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    Chandrasekhar “Spike” Narayan

    Art: Nat Damm Chandrasekhar “Spike” Narayan Leader of Science and Technology Organization, IBM’s Almaden Research Center Silicon Valley, Calif. Spike Narayan and his team at IBM’s Almaden Research Center work on bleeding-edge technologies that are at the nexus of efforts to create a sustainable world—endlessly recyclable plastics, lithium-air batteries that could dramatically extend the range of electric cars, and […]

    Grist staff Technology

  • Ask Umbra on Babeland’s boinking for bucks

    Birds do it. Bees do it. You know what I’m buzzing about. And as long as you’re doing it, why not do it for Grist? For the entire month of April, Babeland will be donating 20 percent of sales of all their eco-friendly sex toys to Grist. You might remember this video about breaking up […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Ask Umbra dives deep with ocean advocate Sylvia Earle

    Water, water everywhere, but is it on the brink? Not if oceanographer Sylvia Earle has anything to do with it. Dearests, meet Ms. Earle, an aquanaut, author, and one of today’s greatest advocates of the ocean—also, I suspect, a direct descendant of Poseidon. (I’ve asked for funding from Grist for a DNA test to be […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Breakthrough polymers promise versatile, immortal plastics — a good thing

    If you want to build a sustainable street, neighborhood, city, or world, I have one word for you: plastics. The facts about plastic have become part of the green liturgy. More than 30 million tons of the stuff is dumped into the municipal waste stream each year in the United States. Disposable water bottles have […]

    Todd Woody Technology

  • A rich guy’s guide to saving the oceans

    To save the oceans (A checklist) Be heir to a vast fortune Be named David Get a “green” boat Sail around the world to promote education and awareness about dismal ocean health Remind everyone you’re on a boat, Mother Earth, don’t you ever forget! Challenge other heir David sailing around world in support of oceans […]

    Ashley Braun Culture

  • Ask Umbra on engagement rings, straws, and napkins

    Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, My boyfriend and I are talking seriously about marriage, and he knows I don’t want a diamond ring (at least not a new one) because of the social and environmental impacts. You addressed this topic in 2003, saying the only good options were no ring or a […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Can plastics make us fat?

    Hmm… That title doesn’t quite seem to capture the urgency of the issue, does it? Yet despite rampant skepticism, the data continue to pour in — chemicals in some of the most common plastics and household products, things that surround us every minute of the day, are major culprits in the obesity epidemic. At least […]

    Tom Laskawy Culture

  • Plastic bags are the enemy of the ocean

    Courtesy Save the BayListen up all you Gristers who live along the California coast: This Saturday is Coastal Cleanup Day. Join your friends, neighbors, frenemies and complete strangers in a community-wide effort to get the plastic crap out of the ocean. Plastic isn’t just a problem way out in the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch. For […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Seattle’s bag-fee supporters still smiling despite setback

    Photo: ceegee-ceegeeAdvocates of Seattle’s Referendum 1, a proposal for a disposable-bag fee that was soundly defeated in Tuesday’s primary election, may have lost a battle. But Brady Montz, chair of the local Sierra Club chapter and leader of the effort to pass the referendum, feels confident that the war against plastic bags is going well. […]

    Claire Thompson Culture