How Farouk al Kasim Saved Norway From Its Oil
After growing up watching the benefits of Iraqi oil elude the Iraqi people, a young executive insisted that Norway do things differently.
Lisa Margonelli
Flexian Invasion: Strange Creatures Capture the Capital!
A new professional class of movers and shakers—people who serve overlapping roles in government, business, and media with smiling finesse—is controlling the flow of power and money in America. The anthropologist Janine Wedel is bent on making us understand just how dangerous this new normal can be.
The Environmental Defense Fund Is Pissing Off Fellow Environmentalists
Has the large advocacy group allowed itself to be “co-opted by industry interests"?
Nikola Tesla Would Not Approve of Your Online Viewing Habits
Collectively, we've spent more than 50 years watching the Tesla vs. Thomas Edison rap smackdown that went viral on YouTube.
How the Trailer Park Could Save Us All
A healthy, inexpensive, environmentally friendly solution for housing millions of retiring baby boomers is staring us in the face. We just know it by a dirty name.
New Books on Climate Change: 'Overheated' and 'A New World'
Not everyone is a pessimist when it comes to predicting the impact of climate change. Too bad the optimists aren’t nearly as convincing.
The Energy Debate We Aren't Having
The energy boom has the nation mired in chatter about a burgeoning job market, or panicked over certain environmental destruction. Instead, we should be asking: To whom will go the spoils of this bonanza, and on whose shoulders will the risks fall?
Why We Should Drop the 'Mad Max' Metaphors
In Namibia, the filmmakers creating 'Mad Max: Fury Road' have run into a different kind of fury, and few roads.
The Power of the Gini Index
How an equation cooked up by Mussolini’s numbers guy came to define how we think about inequality—from Occupy Wall Street to the World Bank to the billionaires at Davos—and why it’s time to find a new way of looking at the numbers.
Mouse-Infest Destiny
Most of our homes are soaked in mouse urine. It’s at the core of our asthma epidemic—but it helps rodents stay connected.
Why Can’t Obama Articulate His Energy Strategy?
The president's all-of-the-above approach to oil, gas, coal, wind, solar and everything else has been comprehensive, but incomprehensible.
Could the Smart Grid Finally Do Some Good for Consumers?
One small but important study shows that we could save money — and our behavior could change — if we were just given the right information.
Romney's Energy Plan Isn't an Energy Plan
It's a veiled stimulus plan to bring back fossil-fuel jobs.
Diesel: The Dirty Fuel That Could Usher in Clean Energy
Can we be smart enough to capitalize on the boom of dirty diesel fuel—recently listed as a carcinogen—to make renewables finally have an impact?
LOST at Sea
While sharks, elephant seals, and Pacific bluefin tuna on the great predator highway don’t carry passports, or care about sovereignty, the humans in Washington should care about the languishing Law of the Sea treaty.
Electric Forecast Calls for Increasing Blackouts
From falling investment to falling deer, America's power grid is falling down. A lack of political will and willingness to rely on Band-Aids may doom efforts to improve the nation's power infrastructure.
Making Electricity From Dirt
By harnessing power from soil microbes, one engineer is trying to charge cell phones across rural Africa.
Frac-o-nomics: More Gas Won't Guarantee Lower Prices
As humble guar gum illustrates, the economics of producing more fossil fuels won't automatically result in lower prices, nor will increased protections necessarily mean big price increases.
Could Water Bring Jobs Back to the U.S.?
There is a coming jobs exodus from China, and back to the Rust Belt and other water rich regions. Or so says one principal at a water hedge fund.