Climate Culture

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  • Annie Leonard’s ‘The Story of Cosmetics’ and new legislation for toxic chemicals [VIDEO]

    According to Annie Leonard, your “bathroom is a minefield of toxics.” Check out her new video The Story of Cosmetics.

    Jennifer Prediger Culture

  • Home Star teeters on the edge

    Remember Home Star, the killer bill that would incentivize thousands of home energy retrofits across the country, reduce energy bills for struggling homeowners, put some of America’s hardest hit trades back to work, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions? The one backed by a coalition of more than 1,700 organizations including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce […]

    David Roberts Culture

  • How to make energy programs work better (for free!)

    I’ve written before (more than once) that energy reformers should pay more attention to behavior. Instead there is an almost universal obsession with technology and economic cost, narrowly construed. If you think of people as rational interest maximizers, as per reigning economic folk theory, price is all that matters. You want to change behavior, you […]

    David Roberts Culture

  • The debut of My Intentional Life: Somewhat true stories of attempted sustainability

    Welcome to My Intentional Life, Grist’s first original comic strip. In this debut episode, you’ll meet Gabriel Willow, and his pals Josh, Hunny, and Tracie, real-life roommates who are trying to live a more sustainable life in a Brooklyn brownstone. They’re raising a few eyebrows while raising a few chickens, and tending a roof garden and […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Is the population bomb ever going to explode? [AUDIO]

    Environmentalists and human-rights advocates regularly point to a growing world population as a potential source of strife. But one environmental journalist doesn’t agree. Fred Pearce, author of The Coming Population Crash, argues that fears of a population explosion are overblown. His recent post on Grist sparked a sharp rebuttal from Robert Walker, executive vice president […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Ask Umbra asks readers for an accurate name for the oil spill

    Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, I think we should stop calling it a spill. A spill is something that you can pick up with a mop and paper towels. Calling this catastrophe in the Gulf a “spill” is like calling the Holocaust a paper cut. 

It is a blowout. An oil volcano. Oil […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Want to join the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement?

    Art: Nina PaleyLes U. Knight (get it?) is the face and the force behind the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT, pronounced vehement).  Motto: “May we live long and die out.” It might sound like a strident or mean-spirited campaign, but Knight is certainly not a strident or mean-spirited guy.  He’s hit on a creative way […]

    Lisa Hymas Culture

  • Six drinks to avoid slipping down your gullet [SLIDESHOW]

    Here at Grist we like to think we’re looking out for you guys, so before you stock up on refreshing sippables for your summer potlucks here’s a small checklist of beverage bandits looking to pee in your pool party. Cheers! Photo courtesy racineur via Flickr Fuze Refresh “Peach-Mango” The only thing more confusing than Peach-Mango […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • We Won't Accept More Poison For Less Carbon

    Written by Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For All, and Ben Jealous, President of NAACP As Senators enter the final rounds of negotiations on the climate and energy bill, big utility companies apparently are making unconscionable demands that threaten the health and safety of all Americans. For example, The Hill reports: “Power company officials are […]

    Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins Culture

  • Crawfisher Drew Landry sings the ‘BP Blues’ to president’s Gulf spill commission

    Testimony at commission hearings doesn’t usually go viral, but Drew Landry changed that this week when he serenaded President Obama’s oil-spill commission.    Landry, a 37-year-old Lafayette, La., native, is an out-of-work crawfisher. He wants to volunteer with oil-spill cleanup but was turned away. He says “going green” could be a good solution, but he doesn’t […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Culture