Climate Culture
All Stories
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Right-wingers bash Gore for wanting women to have access to birth control
The right-wing media is all aflutter over Al Gore saying that we should educate girls, keep kids from dying, and make birth control available to women.
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One day, we’ll water plants with our pee in public restrooms
Everyone remembers that deathless scene from Waterworld where Kevin Costner pees in a jug, filters it, drinks some, then spits the rest into a plant. (EVERYONE REMEMBERS IT, I SAID. But if you’ve been living under a rock, you can watch here -- start around 1:30.) Well, that may soon become a reality. For now, at least, we’re still not drinking processed urine -- on a societal level, anyway; what you do on your time is your own business. But one ingenious conservation junkie has come up with a urinal design that filters pee in order to water plants.
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Do environmentalists need shrinks?
Is the sorry state of the planet dragging you into the dumps? Psychologist John Fraser thinks a lot of enviros are suffering from traumatic distress.
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Bicycling's gender gap: It's the economy, stupid
Why don't more women in the U.S. ride bikes? Hint: it's not just about fear and fashion.
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Tofu, eh? Ask Umbra on going vegetarian in Canada
A Canadian living the meatless life wants to sink her teeth into information about her nation’s food industry. Ask Umbra looks to the north.
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Older Americans could be stranded without better transit
As the huge baby boom generation gets older, our auto-dependent society will have to adapt, a new report argues.
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Critical List: Al Gore praises Romney; a fifth Brazilian anti-logging activist dies
Al Gore is doing his best to ensure Barack Obama gets reelected. Yesterday, he endorsed Mitt Romney's climate stance.
The Arizona wildfire is the largest in the state's history.
A fifth anti-logging activist in Brazil was killed.
Your HD cable box uses more electricity than your refrigerator. -
Getting their fair share: The rise of the barter market [VIDEO]
Barter markets — where people bring stuff they don’t want and exchange it for stuff that other people don’t want — are like urban sustainability Swiss Army knives. It’s amazing how many things they can do. They reduce the amount of expensive new crap people buy. They help folks clean out unwanted junk from their […]
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The great unwashed: Ask Umbra on twice-weekly showers
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, My two sons, age 12, shower twice a week, with prompting. I told them most Americans shower daily, and one of them stated flatly, “That’s crazy. It’s wasteful.” Now, I am all for saving water, but I told them it depends on the situation. What is your […]
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Too good to be true: biodegradable forks
Methane spoils everything. Natural gas drilling would be less risky if it didn't have the potential to release clouds of methane into the atmosphere. Methane cow farts make even grass-fed beef a less-green option than no beef at all. And now it turns out that those biodegradable plastic utensils we've been telling ourselves are soooo […]
