Climate Culture
All Stories
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America has 40 million McMansions that no one wants
Americans want a car-free existence, which means that around 40 million large-lot exurban McMansions might never find occupants.
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Eco-friendly LEGOs made of sawdust and coffee
Earth Blocks are basically LEGOs, but made out of coffee grounds, tree bark, sawdust, or tea chaff mixed with a plasticlike binder material. Finally, a way to teach children that being eco-friendly means playing with monochrome toys made out of dirt!
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A challenge to chefs: Make me a delicious vegetarian entree — or stop claiming to care about sustainability
Chefs these days like to talk big about sustainable food, but they forget one of the key tenets of eco-friendly eating: cut back on the meat.
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Watch a jaw-dropping northern lights display
Here's the upside to a massive solar storm: Absolutely astonishing aurora borealis.
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Dirty cities make us happy
It was very important to people’s happiness to see their city of residence as beautiful -- but not at all important to see their city as clean.
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Look, Dad! No hands! The travails of teaching kids to bike in the city
What’s a bike-loving helicopter parent to do with kids in the urban jungle? Here are six things that will help keep your free-wheeling young’uns out of harm’s way.
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Austin gets a super swank zero-energy suburb
How do you build a (nearly) net-zero-energy suburb in 2008, at the nadir of the economic crash, when no bank in the country is convinced you’ll be able to sell your more energy-efficient but pricier homes?
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Compost gets you high
“I’m holding a bowl of dirt up to my nose, in hopes of getting high on the fumes of my backyard compost pile.” That’s Pagan Kennedy’s lede for an Atlantic story on the mind-bending properties of M. vaccae, a compost-dwelling bacteria. We couldn’t really improve on it. But we can condense the dirty details of […]
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Design o’ the times: Empowering minorities to shape urban landscapes
A spate of new design-based public schools aims to increase the number of minorities practicing design and architecture.
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This house is so tiny it fits in your pocket
Two hundred square feet? SO last year. The newest tiny house folds up to fit in your pocket.