Latest Articles

Organic is becoming popular … the horror!

An article in CorpWatch adeptly summarizes what strikes me as a classic dilemma facing enviro(nmentalist)s: Organic food is becoming more popular and the organic food industry is growing.  As it grows, large corporations are taking an interest, buying small organic companies, and attempting to supersize organic farming operations. By some estimates the percentage of organic food sold by organic markets has fallen from over 60 percent to just over 30 percent -- the rest taken up by Wal-Marty type stores (and a miniscule percentage by farmers' markets, food-buying clubs, and the like). Organic is going corporate.

Reactions, as you would expect, are split.

John Emory Parks, international marine expert, answers questions

What work do you do? I’m an international affairs specialist with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal oceans agency. How does it relate to the environment? NOAA oversees a number of environmental duties in the U.S., from monitoring climate and forecasting weather to managing fish stocks within U.S. waters and protecting critical […]

Umbra on doggie-doo bags

Dear Umbra, For years, I faithfully brought my canvas bags to the grocery store, leaving plastic bags for the environmentally uninformed. A few months ago, though, I adopted a dog, and I now find myself with a dilemma. I need to pick up all of his solid excrement, and having no compost or any other […]

Much Ado About Nothing

Celebrate Buy Nothing Day by sitting on your derriere Traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year, the Friday after Thanksgiving sends millions of Americans, drone-like, to the malls to kick-start the holiday consumption orgy. But before you foil-wrap the roast beast and stash the organic cranberry dressing in the fridge, consider celebrating another holiday: […]

Pan of Green Gobbles

Sales of organic turkeys and Tofurky on the rise The organic turkey is the new Prius. If you’re planning to carve one up for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving meal, you’re riding the latest wave of eco-chic. Organic turkey sales at Whole Foods Market have doubled this year, the upscale natural-foods chain reports. And that’s building on impressive […]

Celebrate Buy Nothing Day at Wal-Mart

This Friday I'll join culture jammers and lazy-asses the world over in celebrating Buy Nothing Day (inspired by those jammers exemplar over at Adbusters). Stick it to The Man by sitting on your duff; dig it.

More energetic rabble-rousers are encouraged to head to the nearest lair of Beelzebub (Wal-Mart, yo), not to feed the beast, but to congest the aisles as part of a Whirl-Mart Consumption Awareness Ritual. (See live action video of such!)

McCain ruffles GOP feathers with continued calls for action on climate change

McCain gets heated up. Presiding over his final hearing as chair of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee last week, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) delivered a feisty swan song assuring GOP colleagues and environmentalists alike that he won’t be giving up his fight for climate-change regulations anytime soon — even if the Bush administration […]

Milling About

Goodies on Gristmill There are lots of juicy bits on Gristmill these days, upon which we hope you will share your opinions. For instance, what did you think about the idea, recently propounded in Soapbox, that radicalism is the last thing enviros need in this day and age? Grist blogger Todd Hymas didn’t think much […]

Dear Father, Who Art in Heaven, Polluted Be Thy Air

Church air may be bad for believers’ lungs Whatever its effects on your soul, spending lots of time in church may be bad for your lungs, according to a new study out of Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Researchers measured air quality in a small chapel and a large basilica and found levels of particulate […]

Take It E.V.

Electric vehicles catching on in China; Smart cars coming to U.S. All the talk these days is about hybrid and hydrogen cars, but in China, where air pollution is an ongoing crisis, they haven’t given up on electric vehicles. Improvements in battery technology are making electric cars, scooters, and buses a viable option, with shorter […]