Charcoal is Out — Pay-as-You-Go Gas is In

Some 800-million people lack electricity globally. Many sub-Saharan Africans do not have access to either natural gas stoves or electric burners, so they cook with charcoal, which is severely damaging to both the climate and human health.

Now, several startups have begun offering affordable pay-as-you-go stoves and phones, expanding access to electricity, communication, and safe cooking methods.

The IPCC Strikes Again: The Return of the Soil

Land, while it contributes carbon to the atmosphere, is in fact a tremendous carbon sink. Rocks, trees and foliage, peat and soil, all can store immense reserves of carbon. With better husbandry of soil, forests, croplands, and water, we could do an untold amount of good for the environment.

The two sides of the land-climate coin, the very peril that may be our salvation, is that so many of the solutions on land are so intrinsically simple.