Articles by David Roberts

Extractive myths

Speaking of rural renewables: One of the vexations of blog life is that good posts quickly recede down the page and get missed -- so don't miss this excellent post by new Gristmill contributor Tom Power on the myth that B.C.'s economy depends on extractive industries. Everything he writes could be transferred straightforwardly to Oregon, Washington, Kansas, etc. etc.

Rural renewables

Rural areas in America are hurting, losing people and vitality by the day. The extractive industries upon which many rural economies are based are either dying, being outsourced, or taken over by megacorporations who offer residents low-quality, unstable service jobs. What if greens had something to offer these red areas? As I keep saying, a rural future based on small-scale green industry is both substantively and politically a huge potential win for environmentalists.

A story in The Oregonian on rural Oregon's renewable energy potential illustrates both the opportunity and challenges involved.

100 sustainable companies

As usual, I'm getting to this late.  Here are the 100 most sustainable corporations in the world, as announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The comically fuzzy definition: " A Corporation that produces an overall positive impact on society and the environment."

Joel Makower rightly criticizes the opacity of the ranking process and Alex Steffen rightly emphasizes that these types of rankings aren't about seeking perfection so much as moving the debate in the right direction.

Shrinking glaciers

Via BoingBoing, a series of pictures showing melting glaciers from story in the San Fran Chronicle a few months back.