Climate Culture
All Stories
-
![]()
![]()
Ask Umbra Book Club: Is minimalism just for the rich?
Is a streamlined life something only a privileged elite can afford? Ask Umbra explores.
-
![]()
![]()
Not one more winter in the tipi, honey
Going off the grid seems romantic at first, but unfortunately, women are often the first to encounter the worst realities of homesteading.
-
![]()
![]()
Trashtivist: Percy goes to the dump
The heaviest thing so far in my garbage bag is Percy. Poor, corroded Percy. You were a good train, but now it's time for the landfill.
-
![]()
![]()
25 days of dares: Teens and sunscreens
For the first week of my dare-a-day challenge, I planted peas, spoke to some very smart young people and greened up my sunscreen.
-
![]()
![]()
Six surprising U.S. cities for a car-free vacation
Where should you take your next car-free getaway? These six cities may not boast mass transit systems like New York's, but they do have what it takes to make discovering their best features an easy, fun, and affordable experience without a car.
-
![]()
![]()
Va-va-vintage: Raiding Mom's closet
The most sustainable new outfit is one that isn't new at all. That's why Grist dared me to wear my mom's 1970s-era clothes for a week. Hello, bellbottoms!
-
![]()
![]()
Plastic purge: The great plasticky outdoors
A look inside my closet reveals that all of the hobbies I love -- trail running, skiing, biking -- involve plastic. Damn it.
-
![]()
![]()
Cut trash with tiny trash cans
We tend to associate the "everything bigger" approach with wastefulness -- oversized cars guzzle gas, McMansions drive up electricity bills, 72-ounce challenge steaks never get fully eaten. So it makes sense to think that downsizing trash cans might help downsize trash. That's what they're finding at Dartmouth College, anyway, where trash cans as small as quart-size yogurt containers (that's my ineptly 'shopped comparison above) are cutting down on waste.
-
![]()
![]()
Toronto women's shelter starts bike-sharing program
When you're broke and scared and used to not being in charge of your own life, regaining autonomy is a step-by-step process. Getting on a bike can help with all that.
-
![]()
![]()
Zero-energy lighting for poor communities requires only water and bleach
It can get pretty dark under the corrugated metal roofs of Manila’s slums. Millions of families in the Philippines go without electric light, and those who have it can be at risk of fires from faulty wiring. But thanks to an innovation developed at MIT and distributed by the Liter of Light project, that problem […]
