In a scene from the PBS docuseries “NOVA: Chasing Carbon Zero,” Chef Chris Galarza removes an ice cold frying pan from a freezer and places it on an induction burner. Only a moment later, he tosses some chopped peppers in the pan, which immediately start to sizzle. This impossible-seeming trick is one that Galaraza has
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Hydrogen as an element is simple. Each atom has one electron and one proton. It’s first on the periodic table — the most abundant chemical substance in the universe. But hydrogen as a potential climate-friendly energy source is anything but simple. Hydrogen has long been used in dirty industries: cleaved from fossil fuels, it can
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What are we doing to this planet, and what are we doing about what we’re doing to this planet? No writer’s body of work surpasses Elizabeth Kolbert’s to answer these questions. Kolbert has been a staff writer for The New Yorker for 25 years, documenting climate change with an unflinching eye. Her first book on
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When he first saw workers changing out the streetlights on his block in Chestnut Hill, Timothy Breslin didn’t think much of it. He went to bed that night in the summer of 2022 without issue. In the daylight, he still didn’t register the changes. But when night fell, his street full of modest rowhomes was
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If anything defines us as modern humans it is the degree to which we apply scientific knowledge to accomplish our goals. Long gone are the days when we chipped away at flint blocks to make hand axes, and it has been a couple centuries since we wrote important documents on parchment with quill pens. Technology
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Samuel Velasquez operates La Marqueza Philly, a colorful Mexican food truck near the Community College of Philadelphia. Before the City’s plastic bag ban, his customers received their orders in disposable plastic bags. These days, unless those customers offer up their own reusable bags, their orders come in paper bags. As a step towards mitigating the
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Coverage courtesy of Delaware Currents. All in all, it was a good week for the Delaware River. Two significant developments point toward possible improvements in water quality in the urban section of the river — approximately from Philadelphia, Pa., to Wilmington, Del. Both hinge on the problem of ammonia pollution and related to that, the
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Ahead of the April primary, Grid asked the mayoral candidates for their thoughts on the city’s major sustainability issues. We sent questions about municipal waste, sustainable development, parks and greenspaces, and bicycling infrastructure. Eight candidates responded by our deadline and we published their responses in a special voter’s guide issue. Now, two candidates remain: Republican
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Cherelle Parker served as the 9th district City Councilmember from 2016 until 2022, when she resigned to run for mayor. For 10 years before her term in City Council she served as a state representative. On Parks Funding My campaign has been focused on a vision for making Philadelphia the safest, cleanest, and greenest big
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David Oh served as at-large City Councilmember (Republican) from 2012 to 2023, when he resigned to run for mayor. Oh worked as an attorney before running for City Council and served in the Army National Guard from 1988 to 1992. On Parks Funding The fact that Philadelphia is spending less proportionally of its own budget,
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