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Let’s stripmine life’s birthplace on Earth because we suck at recycling!

The biome around a hydrothermal vent is truly like nothing on the planet, because most candy-ass living creatures can’t hack it in such a hot, sunless, sulfurous environment. But even though it’s inhospitable, it may actually be where life began on earth. None of this, of course, will stop mining companies from reaming the vents […]

Friday music blogging: Band of Horses on Yo Gabba Gabba

What the what? Band of Horses doing a song called “Out In Nature” on the show Yo Gabba Gabba? Are you reading my mind, Universe?! This can only mean a good weekend.

Adorable reindeer die to teach you a lesson about sustainability [COMIC]

Stuart McMillen’s comic “St. Matthew Island” is a parable about population control, resource scarcity, sustainability, and biodiversity, with bonus cute reindeer. Here’s the short version: The reindeer of this tiny Bering Strait island weren’t native, but were brought in by the U.S. military. Left to their own devices, they thrived, then competed for dwindling resources, […]

‘Piecycle’ makes it OK for hipsters to eat dessert

Max Kraushaar has ridden his fixie right out of an episode of Portlandia to bring you some lemon meringue. It’s like a hipster Mad Lib: Skinny guy with [handlebar mustache/fedora/giant glasses] delivers [pie/cupcakes/pot brownies] on a [bicycle/bicycle/bicycle]. In this case, the skinny dude is a University of Washington student named Max, the cranial accessory is […]

The yuppies of the future live in yurts

It’s no longer enough for your Futuristic Future Dwelling of the Future to be eco-friendly, alternative-powered, and 100 percent recyclable. You also have to furnish a portfolio of computer-rendered yurt-porn, showing the glamorous lifestyle available in your tiny pod home. “Lifepod” is a small, sustainable prefab that can be packed up and shipped anywhere in […]

Town centers are the new death panels

Photo: Matthew ReichbachOh, those Teabaggers — always smacking you in the face with something unpleasant. This time it’s self-righteous outrage at the socialist erosion of our Freedom Sprawl. Because in the real America, you get in the car just to go to your kitchen. The Virginia state government is moving to require “urban development areas” […]

Definition of car-dependency: Using a car to steal a bike

Photo: K. SteudelHere’s how car-dependent we are as a culture: Even bike thieves don’t ride bikes. Police in Iowa City report that a man who could have committed one criminal act — stealing an expensive bicycle — instead decided to commit two by drunk-driving his Jeep over to get it, rather than just riding the […]

Lose three pounds instantly by getting rid of the Yellow Pages

Photo: Frank HebbertFinally, you can opt out of having several pounds of straight-to-the-bin dead tree matter show up at your door on the regular. Register at yellowpagesoptout.com, and you can elect to stop getting some or all of your phone directories (or sign up for more, I guess, if your version of green living involves […]

We need to start cleaning up space pollution

Image: European Space AgencyIt’s not just the Earth we’re junking up. There’s also a ton of man-made space-crud in orbit around the planet. Efforts to keep track of it are falling short — there are an estimated 600,000 pieces of stuff bigger than a centimeter in diameter, and fewer than 20,000 can be tracked — […]

Real-life Darth Vader/ Emperor Palpatine duo now in charge of U.S. energy policy

The best government money can buy.Photo: Official Star Wars BlogThe bad news is that we now have a political climate in Congress that could only be more lethal to action on clean energy and climate change if it were made out of mustard gas. The worse news is that the reason things have gotten to […]