Climate Culture

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  • The WSJ asks and answers

    As home-appliance technology continues to move toward the energy-efficient (and brightly colored), more and more consumers are looking to replace their old appliances. But is it really an upgrade? No, says Jeanine Van Voorhees, who spent $1,000 on a new energy-saving washer only to find that it coughs up dingy, cat-hair-covered clothes. "I curse that […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Where your dinner is mined

    A friend sent me Tyler Cowen's thoughts on a new food book from Steve Ettlinger. I don't know who Tyler Cowen is, but he made me want to read the book:

    There are entire companies which do nothing but break eggs open for other companies; the largest such egg-breaking company is based in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

    That is from Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated Into What America Eats, by Steve Ettlinger. So far this is my pick for the best food book of the year.

    I also learned that a Twinkie is about half sugar, sulfuric acid is the most produced chemical in the world, sugar is used to clean out cement mixers, phosphate rock and limestone make Twinkies light and airy, Twinkies' butter flavor is created out of gas, Twinkies contain only one preservative (sorbic acid), and the original 1930 Twinkies were filled with banana flavor, not vanilla.

    JMG Culture

  • Umbra on salt

    Dear Umbra, What’s up with salt, environmentally speaking? Is it good for the Dead Sea if I buy Dead Sea salt (but then it travels halfway around the world)? Am I getting trace amounts of Bad Stuff in any sea salt these days? Is a big box of Morton iodized salt going to overload the […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • The green cartopia ain’t likely to happen

    Kurt Cobb writes a smart and sensible review of Who Killed the Electric Car? Excerpt follows:

    JMG Culture

  • Yup, the Duggars do it again

    Remember the Duggar family? Well, they followed through on that promise of more children.

    Grist staff Culture

  • Might want to check the elevation first

    So the guy to blame for AOL wants to create a "green resort" in Costa Rica, because if there's anything low-lying countries in hurricane paths need, it's more jet travel by rich gringos eager to experience a little pseudo-green travel.

    JMG Culture

  • Water, that is

    Take a few minutes to drink up this NYT editorial on the virtues of tap water. It’s one of the most emailed stories on the NYT site, so maybe you’ve already seen it. This bit is particularly relevant … Water bottles, like other containers, are made from natural gas and petroleum. The Earth Policy Institute […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Go car-free, win stuff

    Here's something most Gristers are probably already doing: going car-free once a week. So step up, take credit, and get entered to win these prizes from New American Dream:

    Erik Hoffner Culture

  • Legendary Burning Man festival gets an eco-conscience

    Armen Zeitounian leads the way up the staircase of the house he’s living in, a two-story colonial nestled in the smoggy hills north of Los Angeles, complete with a view and a pool and a black Ford Explorer in the driveway. In a room on the top floor, a two-by-six-inch plank, painted white, protrudes about […]

    Judith Lewis Culture

  • MIT lab rats cook up a less wasteful gasoline engine

    Don't hum the requiem for the gasoline engine just yet. MIT brainiacs say it's easier than imagined to flip a car between the usual gas-guzzling state to a low-pollution, ultra-efficient mode.

    The researchers have tested a system that can run on a quarter less than the usual amount of gas without needing any fancy fuel. With the flick of a switch, the setup alternates between regular, spark-triggered combustion and experimental homogeneous charge compression ignition.

    In the latter system, premixed fuel and air combust when compressed, spewing less soot and NOx from the engine. Volvo has explored the hybrid technology, but many kinks would need to untangle before you could get behind the wheel.

    If car makers adopted such hybrid gasoline ignitions, the petroleum wouldn't get any cleaner, but less of it would be used, potentially adding a few miles per gallon of efficiency to a car. That might keep the grins up at oil companies and gas stations -- but in dreamland, only for a fleeting moment, as the world weans off of fossil fuels. Right?

    This and other stopgap car-greening measures of now and the near future are giving people more driving options than ever. What's more interesting -- the novelty of this innovation, or that it's reaching the not-quite-there-yet phase of development more than a century after Daimler and Benz got props for the modern gas engine?

    Elsa Mary Culture