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Grist List

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    Pippa Middleton an ass … et at her ex’s geothermal energy firm

    Everyone's favorite bridesmaid Pippa Middleton likes hot, wet … underground energy sources. The younger sister of the newly crowned Princess of Wales just took a job at ex-boyfriend's geothermal energy firm, which is looking to use underground stores of hot water to generate electricity. Pippa will be lobbying the British government for a licensing system […]

    Sarah Laskow Energy

  • Critical List: 481 tornado deaths this year, Texas et al. v. EPA

    The average number of tornado fatalities in the U.S. each year is 55. Already this year, 481 people have died. Fifteen states, led by Texas, are looking to overturn the EPA’s finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health. If they fail in court, they plan to stick their fingers in their ears and go “LA […]

    Sarah Laskow Technology

  • Two percent of U.S. energy goes to wasted food

    The U.S. wastes a stunning amount of food — 40 percent of what we produce, according to Jonathan Bloom, author of American Wasteland. That’s way above the already-staggering global average of one third. That means that 40 percent of the energy, water, and fuel we put into farming goes straight into the trash. All in […]

    Jess Zimmerman Agriculture

  • Get ready for solar airplanes

    There’s nothing that exciting about a plane that uses no fuel and emits no CO2 — I’ve been folding those since the fourth grade. A plane that uses no fuel, emits no CO2, has the same wingspan as an Airbus A340, and can transport people on international flights, though: That’s a big deal. And that’s […]

    Jess Zimmerman Cities

  • How the Feds saved enough water for a whole city with just a little bit of cash

    The Department of the Interior's WaterSMART program will save enough water for a smallish city — 400,000 people — yet it cost only $24 million. As Tina Casey reports at CleanTechnica, the program works by going for the low-hanging fruit: 54 separate programs that address everything from farm irrigation to water distribution infrastructure. At $60 […]

    Christopher Mims Agriculture

  • The coming decline of accurate hurricane forecasts

    NOAA put out this summer's hurricane forecast late last week, and it looks like it's going to be another doozy of a storm season. And that’s probably all we’re going to get in terms of forecasting. NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco took the opportunity to point out that, in the last round of budget cuts, Congress […]

    Sarah Laskow Science

  • Air pollution hurts motorists more than cyclists

    If the thought of sucking down bus exhaust has you hesitating to take up that bicycle commute, you're in luck: It turns out you're better off on two wheels than four, even if it means breathing more particulate matter. That's the finding of a study conducted in the Netherlands, comparing the lung function of car […]

    Christopher Mims Transportation

  • Maybe fracked natural gas isn’t dirtier than coal, after all

    The climate story on natural gas is gnarlier than ever. First there was a paper from Robert Howarth of Cornell claiming that natural gas from fracking is worse than coal, as far as net warming effect on the earth. Now the Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has fired back, sort of, with […]

    Christopher Mims Energy

  • Feral camels are coming to eat your air conditioner

    … if you live in Australia, that is. Perhaps as a punishment for making me think about giant snakes, Australia is suffering yet another attempted takeover by non-native species, which periodically come in and disrupt the continent's carefully balanced ecosystem of massively deadly freaks of nature. This time, it’s feral camels. And they eat air […]

    Jess Zimmerman Science