Articles by Sarah Laskow

Critical List: Exotic animals escape in Ohio; Nebraskans ‘stand with Randy’

Forty-eight escapees from an exotic animal farm were running amok in eastern Ohio; about 25 of the lions, tigers, and bears have been shot.

If the U.S. wants to oversee Cuba's offshore drilling, it'll have to lift the embargo.

Glad is selling an eco-friendly trash bag, made with less plastic.

Huge, polluting container ships that carry all our stuff clean up their act

Everyone knows that our iPads, clothes, kitchen appliances, furniture—our entire lives, basically—are made in China. But everyone might not know the container ships that bring that stuff over to the U.S. are climate-destroying juggernauts. According to OnEarth, just one container ship emits as much sulfur oxide (the stuff that makes smog) per year as 50 million cars. Plus, shipping accounts for 3.5 percent of all GHG emissions, twice as much as aviation.

The good news is that air pollution rules are pushing container shipping companies to clean up their act.

Ecologists and loggers join forces to examine rainforest destruction

A group of ecologists from Imperial College London is taking a rather unusual stance towards logging: "This is going to happen whether we like it or not, so we might as well understand the impacts a little bit better." The group is working with a logging company on the island of Borneo to study how habitat fragmentation plays out when companies cut down rainforest.

At the researchers’ request, the loggers are leaving some patches of rainforest standing, of various sizes and at different distances from each other. 

New Facebook app will let friends compete over energy efficiency

Companies large and small (including influential ones like Google) have been trying to convince consumers that they should actually use all the new smart-grid information to tamp down their energy use. So far, these programs have had little luck. Basically it’s hard to get consumers to pay attention to anything besides updating their Facebook status. So it’s lucky that Facebook now offers an energy-efficiency app.

Facebook is taking a stab at promoting energy efficiency through data, in partnership with Opower and NRDC. Next year a Facebook app will let user compete with friends over their energy use.