Latest Articles

An interview with John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods

John Mackey wants you to buy his organic squash. He’s the Bill Gates of organic foods. John Mackey, founder and CEO of the Whole Foods empire, started his original health-food store, called Safer Way, in a garage in Austin, Texas, in 1978. Local farmers would drop off produce from junky old pickups, hippie bakers would […]

Evangelicals and the earth

Grist, of course, ran the definitive story on the Christian right's relationship to environmentalism, but it wouldn't hurt to go gather additional insights from this piece by Alexander Zaitchik.  He asks, "If a slowly expanding majority of evangelical Christians in this country supports the regulation of industry to protect the environment, and if there is no clear Biblical injunction against doing so, why are the most vehement anti-environmentalists in American politics consistently found among the Christian Right?" If you guessed "close ties between the movement's national leadership and industry," well, give yourself a gold star.

Migrate Expectations

Climate change taking its toll on North American wildlife Never mind polar bears and penguins — turns out global warming is having its way with the feathered and furry throughout North America. A three-year study released yesterday by the Wildlife Society, a nonpartisan group of wildlife experts, suggests that climate change in North America is […]

We Know, We Know, You’re Sick of Hearing About Tajikistan, but …

Former Soviet republic littered with radioactive mine sites The former Soviet republic of Tajikistan may be on the brink of environmental disaster as decades-old abandoned uranium mines lie open to the elements and some 55 million tons of nuclear waste contaminate the northern part of the country, left in the wake of Stalin’s arms race […]

Holy Frijoles!

Burgeoning soybean market transforming South American environment The global market for soybeans is exploding, largely driven by massive demand from China, and the resulting modern-day agricultural gold rush is transforming the landscape in South America. Farmers are chopping down rainforests, colonizing savannahs, damming rivers, and digging canals, all in an effort to get more land […]

Hagelian Dialectic

Kyoto opponent Hagel may ally with Blair for new climate agreement U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair’s efforts to cajole the U.S. into doing something about climate change — and shake off his rep as a Bush “poodle” — may have found an ally in Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.). Hagel met with Blair this week in […]

Leapfrogging

"Leapfrogging" is the notion of developing countries adopting modern, sustainable technologies, without following the path the developed world took through the intervening (and highly polluting) steps of industrialization. It's a meme that's catching on, and WorldChanging has a kind of leapfrogging primer up to familiarize you with the basics.

WTF?

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg reads this post by Dave Pollard and calls it "inspiring!"  I had a somewhat different reaction, more along the lines of, "Stalinesque lunacy!"

Umbra on odd fruit

Dear Umbra, Yesterday in the grocery store I saw a “golden kiwi.” Is there really such a thing? It was over twice the size of a regular kiwi and the familiar fuzz was not there. It was almost as smooth as a nectarine. When I inquired of the produce representative, she told me that it […]

Dude, Where’s the After Party?

U.N. negotiators begin talking about post-Kyoto actions Two months before the Kyoto Protocol even takes effect, representatives meeting in Buenos Aires for the annual U.N. conference on climate change are already discussing plans for reducing emissions post-Kyoto. So far, says Eliot Diringer of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, participants have agreed that any […]