Latest Articles

The Fishery That's Too Big to Fail

This is a guest post by John Hocevar and Jeremy Jackson. Jeremy Jackson is the William E. and Mary B. Ritter Professor of Oceanography at the Scripps Institution. John Hocevar is a marine biologist and the director of Greenpeace’s oceans campaign. If you like seafood, you’ve probably eaten Alaska pollock, the tender white fish used […]

Green Tea Party

House of Sims via Flickr It’s Tax Day, and since our eco-advice on that front is pretty straightforward (save paper and file online!), we thought we’d focus instead on the other event that’s brewing. Unless you’ve been ignoring cable news altogether for the past few weeks, you already know that lots of people plan to […]

Earth Day: the ultimate empty gesture

Dan AkstThank God for Earth Day: another occasion for affluent white Americans to feel good about themselves by enacting some pointless environmental ritual. Perhaps we can all drive to the festivities in our hulking SUVs. Can you blame me for being cynical? Every dinner party I attend is marked by pious denunciations of greed and […]

Celebrate Earth Week in Seattle

Sure, every day should be Earth Day … blah, blah, blah. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take advantage of the many earth-centric events happening around your community this week. In Seattle, Earth Week(s) offers green-art activities for kids, get-your-hands-in-the-dirt volunteer projects for all ages, and even a special Carrotmob meet-up at Pike Pub. […]

Trash becomes treasure at Seattle fashion show

Photo: Doug BulgerFrugal is fashionable in this economy, and the creative minds behind Haute Trash have discovered the cheapest (and chicest) way to dress in a depression is to put junk on your trunk. From pop-top chain mail to yogurt-cup lids, any dumpster-dive find can become a design inspiration. See all the fab runway garb(age) […]

Simplify your cleaning routine

Tip #4: Simplify your cleaning routine by tossing out toxic stuff and sticking to the (very cheap) basics. Do you really need a different spray or scrub for every surface in your home? Marketing mavens want you to think so. But the dirty truth is that many mainstream cleaners are major contributors to indoor air […]

Umbra advises on gardens and kids

Q. Dear Umbra, I am constructing a garden bed for a local preschool and am considering the various materials I could use. The beds need to be raised and protected by a rigid border. This has aroused two main concerns: the safety of the children and the durability of the materials. I feel the best […]

Running out the climate clock

The “Countdown to Copenhagen” clock was front and center at the Bonn climate talks last month.Courtesy UNFCC I suppose what happened to the ticking clock says all we need to know about the state of the make-or-break international negotiations on combating climate change. The bright red digital timepiece was affixed to the podium for the […]

Why Obama’s bank bailout could be bad for the environment

Back to the future?Photo: Julep67The Obama administration’s plan for reviving the banks is predicated on the idea that the “toxic assets” weighing down balance sheets aren’t really all that toxic at all; that the banks, in other words, aren’t actually insolvent, but  just the victims of temporary investor panic. If that logic proves true, then […]

Report: Mediterranean bluefin tuna on verge of collapse

Bye-bye, big fishPhoto: Tom PuchnerOh-oh. From The Times of London: The fishing season opens today in the Mediterranean spawning grounds of the “king of sushi” — the bluefin tuna — with a grim warning that current catch rates mean it will die out in as little as three years. In my recent exchange with the […]