Climate Culture
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Websites help you choose a walkable, low-commute home
Looking for an apartment involves a lot of guesswork — if you believe Craigslist, absolutely everything is "steps from shopping and transportation!" If you want to figure out how to maximize walkability and minimize commute, you have to actually schlep over there. Or, now, you could just hit the web. PadMapper integrates rental listings, Google maps, […]
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A Seattle development that is greener than green
Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Leave it to a city famous for coffee and rain to produce possibly the best example of transit-oriented urbanism, natural public space, and green stormwater infrastructure I have ever seen. This Seattle redevelopment is green in so many ways that it is hard to know where to start. […]
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Reno 9-year-old finds simple, smart water-saving solution
Two years ago, Mason Perez, then seven, went to wash deposits of ballpark ketchup and relish off his hands and face. The water in the Reno Aces ballpark poured out the faucet so hard and fast that it hurt his hands. His mom turned down the faucet, and that's when Perez had a brilliant, simple […]
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Hoofin’ it: Ask Umbra on faux-leather Birkenstocks
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, I love Birkenstocks, but what’s the deal with Birko-Flor? A leather alternative, sure. But they’re vinyl, and I believe vinyl is a four-letter word in Grist world. Would I be better off just sticking to traditional leather-upper Birks? JenniferBrooklyn, N.Y. Heart and sole. Photo: pi?A. Dearest Jennifer, […]
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Finally, Congress has a sensible solution to high gas prices: Drive less
Rep. Earl Blumenauer and the congressional Livable Communities Task Force are still patiently trying to explain to the rest of Congress that it might be a good idea for people to be able to move around without cars. Yesterday, the task force put out a report outlining the startling concept that people might be less […]
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Watch a ridiculously adorable kid encourage the world to ride a bike
This kid just learned to ride a bike, and it made him feel happy of himself! You can do it too! He knows you can believe in yourself!
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Great places, great food (and beer): part two
You can’t have a great place without great beer.In part one of my musings on food and “great places,” I painted a bleak picture of the U.S. food landscape: one in which a handful of companies churn out mountains of low-quality food, competing not to see who can put out the best product, but rather […]
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Live for free (almost) in a tiny home
How big is 320 square feet? It's roughly the size of a school bus. And Debra and Gary live in that amount of space with their teenage son. Why? Well, for starters, because it cost them $15,000 to build and now they're mortgage-free. They pay less than $150 a month to rent the land, which […]
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Critical List: John Bryson’s green credentials; biodegradable cups end as methane
John Bryson, Obama's new pick for commerce secretary, is a dyed-green-in-the-wool environmentalist (he co-founded NRDC), who's taken a swing through the corporate world. The U.N. carbon market shrunk for the first time since it was founded in 2005. Who's to blame? The U.S. Senate, of course! (Well, among others, but we have the most fun […]
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Suburban corporate campuses are going out of fashion
Is the corporate suburban stampede finally reversing? Photo: KevinCross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. In the late 1990s, when Don Chen, Matt Raimi, and I were researching our book, Once There Were Greenfields, we lamented the flight of business from America’s central cities to increasingly outer suburbs and farmland. In that book we frequently […]
