Articles by Sarah Laskow

Critical List: Patagonia becomes a Benefit Corporation; oil industry threatens Obama

Patagonia has become a Benefit Corporation, which means it can prioritize goals other than profit.

The oil industry is sending a message to Obama: Approve the Keystone XL pipeline, or face the political music in 2012.

It is possible to avoid earthquakes when disposing of fracking wastewater. It's just really, really expensive.

The U.S. isn't the only country leery of the EU's carbon trading airline scheme: China's protesting, too.

This guy owns only 15 things

Andrew Hyde owns only 15 things. And he knows what you're thinking right now:

The first question is always "Do you do laundry? How many pairs of underwear?" I'll never get a stranger’s obsession with my knickers, but that is *always* question #1. Question #2 is the "What do you own?" countdown, which is both fun and annoying to answer.

Screw China: American scientists are finding replacements for rare earth

Priuses, wind turbines, and other clean technologies require rare earth materials, which generally go into ultra-strong magnets that help power clean technology. But rare earth elements have a couple of problems: China controls most of the supply, they require less-than-environmentally-friendly mining to get at, and, uh, they’re rare. So there's a race on to create a replacement magnet component that doesn't require rare earth.

CleanTechnica reports that a team at Boston's Northeastern University has taken one step in the right direction -- developing a material with similar magnetic properties to rare earth.

Critical List: Ghost octopi in the Antarctic; without ethanol subsidies, gas prices rise

The creatures discovered living in thermal vents near Antarctica -- ghost octopi, limpets, yeti crabs -- are le awesome.

Two major solar industry groups are merging in order to focus on state-level policies.

With ethanol subsidies gone, gas will cost more.