Climate Culture

Is the environmental crisis caused by the 7 billion or the 1%?

The United Nations says that the world’s population will reach 7 billion people this month. The approach of that milestone has produced a wave of articles and opinion pieces blaming the world’s environmental crises on overpopulation. In New York’s Times Square, a huge and expensive video declares that “human overpopulation is driving species extinct.” In […]

Patagonia asks customers to overthrow capitalism’s basic tenets

Patagonia, the official apparel of green-minded outdoorsy people and all of San Francisco, wants its customers to buy fewer of its products. Instead, the company is asking that Patagonia lovers reuse and repair their clothes. The company will mend its products for cheap, and help customers sell them on eBay or through their website. It […]

Energy-saving LED light bulbs fuel this insane light display

Okay, it's no Dancing Dror, but this is a pretty amazing Halloween light display done primarily with LED bulbs. Switching to LEDs can cut your holiday lighting energy expenditure by 90 percent, according to DOE (though they're just talking about a Christmas tree, not a full-front singing house display), and widespread use of LEDs for everyday […]

Stop the ‘man swarm,’ save the wild world

Let’s leave some room for everybody else. Photo: Robin PittmanMore of our kind means fewer wild things. A stabilized human population means hope for wild things. A shrinking human population means a better world for wild things — and for men and women and children. It’s that straightforward. The human population grew more in the […]

7 billion, unpacked — a comic

The world population is hitting 7 billion. But what does that really mean? In this comic, we unpack some of the numbers and nuances. Click the image below to view the comic, and then click on each page to go to the next one: For those without javascript enabled, here are links to each page: […]

Tile your roof with solar shingles

If you want to generate some solar energy but don't want to have weird-looking solar panels on your roof, Dow Solar has a solution for you. The company has achieved solar shingularity: Its roof shingles are solar panels! The solar panels are shingles! The discerning homeowner can live out green dreams while still conforming to […]

Too lazy to go green? Hire an eco-concierge

Have you ever been sitting around the Drones Club, throwing rolls around, and thought to yourself, "gosh, going green is very hot right now, but it sounds hard! I wish I could use my gobs of money to pay someone else to do it for me." Well, if you have, you're probably not reading this […]

Critical List: Earthquake strikes Turkey; ‘Environmental concierge’ exists

More than 200 people died in a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Turkey.

California finished its cap-and-trade plan with minimal drama. Here's how they did it.

If you are rich and worried about your environmental footprint, you can hire a whole other human being to screw in LED lightbulbs for you, run your errands on a bike, and buy cleaning products with fewer chemicals in them.

Ask Umbra: Should I wash out my zip-lock bags?

Don't lose sleep over plastics and food. Instead of worrying about how to handle your baggies and bins, purge plastic from your kitchen.

Jon Bon Jovi opens pay-what-you-can ‘soul kitchen’

Does anyone else remember those Ben Stiller Show sketches where Bruce Springsteen would, like, deliver a baby? Jon Bon Jovi is basically that, but for real. He's opening a community kitchen in New Jersey where patrons pay what they can afford -- or, if they can't afford it, they can get gift certificates in exchange for volunteer work in the kitchen, the kitchen garden, or elsewhere in the community. (And don't act like you're too good to work in the kitchen. You know who works in the kitchen? JON BON JOVI works in the kitchen. No fooling, he washes pots and stuff.)