Grist List

Could 3D-printed foods make you healthier?

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a 3D printer that can fashion food out of raw ingredients. Potentially, they say, this could mean a new kind of fast food -- one that's just as fast, but made out of actual food. "We can make health food more fun, interesting, and appealing with this technology," said one of the scientists at the Cornell lab. "What kid wouldn't eat a space shuttle, even one made of peas?"

Ad claims tar-sands oil will save women

A group called Ethical Oil, the brainchild of neocon Alykhan Velshi, is running an ad touting Keystone XL as the savior of women in Saudi Arabia. Because suddenly conservatives care about women's rights.

Republicans risk $1 billion in revenue to squash a trickle of funding for biking and walking

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is threatening to hold up the passage of the transportation bill over a tiny portion of its funding, which (of course!) happens to be the portion dedicated to forms of transportation other than cars and highways. Streetsblog explains what's at stake here:

Sen. Coburn, and possibly other members of Congress, are declaring their willingness to throw the entire transportation industry, as well as commuters, under the bus while they quibble about the pennies spent on bike paths. According to the White House, if the bill is delayed just 10 days, the country would lose over $1 billion in transportation funding — “money we can never get back.”

Kiss your snorkeling trip goodbye: We're wiping out coral

Environmentalists are always looking for allies who can blast away treehugger stereotypes. They should consider reaching out to the community of anyone who's ever gone snorkeling in a coral reef. (You remember that part of your Cancun vacation, don't you? It happened sometime between the margaritas and the … margaritas.) According to a new book called Our Dying Planet, humanity is on track to wipe out all coral reefs. No more bright, awesome fish and crazy plants. Ever.

The largest outdoor green wall in North America

Why just have a green roof when you can have a green wall? This 3,000-square-foot wall, which fronts a public library in a suburb of Vancouver, Canada, was installed by green wall company Green Over Grey. It consists of over 10,000 plants in over 120 species.

Critical List: Enviros want Lisa Jackson to stay; a Penn. town could ban fracking

Enviros are hoping Lisa Jackson, their one stalwart ally high up in the administration, will keep on keeping on, despite the White House's decision to undermine her work on smog regulations.

A Pennsylvania town could vote to ban natural gas drilling.

One organizer of Rio+20, a U.N. summit next year on climate issues, says the conference should split environmentalism away from climate change issues. Basically, he says, we’re at the point where it’s much more important to embrace sustainability and prepare for climate change than it is to resolve the Green vs. Brown faceoff.

Looking at nature makes you smarter

Check it out: You're brilliant now.

Switching from coal to natural gas would accelerate climate change, say scientists

Here is a terrifying, crazy-making truth: Getting off coal will accelerate climate change, at least in the short term.

How Obama kinda completely missed the boat in his jobs speech

Let's you and me sit down and have some RealTalk™ for a minute: President Obama's jobs speech last night was about as good as it could get -- in the absence of any mention of the core driver of our ongoing global economic recession, which, need I remind you, is probably going to go double-dip.

Here's what he left out, neatly described in a hip, watchable video produced by the folks at the Post Carbon Institute.