Articles by Sarah Laskow
Sarah Laskow is a reporter based in New York City who covers environment, energy, and sustainability issues, among other things.
All Articles
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Critical List: Crowdsourcing carbon solutions; New Yorkers regret drilling leases
The Maldives are going to crowdsource their carbon-cutting plan. (They’re asking international experts, not just letting any citizen drive policy. Not sure how that would work in the Maldives, but in the U.S. you’d get a lot of “shine lamps on solar panels for infinite energy!”)
Should the new poster child for global warming be the city mayor who has to deal with unexpected weather extremes?
Usually you hear about buyer's remorse, but New Yorkers are having sellers' remorse about turning over drilling rights to natural gas companies. -
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Stop breathing! You’re putting us into debt
Starting next week, everything you eat, breathe, use, and touch will put you further in debt to the planet. Each year, humans consume more resources than the planet can produce, putting us into "ecological debt" to the planet.
Unlike monetary debt, this over-budget spending can't be forgiven or wiped away. -
Critical List: Britain’s new shale gas bonanza; 48 hours in a box, with plants
British people now have a greater stake in fighting against hydrofracking: turns out their country has a lot of shale gas.
Luckily, though, they live in Europe, where gas executives admit that, at the very least, drilling should become safer.
The U.S. could be the biggest market for solar power in the world. -
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Nuclear plant’s pollution will never, ever be cleaned up
If you got all warm and fuzzy reading our previous post about the revitalization of the Howe Sound, and if you want to keep that feeling, don't read this post. Because it is the exact opposite story, one in which humans mess up the environment and can never, ever take it back.
In Scotland, from 1963 to 1984, a nuclear plant leaked lethal-if-ingested radioactive waste. That waste got all over beaches and other lovely sea-side resources. A while back, the Scottish version of the EPA recommended that someone make this right and return the area to a "pristine condition."
But now, they're giving up.
