Do you know where your candidates stand on climate change?

With growing numbers of scientists declaring that the global climate crisis is approaching a point of no return, there is...

Help Grist and Gristmill improve

On Wednesday and Thursday, the Grist editorial team will be at a retreat in our top-secret mountaintop redoubt, plotting world domination. As a result, there will be no Daily Grist and blogging will be light.

We're discussing the next steps for this little web magazine of ours, which is growing so fast and has so much potential.

So, what would you like to see for Grist? Or more particularly, for my own selfish purposes, what would you like to see for Gristmill?

Where do you want Gristmill to go? What do you want from it? More posts? Fewer? More guest authors? Fewer? Different subject matter? (Less energy, more wilderness? Less global warming, more population?) More avenues for reader participation? More avenues for activism and organizing? An email subscription option? A print-this-post option? Anonymous commenting? A pony?

Think big. Think small. Just think, and let me know what Gristmill would become if you were emperor.

Do monopolies undermine the environment?

For many skeptics of the environmental benefits of market economies, the fear of monopoly control over natural resources is one of their greatest concerns. The reality is actually much more complicated; here's why.

Wildfires are raging — why isn’t concern about climate change?

Earlier this month, Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert delivered a provocative Los Angeles Times op-ed explaining why the public is more...

Will evangelicals help save the earth?

Copyright 2006 by Bill McKibben. First published in OnEarth, a publication of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Reprinted by permission....

An interview with J. Matthew Sleeth, evangelical environmentalist and author

In 2000, a wealthy hospital chief of staff and evangelical Christian named J. Matthew Sleeth looked around at the life...

Sprawl bribery is beating smart growth

The following is a guest essay from Joel S. Hirschhorn, author of Sprawl Kills: How Blandburbs Steal Your Time, Health and Money. He can be reached through sprawlkills.com.

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When the small town of Warrenton in sprawl-rich northern Virginia received an offer of $22 million in cash from Centex Homes, one of the nation's largest developers and home builders, one reaction of concerned parties was, OK, sounds like an environmentally acceptable plan for nearly 300 new homes. But closer examination reveals a development plan that comes nowhere near meeting smart-growth values. It also illustrates the tactics of large sprawl developers as they face opposition from those concerned about uncontrolled growth gobbling up rural America. Sprawl bribery is just another dimension of sprawl politics: using money to buy off government officials. And using just one aspect of good smart growth design -- clustering of homes -- creates the illusion of environmental benefit.

New study: Nitrogen availability may constrain biomass accumulation in presence of increased CO2

An article in the April 13 issue of Nature, "Nitrogen limitations constrains sustainability of ecosystem response to CO2" (subscription required) reports on a six-year study of the role of nitrogen on biomass accumulation when CO2 concentrations increase.

Our results indicate that variability in availability of soil N and deposition of atmospheric N are both likely to influence the response of plant biomass accumulation to elevated atmospheric CO2. Given that limitations to productivity resulting from the insufficient availability of N are widespread in both unmanaged and managed vegetation, soil N supply is probably an important constraint on global terrestrial responses to elevated CO2.

A controversial New Orleans landfill is set to close, but eco-disaster still looms

 The logistics of cleaning up New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina are almost beyond comprehension. Louisiana’s Department of...