Grist List

Solar industry is strong like bull

Urban chicken consultant will help you realize your homesteading dreams

We know you think backyard chickens are hot, because we've been rifling through your trash and we found those back issues of Grit. Now there's a shortcut to realizing your dream of owning little tiny feathered dinosaurs that lay unfertilized breakfast bombs for you: Hire a chicken consultant.

Metal-wheeled bike! Sure, why not?

  It's Friday, so here's a pointlessly pretty bike. It has metal wheels, because apparently you can make working bike wheels out of nothing but sprung steel, so why wouldn't you? Also I suppose it keeps you from getting flat tires. It's not the next big thing in bikes. It is not going to get […]

Watch cute kids build their own school out of bottles and trash

Especially if you're susceptible to optimistic reggae (I am!), this video of kids helping to build their own school out of bottles and trash ought to make you a little misty.

Even the Bush administration wouldn’t touch tar-sands oil

Even if the Obama administration approves the Keystone XL pipeline, Canadians won't be able to sell the carbon-intensive tar-sands oil to one very big energy consumer: the Obama administration. Back in 2007, the federal government, under the leadership of George W. Bush, passed a law that forbade it from buying oil that's dirtier than conventional oil. And tar-sands oil is.

The Canadian government has been trying for years to wiggle its way around that restriction. The U.S Chamber of Commerce has also tried to free the Department of Defense from its shackles.

Critical List: Crowdsourcing carbon solutions; New Yorkers regret drilling leases

The Maldives are going to crowdsource their carbon-cutting plan. (They’re asking international experts, not just letting any citizen drive policy. Not sure how that would work in the Maldives, but in the U.S. you’d get a lot of “shine lamps on solar panels for infinite energy!”)

Should the new poster child for global warming be the city mayor who has to deal with unexpected weather extremes?

Usually you hear about buyer's remorse, but New Yorkers are having sellers' remorse about turning over drilling rights to natural gas companies.

Texas Republican says we should still invest in solar after Solyndra

Here's Joe Barton, a Republican congressman from Texas, explaining why the Solyndra collapse shouldn't end solar loan guarantees. Refreshing! Solyndra had "too little oversight," Barton says, but solar is still viable and other companies should get loans if there's a reasonable expectation that taxpayers won't get screwed.

Meet NYC's most-used turnstile

Public transportation aficionados have a new pilgrimage destination: A turnstile at the bottom of the escalators at the Columbus Circle stop of the New York subway. That's the most-used turnstile of the most-used transportation system in the country.

Move to New York, save the planet

New York City's transportation commissioner wants you to come clog up her roads and subways. "If you want to save the planet, move to New York," Janette Sadik-Khan said at a Clinton Global Initiative panel discussion on Tuesday. Thanks to dense, car-light living, she said, New Yorkers have a third of the carbon footprint of the average American.