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  • The park marries art and nature amidst an urban backdrop

    On Monday I had the opportunity to get a personalized tour of Seattle’s new Olympic Sculpture Park. Grist kahuna-at-large Chip Giller and I walked the grounds of the 9-acre green space, located at the north end of the city’s downtown waterfront, with Martha Wyckoff and Chris Rogers, two key players in bringing the park to […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • Heart Trouble

    High levels of pollution lead to increased heart disease in women, study finds News flash: pollution is bad. And women living in highly polluted areas are 76 percent more likely to die of a heart attack or stroke, according to a rigorous study published in the New England Journal of Medicine yesterday. “The magnitude of […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • The Airspeed Velocity of an Uneaten Swallow

    Food imported by air may lose organic certification in Britain Foods imported into Britain by airplane may not qualify as organic if the country’s main certification body has its druthers. On Friday, the Soil Association announced it will spend a year considering a proposal to factor flight distance into its organic standards. While it will […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • The Mile-High Clubbed

    Prince Charles gets environmental award, pisses off environmentalists When is a green not a green? Some say it’s when he jets across the Atlantic to accept an award for … being green. Prince Charles raised eyebrows this weekend as he made a quick trip to the U.S. to receive the Global Environmental Citizen Award from […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • Baoxing Match

    Fast-developing China to push for $200 billion energy-efficiency investment China will try to nudge its burgeoning economy in a green direction by prompting building owners to spend some $200 billion by 2020 on energy efficiency for apartments and office buildings, Vice Minister of Construction Qiu Baoxing announced yesterday. Construction makes up 27 percent (and rising) […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • An urban denizen beseeches nature writers to focus on cities for a change

    A plea to nature writers: Come write about Los Angeles. To all the young aspiring Thoreaus out there: Head to this megalopolis in droves, as if to Mecca. Chicago is also good. New York. Pittsburgh. Atlanta. Reno. Providence. Houston. Indianapolis. Why does the venerable American literary genre of nature writing continue to ignore cities? Sure, […]

    Jenny Price Cities

  • Ready Orleans Not

    Big Easy residents move back into homes that remain in danger’s path While officials continue to debate the best way to rebuild New Orleans, those who lived there just want to go home. But as residents slowly but surely return, many are reinhabiting houses that may not stand up to severe weather and returning to […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • A pedal-tastic roundup

    On a personal new year's note, I can't help but mention the only-months-old but hopelessly addictive new habit I know I'll be nursing throughout the year: mountain biking at night.

    No idea why I only started doing this recently, and in the winter no less, but there you go. And since I splurged on a set of burly studded mountain-bike tires that should be arriving any day now, snow and ice riding on both trail and street at all hours are up next. That, and on snowmobile trails.

    Any others out there who want to join the ranks of proud all-weather winter cyclists, check out this excellent website. And for night riders on road or trail, I can't say enough good things about NiteRider Trail Rat headlights. For best results, get at least one extra battery (I have three extras) and maybe a fast recharger. Combine with a $30 LED headlamp for the best night cycling around.

    Now for the news:

    Todd Hymas Samkara Cities

  • There’s Always the Phone

    Norway launches carbon-offset program for officials flying abroad World leaders like to kick off the year with stirring energy-related pronouncements (see: “addicted to oil”). But this New Year’s Day, in a speech peppered with grand statements, Norway Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg made a concrete pledge: the country will begin buying credits to offset the greenhouse-gas […]

    Grist staff Cities

  • Warning: techno-engineering speak ahead

    hydrogenAmory Lovins is rightfully admired by environmentalists. But nobody is right all the time, and the hydrogen path is one of his few mistakes. He summarizes his argument for hydrogen in Twenty Hydrogen Myths (PDF). More extensive discussion is embedded in his book Winning the Oil Endgame (book-length PDF).

    His basic proposal:

    Gar Lipow Cities