Climate Culture
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Keeping the farmer in farmers markets
Photo: Natalie MaynorEarlier this week, the Wall Street Journal aired a bit of dirty laundry that was hiding out in local food’s hamper — the ongoing fight over who gets to sell in farmers markets. Many markets require that sellers be actual growers, rather than “resellers” of some form or another. At a certain level, […]
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Home Star energy retrofit bill passes House; is backed by broad coalition; rules
For years, energy-efficiency advocates have been beating their head against a wall. Efficiency saves money, reduces emissions, creates jobs, and enhances economic competitiveness. It ought to be the first item on the energy policy list — the “first fuel,” as they say — and the subject of broad bipartisan consensus. And yet … it’s not. […]
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Does America cause cancer?
(Grist/iStockphoto)A new government report [PDF] suggests that comedian Bill Maher was on to something when he joked in an interview last year with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson that “America causes cancer.” The report, released today, says that thousands of industrial chemicals in our environment are indeed making Americans sick, and its findings cannot be easily […]
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Woman feels burned by McDonald’s
Would you like fries with that?Photo: lille abe via FlickrWe love our McDonald’s stories (as evidenced here, here, and, oh yeah, here), so it’s no wonder that this one jumped out at us: McDonald’s Happy Meal “came with cigarette.” According to the U.K. publication Metro, Nicky Holloway found an unused cigarette in the Happy Meal […]
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Down the Colorado
As a native Coloradan, photographer Peter McBride always wondered how long it took irrigation water from his family’s cattle ranch to reach the Colorado River and ultimately the sea. That question sent McBride (with author Jonathon Waterman) on a two-year journey to follow the water. He photographed the Colorado, mostly from the air, in an […]
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Green cars do not make green cities
Cross-posted from PubliCola. In response to last week’s post about how cars cause significant greenhouse gas emissions in addition to what comes out of the tailpipe, some commenters contended that even so, car-dependency is not a problem because cars can be as energy-efficient per passenger-mile as buses and trains. But that perspective is classic “can’t […]
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Rock the house [VIDEO]
People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, so does that mean that people who live in stone houses shouldn’t throw glass? Guess we should ask Antón García-Abril and Ensamble Studio, who, according to Treehugger, have built La Trufa, or truffle, a small holiday house that looks like a big rock on the north […]
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Looking at gorillas through crazy-colored glasses
Photo via GeekosystemObserving wildlife? Good. Inadvertently threatening the wildlife while observing it? Eh, not so good. But some bizarre-looking glasses may be the solution. According to Geekosystem, “Earlier this month at the Dutch Rotterdam Zoo, an 11-year-old male gorilla named Bokito escaped and ran rampant through the zoo’s food court, injuring a woman when he […]
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Ask Umbra on wasps, researching your own eco-questions, and energy vampires
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, Every time the weather gets warmer, it’s the same: the wasps! They insist on trying to make their home in my balcony! I tried many different things, like citronella candles, but some of them apparently attract instead of repelling wasps. I don’t want to kill them; I […]
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Ask Umbra’s pearls of wisdom on biking
Dearest readers, Ready to shed the chill of winter and dust off your 10-speed? (Yes, cold-weather bike warriors, I’m aware that your bike never collects dust.) We all know biking is better for the environment than jumping behind the wheel (not to mention less expensive and healthier, assuming you follow the rules of the road). […]
