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Articles by Sarah Laskow

Sarah Laskow is a reporter based in New York City who covers environment, energy, and sustainability issues, among other things.

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  • Destroying dams could save a salmon species

    Twenty years and $350 million after President George H.W. Bush first signed an act to restore Washington State's Elwha River, the process to bring down two gigantic dams has begun. That could save the Elwha’s population of salmon.

    Sarah Laskow Science

  • Critical List: China makes solar power cheap; U.K. fishing fleet wastes cod

    China is making solar power cheap in order to drive solar growth.

    Since 1963, U.K. fishing boats have tossed $1 billion worth of dead or dying cod overboard to keep within their quotas.

    In Washington State, what The New York Times calls "the largest dam removal project in American history" will destroy two dams and help salmon regrow their population.

    Sarah Laskow Science

  • Federal biologist who reported polar bear deaths now under (deeply weird) investigation

    Back in 2006, Dr. Charles Monnett published an article that included observations about polar bear deaths in the Beaufort Sea. In the report, co-authored with another scientist, Monnett reported seeing four dead polar bears in 2004. Monnett works for the federal government, and this month he was put on administrative leave while the government investigates "integrity issues" connected to that report. Administrative leave means he has to put all current research on hold.

    Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a watchdog organization, has formally complained about the investigation. In its complaint, the group includes portions of an interview the Department of the Interior inspector general conducted with Monnett. From the transcript, it appears that they were concerned about the method Monnett and his colleague had used to achieve a rough estimate of the mortality rate. The group writes that "it became clear that the IG agents were focused on what in their mind was a disparity but was, in fact, their inability to understand the note.”

    And, if you read the transcript, the investigators do seem tangled up. Here's a sample:

    Sarah Laskow Science

  • Dear skeptics: Here is more climate data than you can handle

    For the climate skeptics who dragged us all through Climategate on the conviction that climate scientists are lying jerks, here is the data you wanted to see. Here it is. The University of East Anglia put it online for all to access. This might make it harder for scientists to get shared data in the future, since people don’t always like it when you give away their work for free, but it is worth it just to shut you up.

    Happy now? Oh, what, you actually have no idea how to interpret this raw data? 

    Sarah Laskow Accountability