Green News | OnEarth Magazine

Earth: Under Repair, Forever

Susan Freinkel

Air Apparent: The Keeling Family Legacy

Scott Dodd

Keystone XL Conflict of Interest

Jennifer Pinkowski

Escape from the Jersey Shore

Barry Estabrook

The FDA Is Out to Lunch

Laura Fraser

Antibacterial Soap: Safe Suds or Snake Oil?

photo credit: Everett Collection/Shutterstock

photo credit: Lisa Shin

photo credit: Hughhunt

Soap or Snake Oil?

Antibacterial soaps are better at making money for big corporations than they are at preventing disease. — BY LAURA FRASER

Today's Toxic Special

The Food and Drug Administration, the federal agency charged with protecting our health, is a miserable failure. — BY BARRY ESTABROOK

Planet Fixer-Upper

Award-winning science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson on why geoengineering is already a reality.

Only Obama Can Revive the Tattered FDA

By Tom Philpott | onearth blog

December 10, 2012: Battered by a blockbuster OnEarth investigative report and hounded by federal court rulings, the FDA's reputation is reeling.

Why Big Ag Loves the Drought

By Ted Genoways | Web Exclusive

December 10, 2012: Even as their crops withered and died, big Midwestern farming operations harvested record profits this year. How can that be? A Nebraska native investigates.

For a More Resilient Power Grid, Break It into Islands

By Martin LaMonica | onearth blog

December 10, 2012: When superstorm Sandy left lower Manhattan in the dark last month, one building kept its lights on and its heaters hot with a "microgrid."

Keystone Conflict: Nebraska Firm Reviewing Tar Sands Project Has Ties to Pipeline Builder

By Ted Genoways | Web Exclusive

December 7, 2012: Nebraska officials hired a company to review Keystone XL that has done business with TransCanada and touts itself as helping energy companies overcome government regulation to do “what they do best -- delivering oil.”

Making Degrade

By Alan Burdick | The Synthesist

December 7, 2012: Science is on the verge of creating biodegradable electronics. Could compostable cell phones be on the horizon?

The Copper Age Returns (and Brings a Mess)

By George Black | The Edge

December 6, 2012: As we head into the renewable energy future, open-pit copper mines and human rights abuses will be among the trade-offs.

Buried Treasure: The New Global Gold Rush

By George Black | From the Mag

December 5, 2012: Giant mining companies are tearing up some of the wildest places on earth to feed our hunger for gold. But do we even need it?

Antibacterial Soap: Safe Suds or Snake Oil?

By Laura Fraser | Web Exclusive

December 4, 2012: The main ingredient in many antibacterial soaps is not only useless, it’s bad for you. So why do government regulators let industry keep pushing triclosan on hospitals and consumers?