Climate Cities

Critical List: The Navy and USDA invest in biofuels; Norway's big oil find

The Navy, USDA, and Energy Department are investing in biofuels that come from plants we don't eat.

As Shell fought an oil leak in the North Sea, Norway's biggest oil company announced it had found a huge oil field there. Oh awesome, nothing can go wrong with this!

Shell's also helping Iraq to double its capacity to produce natural gas.

U.S. solar manufacturers say it's hard to compete against China's low-priced workers.

I'll be seeing you

It's my last day as cities editor at Grist, but I hate to say goodbye.

Florida is the worst state for pedestrian safety

If you live in Florida and don't have a car, you may want to invest in a heavy steel overcoat. Florida is home to four of the top four most dangerous metropolitan areas for pedestrians -- Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, and Miami. In the wake of the Raquel Nelson case, the New York Times has turned its reporting eye on pedestrian fatalities, and the scene on Florida streets is pretty depressing:

Sidewalks are viewed as perks, not necessities. Crosswalks are disliked and dishonored. And many drivers maniacally speed up when they see someone crossing the street.

Watch a city grow from a tiny sprout in this beautiful video

"Lilium Urbanus" envisions the city as a botanical, flowering from seed to sprout to village to metropolis. Its creators, Anca Risca and Joji Tsuruga, told Scientific American that their daily observation of urban growth in their home city of New York inspired the comparison: We embraced the idea of urban growth and saw it as something […]

Critical List: Shell spills oil in the Arctic; the Northwest Passage opens

A Shell oil platform in the Arctic is leaking oil. The company won't say how much but will say that the spill is under control.

The Interior Department is looking into treatment of Arctic scientist Charles Monnett, who is under investigation for his work on polar bears.

Why real world fuel efficiency is so much lower than fuel efficiency standards.

How to tell if your city is going places

Here's a handy infographic, from the Project for Public Spaces, to help you distinguish cities that are going places from cities that are going nowhere. What's your retail shopping like? Transportation? Public spaces? (Or publc spaces; even handy infographics sometimes have typos, and this one coulda been a lot worse.) 

Help MIT evaluate people's attitudes about cities

MIT's Media Lab has developed a website called Place Pulse that evaluates your perception of cities and neighborhoods. You choose which of two images from Google Street View looks more unique, or more upper-class, or safer, and Place Pulse collates everyone's votes in a way that will hopefully be useful for urban planning. And for […]

Critical List: Bachmann goes after Pawlenty on cap-and-trade; a bubble shield for wind turbines

At last night's Republican debate, Michelle Bachmann tried to stake Tim Pawlenty on his support for cap-and-trade.

The EPA wised up and banned DuPont from selling Imprelis, the herbicide that was killing trees.

San Francisco could require businesses to let bikers bring their ride inside.

Let's make urban revitalization greener, greater, and more inclusive

Improving the environment, economy, and social equity in distressed neighborhoods is possible if the right players are involved.

When 'starchitects' build art you can't escape

Work-of-art buildings by Frank Gehry or I.M. Pei often take prominent roles in cities across the globe -- but they fail at creating a sense of place