Climate Culture
All Stories
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Now you can buy a prefab IKEA house
Oregon architecture firm ideabox is producing this prefab tiny house, which comes pre-installed with IKEA cabinets, flooring, and closets. The “activ” house is about 750 square feet and costs $86,500, and you can pick the color scheme of IKEA accoutrements that you prefer. And unlike most IKEA stuff, it doesn’t come flat-packed and there’s no […]
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Ask Umbra: Is rubber mulch really eco-friendly?
A reader wants the scoop on rubber mulch from recycled tires. Umbra mulls it over.
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‘Waking Mars’ is the most amazing game about gardening you’ll ever play
New iOS app “Waking Mars” is a game about gardening, botany, and ecology, which sounds boring — especially if you’re about my age, and your primary school teachers tried to get you to learn about ecosystems via some clunky games with Oregon Trail-level graphics where you controlled the number of fish or ducks or some […]
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Frank Lloyd Wright goes solar, posthumously
Taliesin West, the iconic desert home created by Frank Lloyd Wright, is about to go net-zero, which means it will produce as much energy as it consumes.
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Pro hockey player loves organic food and worms
Andrew Ference plays defense for the 2011 Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins, so you'd think he'd be a meathead who mostly drinks beer and scratches his balls. But it turns out he shops with his kids at Whole Foods like all the other bobos.
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Mailbox-sized libraries bring book-lending right to your yard
Running a library is easier than you think. Forget the degree in library and information science and the carefully chosen prudish getups with easy-pull ripcords that turn them into sexy outfits. All you need is a box on a stick and a bunch of books to set up a Little Free Library, a front-yard stash […]
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How to turn one piece of recycled cloth into 14 outfits and a bag
So the Lorax movie may be effing up left and right, but take heart, nostalgia-trippers: you can still own a real-life Thneed! The Versalette is a cylinder of domestically sourced, domestically made, recycled, organic fabric, whose ingenious construction allows it to turn into a dress, skirt, top, poncho, scarf, or bag. You can also almost […]
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The Oscar goes to … ‘Tar Sands: The Movie’?
This year's Oscars didn't exactly move the climate conversation forward. But can you imagine a world where luminaries like George Clooney, Steven Soderbergh, and Matt Damon lend their powers to "Tar Sands: The Movie?" We can.
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How to turn an abandoned oil silo into an awesome sustainable home
Once we either kick oil for good or descend into Mad Maxish fuel-based anarchy, you’re going to want to set up a pretty good personal Thunderdome. And if we’re way past peak oil anyway, why not nest in an abandoned oil silo? Architecture collective Pink Cloud has designed a sustainable home for a post-petroleum world, […]
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Is it bad to leave chargers plugged in?
A reader seeks clarification on energy-sucking phone and laptop chargers. Umbra divulges the juicy truth.
