local power company to their own homegrown, renewable energy. The fastest-growing segment of this population - their ranks are doubling each year - isn't doing a full Kaczynski. Sure, these folks are slapping solar panels on the roof and erecting the occasional wind turbine, but they're staying connected to the grid, just to be safe. And in many cases, they're operating as mini-utilities, selling excess electricity back to the power company. Just as their cars aren't kludgy and their food isn't flavorless, their homes aren't drafty or dimly lit. Call them hygridders. And look for them soon in a neighborhood near you. Because - trendmeisters, take note - hygrid is the new Prius.

Learn about this new breed by reading the article. And if you feel so inclined, let us know what you think or tell us about your foray into hygridding.

Now your $9 ballpark beer comes in an eco-cup

It's a single piece of news, but a revolution in its own right: starting Friday, the Oakland A's will serve drinks in compostable cornstarch cups, and provide compostable cutlery too. McAfee Coliseum staffers will dig the items out of the trash at the end of each game -- pausing only briefly to wonder if they should have taken that internship with Dad's friend's company instead -- and ship the whole beery, mustardy mess to a composting facility.

It's all part of stadium manager George Valerga's plan to reach a 75-100 percent recycling rate. And the San Francisco Giants are considering composting too. OK, OK, California did pass a law requiring special-events venues to increase their recycling. But hey, whatever it takes to make America's ballfields greener. Let's go A's!

Thanks to an interview with the architect/designer in Newsweek.

I'm probably naive, or easily suckered, but sue me: Whenever I read what architect and designer William McDonough says, I get optimistic. Excited, even. His is the kind of environmentalism I want to be part of, the kind that will be easy to sell to the public. It promises growth and abundance instead of guilt, shrinkage, and doom. It conceives a future that has room for the unbridled expression of our bursting impulse to create and innovate.

This interview with Newsweek is a case in point.

For those unfamiliar with McDonough's ideas (most famously presented in Cradle to Cradle), it's a great introduction. For those of us who are familiar, it's a great update on what's currently happening. And what's currently happening is just remarkable. Consider this:

Listen to Your Mother

Since the thread on mothers and the environment is going so well, let me echo Japhet in pointing you all to Listen to Your Mother, an effort by the Rainforest Action Network to marshal maternal power in service of getting Ford to reduce the emissions of its carbon-heavy fleet.

Infamous industry defender chosen as contest judge by science association.

Steven Milloy, proprietor of junkscience.com, commentator on Fox News, adjunct scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute, and dedicated industry whore defender, chosen as a contest judge by the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science? Say it ain't so.

Paul Thacker from Environmental Science & Technology sorts it out, and along the way offers some interesting tidbits on "The Junkman" and the many ways that corporations fund pseudo-scientists and think tanks to do their PR dirty work.