Articles by Sarah Laskow

Critical List: Canada’s pushing tar-sands oil; cutting methane also helps cut climate change

In 110 meetings over less than two years, the Canadian government tried to convince Europe to delay or derail legislative changes that could affect the imports of tar sands oil. Basically, Canada doesn’t want Europe to know how carbon-heavy the oil is, because that could affect U.S. and European imports. So they’re pushing it as environmentally friendly. Because hey, if you don’t know how dirty something is, maybe it’s clean!

We often talk about cutting carbon, but here's a reminder that cutting gases like methane and nitrous oxide can also slow climate change.

The EPA found that, left to their own devices, companies don't tell consumers that their processes release or their products contain chemicals harmful to children.

Swedish mining company could move an entire town to get at valuable iron ore

The town of Kiruna, Sweden, is very cold, very close to that awesome ice hotel, and very much on top of a valuable lode of iron ore. The Swedish state-owned mining company, LKAB, wants to get at the ore by fracturing that portion of the ground, which wouldn't be so great for the people who live on it. Solution: Make the people live somewhere else. A large portion of the city is being entirely relocated so that mining companies can get in underneath.

Born after 1976? You've never experienced normal global temperatures

If you're under 35 and you think you've lived through a cold year, you're wrong. Think Progress notes that the last year mean global temperatures were below normal was 1976.

That means more than a quarter of the population (and statistically more people reading this, since it’s on the internet) really has no idea what the global climate would feel like if humanity hadn't been messing with it for more than a century.

Critical List: Wind power can be dangerous; the U.S. gets average marks on clean energy

Wind power's not entirely safe: A watchdog group warns that "one of these days, a turbine's going to fall on someone.”

The U.S. gets a C for renewable energy development from an alternative energy analyst.

Colorado's going to require fracking companies to disclose what's in their fracking fluid.

The natural gas boom is also creating demand for silica sand.