Latest Articles

Ask Umbra Book Club: How coal lit a fire under human society

Bring in the chimney sweep!Photo: Thiophene GuyDearest readers, In our last book club conversation about Bill Bryson’s At Home: A Short History of Private Life, we discussed some of the sordid history of the food we eat. Now let’s turn our attention to the way we heat. Back in the Middle Ages, people were in […]

What is coal’s true cost?

For coal, the real costs outweigh the benefits.Photo: Andrea AbbottPaul Epstein, associate director of the Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment, will publish a study entitled, “Full cost accounting for the life cycle of coal,” later this month. The study has 10 coauthors, including public health and environment experts. A news release explains […]

Inaction on climate change is risky business

Even Tom Cruise thinks some risky business should be avoided.Like a family that has no homeowner’s insurance, no fire detectors, a gas leak in the basement, and a bad case of denial, the global community remains unprepared for irreversible and potentially catastrophic changes to the Earth’s climate. What’s needed — quickly — is an international […]

This is Flint, Michigan, in all its pain and all its glory

Buick City parking lot, 2010.Photos: Wes Janz, except when notedCross-posted from Places [at] Design Observer, an online journal of architecture, landscape and urbanism, published in partnership with Design Observer. “Distressed are big chunks of Detroit, Flint, Gary, Chicago, East St. Louis, and Cincinnati.” This is what I wrote after completing the weeklong Midwess Distress Tour with […]

Peter Calthorpe on why urbanism is the cheapest, smartest way to fight climate change

Peter Calthorpe.Cities may be the trendy topic du jour, but Peter Calthorpe has been talking about the benefits of urbanism since the 1970s. In 1993, he was one of the founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, an influential national organization that promotes walkable, mixed-use, transit-rich development. Now Calthorpe has come out with a […]

Budget for rainforests puts Obama’s $1 billion pledge at risk

Photo: Rhett A. Butler, MongaBayBoth President Obama’s proposed budget and especially House Republican proposals fall significantly short of the administration’s $1 billion pledge for short-term forest finance made at the Copenhagen climate summit – putting the United States’ climate credibility at even further risk. However modest, the $1 billion pledge was one of the few […]

TreeShagger: 10 great green date ideas

Welcome to TreeShagger, our new column on green dating. If you’ve got green dating questions, send ’em our way! So Valentine’s Day came and went, and you’re in the doghouse since you couldn’t get a reservation at Olivebee’s Factory? Cheer up, smuckers! Lean in close for some non-obvious, mostly cheap green date ideas, many of […]

Why raising the price of school lunch is a bad idea

Scene from Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Drawing by George Cruikshank, circa 1837.At a time when many families are struggling with money — and racking up millions of dollars in debt at school cafeterias — school lunch is about to get more expensive. The hike is mandated by the recent Child Nutrition Reauthorization passed by Congress and […]

Obama’s International Climate Budget Proposal Would Make Key Investments

President Obama released his Fiscal Year 2012 budget request that will invest in global efforts to reduce carbon pollution, tap into the growing global demand for clean energy, and make countries more resilient to the impacts of global warming.  It takes a scalpel to the international funding at a time when we need more international […]

Hey, Tina Fey, one kid is OK — and greener too

           “Don’t even ask.”           Photo: George ArriolaThe ever-entertaining Tina Fey has a piece in the latest New Yorker on my designated topic of the week: whether to have more than one kid. “The second-worst question you can ask a woman is: ‘Are you going to have more kids?'” Fey writes. (The first-worst question: “How do you juggle […]