Climate Culture

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  • A new documentary about the real wealth of nations — happiness

    Money can’t make you happy, they say. Maybe a new kind of economy can?What if GDP stood for Great Domestic Pleasantness? How about an economy whose success is not determined by growth for growth’s sake? A new documentary, The Economics of Happiness, explores this rich territory. The film makes a connection between the economic crisis, […]

    Jennifer Prediger Culture

  • For the love of God, stop having babies, says U.N.

    Having more babies like this one is like jabbing Mother Earth in the eye, says respected international body.Photo: HORIZONThirty billion people on planet Earth by 2300. That’s the head-exploding projection of the United Nations population division if we don’t get it together, people, says the BBC. As if that weren’t terrifying enough, the U.N. population […]

    Christopher Mims Culture

  • Green Giant Press Release

    The Green AwardsTM Program Launches to Recognize and Inspire Everyday People Who Are Making the World a More Sustainable Place Survey Finds 97% of Moms Take Steps to be Green at Home and Encourage Their Children to do the Same Minneapolis, MN (January 24, 2011) – A coalition of some of the country’s leading environmental […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Climate refugees star in Oscar-nominated ‘Sun Come Up’ [VIDEO]

    Photo: Sun Come Up If you’re tracking this year’s green Oscar nominees, another one to watch is Sun Come Up — which could really be titled Water Come Up because it’s about rising sea levels. Filmmaker Jennifer Redfearn tells the story of climate refugees in Papua New Guinea. All 3,000 residents of the Carteret Pacific […]

    Holly Richmond Culture

  • Crematorium to heat U.K. swimming pool

    An angel just got its water wings.Photo: Tommy KlumkerA town near London plans to warm its new sports center and public pool with heat from a nearby crematorium. It could save the town $100,000 as well as boost its environmental cred. “[T]his form of energy is certainly renewable, unless locals stop dying,” writes Triple Pundit. […]

    Holly Richmond Culture

  • Ask Umbra Book Club: Next week the discussion begins about Bill Bryson’s ‘At Home’

    Dearest readers, I hope you’re reading this from the warmth of home. If where you are is anywhere like where I am right now, you’re glad to have good insulation, heat, and a roof over your head to keep the freezing rain off. But human beings have not always been so cozy. This and many […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • How to make sure there will be enough food

    We shouldn’t be getting so much of our energy from cornfields.Photo: Ben HusmannToday there are three sources of growing demand for food: population growth; rising affluence and the associated jump in meat, milk, and egg consumption; and the use of grain to produce fuel for cars. Population growth is as old as agriculture itself. But […]

    Lester Brown Culture

  • Groundhog Day and climate change: sucky weather for Punxsutawney Phil

    We’ll get a tiny shovel for you, Phil.Photo: alemaxaleUpdate: Phil didn’t see his shadow, so supposedly we’re in for a short winter. Thanks, climate change! “Groundhog Day is a lot like a rock concert, but the people are better behaved and there’s a groundhog involved,” the editor of a Punxsutawney newspaper told National Geographic. Just […]

    Holly Richmond Culture

  • How bullets kill wildlife decades after they’ve been fired

    Honker flew the coop and dodged a bullet.Photo: Alan VernonThis piece was written by Bruce Dorminey. At first glance, Crescent Lake, a shallow body abutting a cornfield in upper Snohomish County, Wash., would appear to be perfectly pristine. Mallard and pintail ducks skirt the edges of its banks on waters that — in this contaminated […]

    Miller-McCune Culture

  • Bike plows are the new fixies, but we'll never be as cool as the Danes

    Check out these photos and videos of bikes plowing snow and get ready for a hot lump of shame, America ...

    Christopher Mims Culture