Articles by David Roberts

Cool

A new report by occasional Grist contributor Jon Christensen reaches a conclusion that, to me at least, was a surprise: "Land trusts are now protecting more land than gets developed across the western United States each year."

Perhaps we have, in the words of our beloved leader, turned the corner. Heedless development is in its last throes!

More on the report here.

Yummy and eco

As regular readers know, Gristmill is scrupulously independent, fiercely resistant to even a hint of conflict of interest. We accept no donations or gifts, and offer no quid pro quo.

Except when it comes to chocolate and liquor. For those, we happily prostitute ourselves.

Case in point: A "mission-based" company called SweetRiot in NYC sent me a box of their chocolate-covered cacao nibs. They are, in a word, delish. They come in cute little tins, with cute little factoids tucked away in each one. The people who run the company are cute. The web page is cute. The whole damn enterprise is cute. And environmentally progressive. And yummy.

So forthwith, official Gristmill product placement: SweetRiot chocolate! Yippee!

Good stuff

Newsweek's Enterprise section is focused on "the future of energy." There are a few good stories in there.

Famed author (at least famed to energy geeks) Daniel Yergin says the end of cheap oil is going to make for an era of enormous technological innovation, driven by private venture capital and entrepreneurialism rather than government programs.

Fareed Zakaria laments the rise of a set of anti-capitalist, authoritarian economic powerhouses fueled by high oil prices (a point the mustache is fond of making).

Best of all, in the normally unbearable My Turn column, presidential wildcard Al Gore shows up to tout the benefits of decentralized energy sources and smart grids. Be still my heart!

Here's an excerpt:

Alternatives to oil must take climate change into account

Let me engage in a piece of meta-wonkerific self-reference and quote myself:

"Energy security" is a lopsided way of framing our energy problem, and left un-balanced, will do more harm than good.

I said that in the context of talking about coal -- the enemy of the human race -- but this week brought another piece of evidence from a different quarter.