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  • Smacked down: How police action is feeding the Occupy movement

    Photo: Jessica LehrmanOn Oct. 11, 2011, I asked the mayor of Baltimore to sleep with me. I challenged her to spend one night outside in front of City Hall in solidarity with Baltimore’s 4,000 homeless residents. It was a long shot, I knew. My good intentions notwithstanding, she would likely decline. But even I was […]

    Lionel Foster Cities

  • Rep. Don Young throws a weird tantrum over arctic drilling

    Usually, we at Grist List try to make the news amusing for your entertainment. But sometimes Congress does the work for us. The scene: A committee hearing on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The characters: Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), drilling advocate, professional crank Douglas Brinkley, respected historian Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), committee chairman, […]

    Sarah Laskow Politics

  • Unboxing Occupy Wall Street: We still don’t know what it is, and that’s good

    Photo: Martin ReisWhen I first heard about Occupy Wall Street (henceforth OWS), I was dismissive. Worse, I was dismissive in a smug, insider, hippie-punching sort of way. I immediately put it into a box: confused and easily dismissed lefty protests filled with Free Mumia signs, giant puppets, and drum circles. As it turned out, I […]

    David Roberts Politics

  • No National Climate Service for you, says Congress

    Can Congress say no to an innocuous, zero-cost request for a government agency to reorganize itself so that it contains a National Climate Service? The answer — in our anti-science, post-truth, batshit crazy America — is yes. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wanted to create what it calls a "one stop shop" for climate […]

    Christopher Mims Politics

  • Occupy Wall Street can shake up a city — but can it create lasting change?

    Photo: Lauren DeCicca via weeklydig“Mike check! “MIKE CHECK!” “Mike check!” “MIKE CHECK!” This call-and-response has become a familiar refrain for those who have attended Occupy Wall Street protests or followed the movement from afar. When police banned sound systems in many encampments, protesters responded by creating human amplifiers: Anyone who has something to say to […]

    Greg Hanscom Cities

  • Lobbyists scoff at the idea of children’s health

    The New York Times has a big article about the fight for ozone regulation, which apparently was pretty much EPA chief Lisa P. Jackson versus the world. It's an interesting meditation on the power of buzzwords — namedropping "the economy" and "jobs" helped neutralize support for the regulations, even though analyses showed that they wouldn't […]

    Jess Zimmerman Politics

  • Cap-and-trade program fuels economic growth in Northeast

    Cross-posted from Climate Progress. A new report finds that America’s first mandatory, market-based carbon cap-and-trade system added $1.6 billion in value to the economies of participating states, set the stage for $1.1 billion in ratepayer savings, and created 16,000 jobs in its first three years of implementation. Says Susan Tierney, managing principal at the Analysis […]

    Stephen Lacey Energy

  • The Farm Bill: The view from the grassroots

    The odds that most of us laypeople will have any opportunity to influence this year’s Farm Bill process are looking awfully slim. Sure, there’s still a chance the current, nearly opaque supercommittee process, and the piece of it now known as “the Secret Farm Bill,” could break down. If that happens, the National Sustainable Agriculture […]

    Twilight Greenaway Agriculture

  • Occupy the bookstore! First OWS book hits shelves and tablets

    Police have razed and arrested their way through Zuccotti Park, but the Occupy movement isn’t going away. This week, there’s a new, tangible manifestation of the movement’s staying power: the first Occupy Wall Street book. This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement will hit bookstores on Nov. 17, but it’s already available […]

    Lisa Hymas Politics

  • Has government spending on energy research been a waste?

    Cross-posted from the Council on Foreign Relations. Steve Mufson had a piece in the Washington Post Outlook section this past weekend suggesting that the $172 billion that the U.S. government has spent on early stage energy research since 1961 has largely been a waste. (I say “suggesting” rather than “arguing” because Mufson doesn’t quite make […]

    Michael Levi Energy