Climate Culture
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Baby boomers are the worst for the climate
At what age does a person do the most damage to the climate? According to a new study, between about 45 and 80. Starting at birth, a person’s carbon dioxide emissions sprint up and up and up, until they hit their peak at age 65. But by 80, a person's emissions are down to 13.1 […]
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Green lifestyle choices won’t solve the climate problem
Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan, aka the Greenie Pig, is feeling guilty about her plane trip to a friend’s wedding and decided to try to make up for it by rolling her own carbon offsets — that is, skimping on car travel and other energy use to make up for all that jet fuel she helped burn. While […]
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Ask Umbra: Is fabric compostable?
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, Does polyester ever break down into molecules that return to the natural state? Does dyed wool compost? Evelyn P.Powell River, B.C. A. Dearest Evelyn, You pose two good questions, though the more I peer into the murky world of textile production and disposal, the more I want […]
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Gen Y and Gen X get it right on the environment; old folks don’t
Generation Y is more likely than older generations to support clean energy and environmental protection and to believe climate change is happening and is caused by human activity, according to new Pew polling and analysis. Generation X is close behind. Boomers aren’t so bad either. It’s the old folks, the so-called Silent Generation aged 66-83, […]
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Can the arts save struggling cities?
Something is stirring in Detroit. Here, in a city that in the past decade alone lost a quarter of its already dwindling population, plans are in the works to revive the manufacturing economy — at least on a small scale. The Detroit FAB Lab taps into the vibe of “maker” labs and hackerspaces around the […]
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Franzen on love, sex, population, birds, and making the world less toxic
If you’ve read the bestseller Freedom, you won’t be surprised to hear that novelist Jonathan Franzen describes himself as “a long-time green.” One of the book’s main characters, Walter Berglund, is “greener than Greenpeace,” Franzen tells us on the first page. Walter throws himself into campaigns to fight population growth and save birds, ultimately leading […]
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The Greenie Pig gets religion on global warming
Forgive me, Earth, for I have sinned. You see, a dear childhood friend of my boyfriend’s got married last Saturday. Our attendance was a foregone conclusion — there was no way Ted could miss his bro’s big day. Problem was, we live in Seattle, and this wedding was in Marfa, Texas, a tiny town a […]
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The kitchen of the future runs on leftovers
The kitchen of Philips Design's "Microbial Home" turns food waste into compost and cooking gas. Organic waste gets thrown in a "bio-digester," where specialized bacteria processes it into methane gas to fuel the range. Then the remaining solid matter is turned into compost. So the peelings from a potato might provide the heat to cook […]
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Green issues and greenbacks: Occupy Wall Street connects the dots [VIDEO]
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters linked climate and the environment to their movement this past Sunday, Oct. 30. OWS’s environmental working group put the Climate Justice Day event together in five days, hosting workshops at New York City’s Zuccotti Park on topics such as fracking and sustainable economics. Throughout the day, speakers drew connections between […]
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Put your junk mail to work keeping Wall Street occupied
Here's a twofer: You can occupy Wall Street and do something with that junk mail besides just chucking it in the bin. Sure, it'll still end up in the recycling eventually, but it won't be any MORE trashed than before, and in between it can do some good. (Plus, if enough people do this, maybe […]
