Articles by David Roberts
David Roberts was a staff writer for Grist. You can follow him on Twitter, if you're into that sort of thing.
All Articles
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A nice package of stories that aren’t about rich people
L.A. Weekly has a package of stories on green building that, in the words of editor Linda Immediato, "DOESN'T involve tear-downs, massive square footage homes and insane water-intensive landscaping." Huzzah for that!
The lead piece is "Green Without Envy," about the many ways existing homes can be added to, tweaked, or remodeled -- instead of torn down -- to increase their green-friendliness.
Also check out similarly sensible articles on lawns, floors, and individual rooms, as well as a piece on the shortcomings of LEED and another one on, er, re-using a Boeing 747 as a house.
Good stuff.
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Jerks.
I try to be a good person. I try to keep love in my heart for all people. Why do they make it so hard?
Declaring them "mature technologies" that need no further funding, the Bush administration in its FY 2007 budget request eliminates hydropower and geothermal research, venerable programs with roots in the energy crises of the 1970s.
We're talking about -- cumulatively -- roughly $50 million in research money. There's nowhere else in the federal budget we could find $50 million to trim? Really?
Oh, wait, but look, we're not even saving the money, just reallocating it:
Any savings from the cuts would be nil since all of the nearly $24 million ($1 million from hydropower and $23 million from geothermal) research funding would go to other programs such as biofuels.
Why? Why?
It's a small amount, but it matters quite a bit to the people laboring in the trenches studying this stuff:
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Why canvassing no longer works
A while back, Nathan Wyeth wrote a Soapbox for Grist about the crappiness of green-group canvassing operations. It kicked off quite a discussion.
If you're interested in the subject, Dana Fisher has a good piece on it at The American Prospect:
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Interview with J. Matthew Sleeth
It's a bit late to ask, but tomorrow morning early I'll be speaking with J. Matthew Sleeth, author of Serve God, Save the Planet, a book calling on Christians to renew their responsibility as stewards of the earth.What should I ask him?
