Climate Culture

Living off the grid: SUPER FUN

You know that fantasy you have where you move to Maine, go off the grid, and raise your children to know what nature and good old American values are like? Well, one family is living that fantasy, and writing about it for The New York Times.

All summer, Craig and Susannah Hopkins Leisher have been living with their three sons in a cabin in the Maine woods.

How environmental and women’s groups can work together

Green groups and women's health advocates used to butt heads over population, but they're increasingly finding common ground in their support for family planning.

City Limits: 'Urbanized' underestimates the allure of the 'burbs

The creator of Helvetica produces Urbanized, a gorgeous, smart, and slightly out of touch ode to the city.

Take a video tour of UMD’s prize-winning Solar Decathlon house

The Chesapeake Bay's sad state has yielded on positive result: the bay ecosystem inspired the  University of Maryland's "WaterShed" house, which won the Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon over the weekend.

You can take a tour of the house above. WaterShed features solar panels, a green roof, a rain harvesting system, solar thermal water heating, sink and shower water filtration, "constructed wetlands" instead of gardens, and an indoor waterfall (!) that helps control humidity.

Meet clean energy's smart guy

MacArthur "genius award"-winner Shwetak Patel talks about a future where your house tracks your energy consumption -- and your every move.

Critical List: Perry not afraid to sound like an idiot; Koch Industries trading with Iran

"I'm not afraid to say I'm a skeptic about [climate change]." -- Rick Perry, ladies and gentlemen. So fearless.

A Bloomberg investigation found that Koch Industries has paid bribes to obtain contracts and sold Iran petrochemical equipment, in violation of the U.S. trade ban.

Trees are nice. Probably not a great idea to destroy them all.

If you have an electric toothbrush, extra-large fridge, laptop, iPad, iPhone, multiple flat screen TVs, a flat screen monitor, and god knows what else -- you're killing us here!

Ask Umbra: Can I recycle my car seat?

A reader wonders what to do with an expired car seat. Umbra buckles down.

Women’s rights are key to slowing population growth

The best way to slow growth is ensuring that people can make choices about childbearing. But fertility rates remain high where women's status is low.

Women, population, and the age of the ‘Black Swan’

World population doubled in the last half-century to nearly 7 billion people. To address population growth, we need to advance and secure women's rights.

Population math explained: Growth rate is down, total is up [VIDEO]

Over the past 50 years, the growth rate of the global population has slowed, but our overall numbers keep going up and up. Check out video explainers.