Grist List

How to cover 100 percent of your car expenses by renting yours out

Getaround is a car-sharing service like ZipCar, except instead of borrowing the company's vehicles, you're borrowing your neighbors'.

EPA found over 20 years ago that fracking contaminates water

Fracking companies like to say that there’s never been a single case of fracking contaminating a water well. But, well, there has, and they’ve known that for over 20 years. An EPA report released in 1987 said that a tainted well in West Virginia was contaminated by fracking.

The report, which covers an 1984 incident, resurfaced this week in a New York Times article and a report from the Environmental Working Group.

The report details how fracking fluids or gels migrated from the fracking well to an active water well on a neighboring property, rendering it unusable.

Texans drinking urine, consulting Bibles in face of ongoing climate apocalypse

Texas is now in the midst of its worst-ever one-year drought. Austin, Texas' capital, has received less than two inches of rain since October, a period that would normally see 18 inches. Here are just a few of the impacts of the state's ongoing drought, which is entirely consonant with the northward march of the world's subtropical deserts that will continue, unabated, as climate change intensifies:

Critical List: Shell can drill in the Arctic Ocean; tar sands rebranded as 'ethical oil'

Better get that Alaska cruise in now: Shell will be drilling exploratory wells in the Arctic Ocean next summer.

The U.N. says it will take $1 billion and more than 25 years to clean up all the oil Shell and other companies have spilled in the Niger Delta. (But we're sure there will be no problems whatsoever in the Arctic Ocean … )

Conservatives in Canada call tar-sand oil "ethical oil" because it comes not from evil places like Venezuela or Saudi Arabia but from Canada -- "the boy scouts of the world," says the guy who came up with "ethical oil." (Maybe he’s trying to earn his greenwashing badge?)

Barbie Dream House has solar panels, low-flow toilets, four stories, giraffe

The American Institute of Architects has picked a winning design in its Barbie Dream House contest, and it's green as well as pink. The four-story edifice, presumably built with input from Architect Barbie, features solar panels, low-flow toilets, EnergyStar appliances, a greenhouse, eco-friendly bamboo flooring, and "decidedly NO parking garages and driveways." It also has a meditation space, a home gym, and a 1,500 square foot entertainment area. It's hard to reconcile green design with a client so into overconsuming that she's actually a plastic toy.

Tar-sands pipeline gets support from fake Twitter accounts

What do Astroturf and the Canadian tar sands have in common? They're both made of petroleum, and now they've both got fake grassroots. An employee of the American Petroleum Institute, which supports the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline, has apparently been setting up multiple fake Twitter accounts to give the illusion of public support.

Michele Bachmann seriously believes in a lightbulb conspiracy

So what is it with Michele Bachmann and hating on energy-efficient lightbulbs? She's like a lightbulb crusader. Mother Jones has done some digging, and it turns out this is because she basically believes that a science fiction parody of environmentalism is going to ruin America.

New tool maps how badly climate change affects you

A new web tool from the Natural Resources Defense Council lets you map climate change threats — excessive heat, disease risk, pollution, drought, and flooding — anywhere in the United States. Above is the full U.S. map showing the average number of extreme heat days in 2000-2009, but you can also zoom in on your […]

Solar-powered oil field runs on sunshine, irony

Put on your coal-fired vegan anti-irony helmets, because Oman is building a solar-powered oil field. Not because it will make them feel good or help them tamp down their emissions (I mean, this is oil they're digging up) but because it makes economic sense.