Twenty years ago, at the original Rio Earth Summit, Severn Suzuki, a 12-year-old from Canada, became “the girl who silenced the world for six minutes” by giving a sobering, kick-ass speech to the assembled delegates. You’re going to want to watch it: This is like the climax to the bes...
I’ve noticed that quite a few Grist readers have been struck by our coverage of shockingly high food prices in Inuit communities in Canada’s far north . It’s less a story of life in extreme lands than the culmination of a historical destruction of indigenous peoples’ traditional foodw...
Maybe it’s time someone did an FOI to see whether the UEA’s dodgy and discredited Phil Jones really did get any of those “death threats” he claims to have received after Climategate and which allegedly drove him to consider suicide. Speaking for myself, if Phil Jones released a report...
Twitter cofounders Evan Williams and Biz Stone have some proven expertise in determining the next big thing. So it’s notable that they’re investing in a vegan meat company called Beyond Meat, whose products are said to be the most freakily convincing fake meat yet. Sure, maybe you thi...
The North Carolina Senate has approved a bill that ignores scientists' warnings of rising sea levels. Senators approved the bill on a 34-to-11 vote Tuesday ...HB 819 says that only the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission can calculate how fast the sea is rising for state governmental pu...
The new research adds to a plethora of findings and wisdom about trees. In a fascinating, extended essay in The Wilson Quarterly , Jill Jonnes examines the history of city trees and research on their benefits, noting that a breakthrough study was conducted in Chicago in 1994. The rese...
Pennies are so useless as legal tender that there’s genuine debate about whether we should even keep them around. It wastes energy and resources to produce them, they’re disproportionately costly to make (1.7 cents per one-cent coin!), and there’s not a vending machine on Earth that w...
Apps that do not incorporate their own map support now have an easier way to launch the Maps app and display points of interest or directions. Apps that offer routing information, such as turn-by-turn navigation services, can now register as a routing app and make those services avail...
Many gardeners like to brag that we were green before green was mainstream. Breaking through the soil and starting a garden is one of the best things you can do for the earth. But many of the benefits of gardens are negated when you take into consideration the environmental impact of ...
For related articles and more information, please visit OCA's Genetic Engineering page , Millions Against Monsanto page , and our Connecticut News page . Diana Reeves was furious when her state legislators caved into threats by Monsanto to sue the state of Connecticut if it passed a G...
The Rev. Thomas Long doesn't have neighbors on Montrose Avenue anymore. Everyone is gone. Widespread chemical contamination from a Monsanto plant was discovered in West Anniston, in Alabama's Appalachian foothills, back in the 1990s. Behind Long’s home a church was fenced off, and men...
Nature abhors a vacuum, but transit nerds and people eager to see a science fiction future LOVE IT. That’s because a vacuum is the secret ingredient for this (theoretical, but plausible) superfast train , which could speed under the ocean to get you from New York to London in one hour...
Just before a tour, I kind of really step it up. We do a lot of martial arts training and combine that with weights. Just a bit of everything really. But I think that the cardio stuff, the kick boxing training is what really kicks it in. Just before a tour you know, I split the workou...
Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S ), like many large companies, has struggled to convince its customers of the merits of paperless billing, but it found it's an uphill battle: Only 30 percent opt for digital bills. Rather than try new ways to push the same solution, the telecommunications giant ...
Have you tried chia seeds yet? Chia seeds have a lot in common with flax . Both have a nutty flavor and are great in baked goods, green smoothies , oatmeal, and more. Chia gets a lot of hype as a superfood – and with good reason! But what makes chia so healthy, and how can you get mor...
The U.S. had a blistering amount of solar installations in the first quarter of 2012 with an impressive 506 megawatts -- a record for typically slow first quarters and second only to the 780 megawatts installed in the previous quarter. Source: U.S. Solar Market Insight, 1st Quarter 20...
, "The beauty of these turn signals is that they use a mercury tilt switch and some electroluminescent (EL) panels that light up to show big bright arrows every time he lifts up the arm that corresponds with the direction he wants to move. Combined with some Velcro and armbands, the p...
Photo: mikkelwilliam/iStockphoto The most recent life expectancy data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (from 2009, the last year which statistics are fully available) say that if you’re an average American, you’ll live 78.5 years. If you want to live another 20 year...
A hydrofracking facility. (Photo by Helen Slottje.) The New York Times reports : Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration is pursuing a plan to limit the controversial drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing to portions of several struggling New York counties along the border with ...
As a proportion of our income, Americans spend a lot less money on groceries than we used to. But we’re buying crappier food — a greater proportion of our grocery spending goes to processed foods and sweets. NPR whipped up a handy chart to show how much this has changed in the past 30...
Last month Germany set a world record for the most solar energy production of any country. The IWR, Germany's renewable energy organization, issued a release saying that "under a cloudless sky" on May 25, German solar generation reached 22,000 megawatts. That's about half of Germany's...
I was under the impression that the “put bacon on everything” trend had run its course, but if so, nobody sent Burger King the memo. The chain is reportedly introducing a “bacon sundae ” as part of its summer menu. That’s … exactly what you think it is. Now, this is far from the worst...
Offshore Wind Cost Reduction Task Force Report sets out key actions for industry and Government to cut the cost of generating electricity in the sector by over 30% to £100 per megawatt hour by 2020. Task Force report builds on the findings of new study by The Crown Estate which also c...
According to new figures released by GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), 506 megawatts (MW) of new installations came online during the first quarter of 2012. That robust figure followed the American industry’s record-setting 780 MW that came online betwee...
Last week, we looked in to Walmart's use of the metrics underlying the Sustainability Index to drive changes in its supply chain. Presented at a panel the Sustainable Brands conference in San Diego, Walmart's Jeff Rice was just one of several corporate leaders to share how they plan t...
Understand the issue : There are a variety of good resources available to get informed about the impact of conflict minerals, including an upcoming Webinar by Source 44 and a slightly older, but excellent video by the Enough Project (full disclosure, Green Impact is helping to produce...
Labour will today formally launch a "fundamental and wide-ranging" green growth policy review designed to identify measures that can help stimulate the low-carbon economy and create new green jobs. The review will be advised by a host of green business leaders and economic experts, in...
University of Seville OTRI/Promo image Streetlights are an important safety measure in towns and cities, but they since they burn all night long, they often make up a large chunk of a city's power demand. Solar-powered streetlamps seem like a wonderful solution -- solar panels on the ...
There’s a mixture of excitement and lack of actual expectations around the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development , Rio+20 , which will officially be held from June 20 to 22 in Rio de Janeiro, but which will be surrounded by a series of events around the city that kicked...
In the Wild, Seeking an Answer: What Replaces Dying Trees? By LAUREN E. OAKES Lauren E. Oakes/Outer Coast Research Project Yellow-cedar decline in the West-Chichagof-Yakobi Wilderness. The coastal mountains of southeastern Alaska rise steeply from the Pacific Ocean. Fjords and channel...
