Grist List
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Eco-friendly LEGOs made of sawdust and coffee
Earth Blocks are basically LEGOs, but made out of coffee grounds, tree bark, sawdust, or tea chaff mixed with a plasticlike binder material. Finally, a way to teach children that being eco-friendly means playing with monochrome toys made out of dirt!
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Critical List: Approval coming for two nuclear plants; warrant issued for Nasheed’s arrest
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will give its blessing to two new nuclear power plants in Georgia today. There’s a warrant out for the arrest of Mohamed Nasheed, the Maldivian president and environmental crusader forced to resign at gunpoint. The new president, who deposed him, says the warrant will be used only to ensure Nasheed’s safety. […]
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Study: Green economy lost fewer jobs in the recession
According to a new study by a California think tank, the “core green economy” — industries focusing on sustainable energy, clean transportation, green products, conservation, and recycling — weathered the U.S. recession better than the economy as a whole. In California, at least, the green economy lost only 3 percent of jobs between January 2009 […]
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Scientists drill into ancient buried lake
Russian scientists have confirmed that they successfully drilled into Lake Vostok, a subglacial lake that has spent the last several million years isolated from Earth’s surface by a thick slab of ice. And I mean THICK — drilling down to the lake has taken 20 years of work. But the team has finally hit water, […]
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Rick Santorum is literally the worst
Santorum swamped Romney (sorry) at two caucuses and a nonbinding primary yesterday, suggesting that his candidacy is a less funny joke than previously thought. Well whatever, they’ve clearly been playing King of the Mountain all campaign season, knocking each other off the top of the dung heap — at this point, do we care which […]
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In France, cyclists can run red lights legally
Sometimes France is so fricking enlightened it hurts. Lawmakers recently decided to allow “cyclists in some cities to disregard red lights at certain intersections,” Treehugger writes. Paris will be testing the idea at 15 intersections, and Bordeaux, Strasbourg, and Nantes have been running the same experiment for a while. If the pilot goes well, 1,700 […]
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Watch President Obama shoot a marshmallow cannon
Sometimes, even when there’s a Democratic president, I worry about science policy — whether there will be sufficient funding for research and education, whether the administration is soliciting and heeding feedback from scientists on subjects like climate, that sort of thing. And then I see the genuine delight on President Obama’s face as he helps […]
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World’s most environmentally outspoken president forced to resign at gunpoint
Mohamed Nasheed, president of the climate change-threatened Maldives, was forced to step down from office -- at gunpoint.
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Help name this baby polar bear
The Toronto Zoo is having a contest to name its new baby polar bear. Here are my entries, based on my initial responses to seeing the above photo (from the zoo’s Facebook page):
