Latest Articles

How Stella Got Her Mangrove Back

Enviros push for green reconstruction in wake of tsunami As tsunami relief efforts continue and plans for rebuilding begin, enviros hope sensible ecological practices will be taken into consideration. World Wildlife Fund on Monday called for careful coastal planning as reconstruction efforts get underway, as well as an end to over-logging in the region and […]

Embargoing, Going …

Discovery of Cuban oil deposits raises hopes for eased restrictions With the recent hardening of U.S. trade policy toward Cuba, analysts are now speculating that one thing could help ease the restrictions: Oil, that is. Black gold. Texas tea. Two Canadian companies have discovered oil in Cuba’s waters off the Gulf of Mexico, announced President […]

Water, Water Everywh … Hey, Where’d the Water Go?

Agriculture needs to start conserving water, badly A new study by David Pimentel in the journal BioScience backs its call for greater agricultural water conservation with some disturbing statistics. Worldwide, agriculture uses some 70 percent of the freshwater supply. The ginormous Ogallala aquifer, which supplies water to a fifth of all irrigated land in the […]

Oh You NAS-ty Boys

NAS report on safe perchlorate levels creating controversy A National Academy of Sciences panel report on safe levels of perchlorate — an ingredient in rocket fuel, firecrackers, and road flares — in drinking water has some enviros up in arms. The report, released yesterday, suggests that levels of perchlorate about 20 times higher than the […]

Bloggy Style

Instead of yelling at us, yell at each other! Here at Grist HQ, we receive lots of letters from readers, more than we can possibly print in our Letters to the Editor section. We love hearing from you — but wouldn’t you like other readers to hear you as well? If only there were some […]

Priorities for a Healthy … zzz …

Via Jon Stahl I saw the launch of Priorities for a Healthy Washington, a coalition of Washington state enviro organizations. I looked over the site quickly and went on about my day -- it didn't make much of an impression.

Now Alex Steffen asks: Hold on, why can't enviros make a damn impression? The PHW site is business as usual, he says, "a great example of environmentalists once again describing the steak rather than selling the sizzle."

Check out the site, read Steffen's diagnosis and suggestions, and let us know what you think.

Politics after disasters

Here's a fascinating piece by Peter Ford in Christian Science Monitor on the political effects of natural disasters throughout history, with some discussion of the possible political ramifications of the tsunami. Good to see someone going a little deeper than the "man clings to tree for two weeks" level.

Meteor Blades

Dan E. Arvizu will take his seat as the eighth director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on Friday. The federally funded, privately managed lab is the premier U.S. research institution for renewable energy and also conducts research into energy efficiency.  Its goal is not only to pioneer new technologies, but to get the fruit of its endeavors into the marketplace.

All I know about Mr. Arvizu is what I read in the DOE press release and what little is available about him on the Internet. He seems to have plenty of the right credentials and experience for the job. I wish him well.

But a new director won't mean more money for the laboratory, which will be operating on around $200 million again this year, about a sixth of the nation's entire renewables and efficiency budget. That's less than half the 1980 budget of NREL's predecessor, the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), where I went to work in 1978. Indeed, this year's entire R&E budget, which is poking at the $1.3 billion level, is only 40% of the R&E budget of a quarter century ago. It ought to be 400%. That would put it in the range of three months worth of what we're spending on Iraq.

Paper or pla… oh, fer chrissake!

Can you ever have enough answers to the paper-or-plastic question? Of course not! Here's another, from Treehugger.

Where’s Horton When You Need Him?

Natural disasters boon, bust for marine animals The latest in grim tsunami news comes via Sri Lankan sea-turtle researcher Kithsiri Kannangara, whose turtle hatchery was completely wiped out by the enormous waves, which have produced more tragedies than the ancient Greeks. In addition to a large leatherback turtle, seven rare green turtles, and some $500,000 […]