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Latest Articles

  • Landscape Goat

    There’s no need to use big crews and machinery to control fires in the California hills — just add goats. A park district in the Bay Area is using goats to munch away the brush and low-level vegetation that fuel fires in parklands. Not only are the goats sometimes cheaper, gentler, and more environmentally sensible […]

    Grist staff Uncategorized

  • The Roof Is on Fire

    By passing regulations to encourage developers to install green roofs, Portland, Ore., has become a pioneer in the growing worldwide ecoroof movement (what, you aren’t a part of it yet?). Rooftops planted with vegetation such as ferns and wildflowers can reduce runoff after rainstorms by up to 90 percent and diminish a building’s energy costs […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Umbra on sustainable bunk beds

    Dear Umbra, I’ve been looking for a sustainably harvested bunk bed for my five-year-old son for quite some time now. I have found only one company, Pacific Rim, that makes such an item. It seems like a great company, but it doesn’t have exactly what I’m looking for. When I search online, all I read […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Umbra on making mulch from paper

    Dear Umbra, I know this is a silly question, probably the strangest you’ve ever gotten, but I’m curious. Where I live, there isn’t a place nearby to recycle paper. I reuse most of my paper as scratch paper and have attempted to make my own paper using a blender and a screen. The problem is, […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Umbra on cushion planters

    Dear Umbra, I have been cutting out old cushions, filling them with dirt, and planting them for some years now. I found the first two floating in the river (while canoeing). Since then, I’ve gotten them from the trash; I don’t pay anything for them. I use them to grow everything from herbs to prairie […]

    Ask Umbra® Ask Umbra

  • Umbra on used soap

    Dear Umbra, At a gym I go to, lots of guys pick up bars of soap, use them for two minutes, and then leave them (even though there is a liquid soap dispenser in the showers). Is there any good use for several pounds of partially used soap per day? DennisSeattle, Wash. Dearest Dennis, I […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • The Bush administration embraces hybrid technology

    Note: You’ll need Flash Player to watch the movie. If you don’t have it, download it now.

    Mark Fiore Politics

  • A Catalog of Ills

    Of the 17 billion catalogs mailed every year to American consumers (that’s 59 catalogs for each and every one of us!), a surprising few contain recycled materials. An Environmental Defense survey released yesterday found that only six of 42 major catalog companies are using significant amounts of recycled paper, and most don’t use any. Nary […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Air Enforce Won

    After years of court battles, the U.S. EPA agreed yesterday to begin enforcing a stricter standard for ozone pollution that was developed by the Clinton administration in 1997. Industry groups such as the American Truckers Associations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to try to block […]

    Grist staff Politics

  • Sweet Child of Mine?

    After forcing a mining operation to leave town in 1997, the 46 families of Junin, a remote village in northern Ecuador, decided to have a go at ecotourism to protect the rainforest around them — and to earn a living. But now a growing number of the residents are questioning that choice. The paradise of […]

    Grist staff Food