Rachel Cernansky
Rachel is a freelance journalist based in Boulder, Colorado. She primarily focuses on green business for TreeHugger, and writes for other outlets about environmental justice and politics, sustainable food and nutrition, and human rights issues. She hates greenwashing and writes about that too. Before Colorado, she lived in New York, Kenya, and Rwanda, and has a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. She gets around by bike, eats plants, and occasionally tweets at the address below.
Latest Stories from Rachel Cernansky - Page 11
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New Atlas Recognizes World's Newest Island - Direct Result of Climate Change
Image: Wikimedia Uunartoq Qeqertaq is the world's newest island: translated from Inuit as "Warming Island," it was attached to a Greenland peninsula as recently as 2002. But Arctic ice began melting with increasing speed, and Uunartoq Qeqertaq was
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Alcoa, Major World Polluter, Brings Sustainable Transport to Bauxite Mine & Feeds Energy into Grid
It may sound like an oxymoron, bringing sustainable practices to mining operations, but unless we all stop consuming resources immediately, mining is also not going anywhere. So this is good news: since 2007, Alcoa's Jamalco
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Why "Conflict-Free" Diamonds Are Unreliable: Kimberley Process is "Pandora's Box" of Ethical Issues
It's not exactly breaking news, but this topic is worth a recap. The Kimberley Process was established to prevent diamond sales from funding conflict—"blood diamonds"—but in reality, not a whole lot has changed.
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Colorado Wind Power Company to Compete With Fossil Fuel Prices
Image: Patrick Finnegan via flickr Boulder Wind Power has come up with a turbine design that it says can produce electricity at or below $0.04 per kilowatt-hour, allowing it to compete directly with fossil fuel-based power. What sets the design apart
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WWF Encouraging Destructive Shrimp Farms?
It's true that shrimp farming has become so devastating to the environment that almost any standards created for the industry will be an improvement. But that doesn't mean they will be sustainable or that
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Organic and Local On the Rise at Grocers Nationwide. Energy Efficiency, Too
Times are tough right now, but that isn't stopping the grocery industry, which like other industries is seeing pretty slow growth, from increasing the presence of organic and local items on shelves. The organic industry
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Oxfam Takes on Land Grabs -- Rich Investors: "They're Not Countries, They're Commodities"
Despite years-old warnings against the increasing trend of land grabs by rich countries in poorer countries, the practice continues with little notice. Oxfam says that "in many cases, the land sold is actually being used by poor families: for homes, to
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Is the EPA Letting the Chemical Industry Regulate Itself?
The American Chemistry Council is trying to influence how the EPA prioritizes the chemicals it chooses to evaluate for safety. The ACC—a group that supported Obama's recent decision to drop the effort to tighten
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Health Effects of Michigan Oil Spill Linger: Tar Sands and Lighter Oils "Double Whammy" Impact
Just months after the BP spill last year, an Enbridge pipeline spilled nearly a million gallons of oil into a creek flowing into the Kalamazoo River near Battle Creek, Michigan. It became the largest oil spill in the
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Even As Climate Change Denial Soars, Its Effects Are Felt in U.S. Agriculture
There's a lot of talk in these pages about the link between climate change and extreme weather events, and about the impacts of climate change on developing countries, including the risk of greater food insecurity. But
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China Pushes Ahead on Controversial Burma Pipelines
A report released today criticizes China's plans for two pipelines that will pump natural gas from Burma's offshore reserves, and oil from the Middle East and Africa, both across the country and into China. The pipelines will
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Adidas Joins Nike, Puma in Banning Hazardous Chemicals
Adidas is now joining Nike and Puma in pledging to detox its supply chain, following pressure from Greenpeace. As a result of the group's Dirty Laundry report, the three major sports brands have now committed to zero
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As Roundup Causes Health Problems Around the World, U.S. Researchers Find Glyphosate in Air & Water
Mississippi and Iowa, two big farm states, were recently tested for glyphosate levels in the air and water. Researchers found the key ingredient of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide in every stream sample tested, Scientific
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Anheuser-Busch InBev Recycles Water for Public Housing in China
Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest brewer in the world, says that it has been recycling water since March at its flagship factory in China to support local public housing,
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Suriname Establishes Govt Agency for Climate Adaptation: An Emerging Trend?
The tiny South American nation of Suriname has recently joined its neighbor Guyana in creating an agency dedicated to dealing with climate change. Suriname, the continent's smallest country, is a low-lying
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From Nothing Into Something, Sprout City Farms Grows a Thriving Urban School Garden in Denver (Slideshow)
School gardens are becoming more and more popular around the country, but they're harder to establish in some places than in others—in the middle of a city, for example, where the soil is deficient and needs work before it can support growth of
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From Nothing Into Something, Sprout City Farms Grows a Thriving Urban School Garden in Denver
School gardens are becoming more and more popular around the country, but they're harder to establish in some places than in others—in the middle of a city, for example, where the soil is deficient and needs work before it can support growth of plan
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ConAgra Sued for Misusing "100% Natural" Claim on Genetically Modified Oils
Most conscientious shoppers know that there is no regulation behind the word "natural" on food labels (with the exception, to some extent, of meat). So food companies slap the word on any product they want to, no matter how many
