Grist List

'Cling-film' solar panels are 1/200th the thickness of Saran Wrap

New 'cling-film' solar panels can be printed like newspapers, and then self-organize into layers of plastics that can turn sunlight into electricity. The result is a useful solar panel that's only 60 nanometers thick -- or 1/200th the thickness of Saran Wrap.

How to solve car emissions, hunger, and overpopulation simultaneously

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal has a modest proposal.

The world’s first ass-powered outdoor concert

Here's an idea for a better way to harness the power of stationary bike workout: use the resultant energy to fuel the electricity-sucking equipment for a banging outdoor concert. Pedal Power NYC recruited 250 volunteers to pedal 16 bikes, which, hooked up to generators, provided the electricity for June's NYC Celebrates Water Festival.

How China accidentally geoengineered the climate

Between 2003 and 2007, China burned so much coal that it increased global consumption of the stuff 25 percent. That put so much sulfur into the air that it more or less literally (temporarily) blotted out the sun, masking some of the global warming that otherwise would have occurred during the first decade of the 21st century.

The world’s fastest all-electric plane

A French pilot flew a plane powered only by electricity at more than 175 miles per hour, the fastest an all-electric plane has ever gone. That's much, much faster than other all-electric planes, which tend to be the type available at toy stores, and about 15 mph faster than the previous record set by the pilot, Hugues Duval.

Critical List: Oil spills into Yellowstone River; Americans are driving less

42,000 gallons of Exxon oil spilled into the Yellowstone River in Montana over the weekend. Regulators had warned the company that the pipe wasn't safe.

The river's particularly high, which isn't helping clean-up.

Atmospheric pollution from China's coal use temporarily masked global warming: sulfur particulates reflected more light back into space, keeping the planet’s temperature from rising too fast. But over time the carbon dioxide released from the coal will push temperatures upwards.

Give 7-Up to your baby!

Hey, whatever else is wrong with our current cultural relationship with sugar water, at least nobody's pushing it as a baby formula alternative anymore, right? This 1956 ad says that 7-Up is "so wholesome" that "lots of mothers" give it to their babies. The company's evidence for this wholesomeness? They list the ingredients, even though they don't have to!

Top 10 greenest cities in North America

It seems like we get a new list of greenest, most climate-change-prepared, most bike-friendly etc. cities every week or so. But we never really get tired of looking at these rankings, and checking them against each other to decide where we should fantasize about moving. Today, it's a list of the top greenest cities in North America from Siemens and the Economist Intelligence Unit. This ranking takes into account carbon emissions, land use, transportation, energy usage, buildings, water and air quality, waste, and environmental governance.

Drumroll please for the top 10:

Gigantic, gorgeous visualization of humanity's transport footprint on planet Earth

It's the Atlantic, as you've never seen it before: Cities are red, shipping routes blue, roads green and air networks in white. Click on the image to see the full map of the entire planet.