Climate Culture

The world’s tallest treehouse

The Minister's House in Crossville, Tenn., is 10 STORIES HIGH, over 97 feet tall, and supported by six full-grown oak trees. If you're a total purist about your treehouses and believe they need to be entirely off the ground and supported only by limbs, then this doesn't qualify, but screw you because it's awesome. 

Pre-fab yurt is the FEMA trailer of our post-optimism future

Homelessness, extreme weather, civil unrest — the 21st century is going to give us a lot of reasons to house people as cheaply as possible. So hobbyist Malcom White came up with a way to create a 118-square-foot "yurt" that can be prefabricated and then transported via flatbed truck to wherever it's needed. Total cost? […]

Paris had the High Line before the High Line was cool

Oh, New York. You think that you've got a cool new idea, but always (always!) Europe beats you to it. NYC’s been getting all kinds of excited about its High Line park, an abandoned train platform converted into a wonderland of local plants, awesome places to sit and people-watch, and hibiscus ice pop vendors. But at TreeHugger, Alex Davies points out that NYC is just a couple decades late to the elevated park party. For almost 20 years, Parisians have been enjoying a stroll above city streets on the Viaduc des Arts. And just like the High Line, the elevated platform is a converted rail line.

Get your green New Year’s resolutions right here

Still deciding how to enhance and eco-ify your life in 2012? We rounded up resolutions from Grist readers and staffers to give you some ideas.

Goths are the darkest treehuggers ever

Goths have been communing with nature since way before all you hippies. They commune with nature in much the same way as they commune with gravestones, i.e. by draping themselves over it in corsets and taking pictures. Maybe I just love the Goths Up Trees Tumblr because I've committed a goth-in-a-tree photo or two in my time, but also it's hilarious.

This guy owns only 15 things

Andrew Hyde owns only 15 things. And he knows what you're thinking right now:

The first question is always "Do you do laundry? How many pairs of underwear?" I'll never get a stranger’s obsession with my knickers, but that is *always* question #1. Question #2 is the "What do you own?" countdown, which is both fun and annoying to answer.

Karaoke and the power of ‘bottom-up self-organization’

In the season of budget-busting holiday spectacuthons, some cities are finding more humble ways to liven up parks and public spaces -- and the only fireworks are the ones residents bring with them.

Ask Umbra: Can air fresheners make you sick?

A reader wonders about the effects of air fresheners. Umbra clears the air.

Sinners, repent! How our natural self-bias got us into this mess

This interview originally appeared in the Last Word on Nothing. Dearest readers, we hope you had a gluttonous, slothful, greedy, and lustful holiday, with only the tiniest touches of wrath. My compatriots and I at the Last Word on Nothing are celebrating the season with a series of posts on the Seven Deadly Sins. I […]

Dispatches from a no-wrap Christmas

Photo: plastic_batFor my mother, sweet vindication came as an early Christmas gift this year on page 59 of a lifestyle magazine. This particular magazine, which specializes in snappy home décor, delicious cookery, and other ways to make your life more fabulous than your neighbors’, ran a spread on stylish new ways to wrap presents. There, […]