Climate Culture

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  • Ask Umbra’s Earth Day book giveaway

    Dearest readers, Happy Earth Day! How are you celebrating? Perhaps by tweeting your little heart out about all the hopeful things going on in the environmental movement (don’t forget to add #hopen)? Well, since you’re on there anyway, why not participate in my little book giveaway? That’s right! Free stuff! Woot! I’m giving away two […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Hipster habits that annoy the Earth [SLIDESHOW]

    Photo courtesy davefishernc via FlickrWe don’t mean to jump on the hipster (NSFW) hating bandwagon. We know the young and the hip eat healthier and ride bikes more often than their peers and yadda yadda yadda. But there’s nothing like getting even with the cool kids and catching them in un-green moments. (How cool do […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Go green this Earth Day: Quit smoking

    Photo: lanier67 via FlickrWith the arrival of this year’s 40th anniversary of Earth Day, it is encouraging to see more and more people, young and old, buying into a meaningful environmental ethic in their personal lives despite daunting environmental challenges. By carrying reusable grocery bags, taking public transit and recycling, to name just a few […]

    Erich Pica & Cheryl Healton Culture

  • Community Carts Remove a Barrier to Walking.

    When I was growing up in Seattle in the sixties, the neighborhood grocery where my mom shopped let her and other regular customers push purchases home in the store’s shopping carts. We lived two blocks away, and we returned the carts promptly to safeguard the privilege. It was sometimes my older siblings’ job to return […]

    Alan Durning Culture

  • Ask Umbra’s pearls of wisdom on Earth Day parties

    Dearest readers, Oh snap, did you space on Earth Day again? (Newsflash: It’s tomorrow!) No worries, there’s still time (a little, anyway) to pull together something for your office or school—or at least get a head start for next year’s planning. Feeling celebratory myself, I raked through the archives to find some past tips on […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Power your house with poop

    Have you ever thought to yourself, “Man, my family sure does produce a lot of excrement; how can I cash in on this?” Well, according to DVICE, SeabEnergy’s MuckBuster might be just the ticket. “The MuckBuster is a self-contained anaerobic digester, built inside a repurposed shipping container. It can produce renewable energy from any organic […]

    Jen Harper Culture

  • Grist editor talks childfree living and population on MSNBC [VIDEO]

    Today I went on MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan Show to talk about my recent post on being a GINK: green inclinations, no kids. (For the record, I have never said, “Kids are killing the planet,” and I would never want to drag any happy parent away from their adorable newborn in the hospital nursery.) [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.1012187&w=425&h=350&fv=launch%3D36651387%26width%3D400%26height%3D320] […]

    Lisa Hymas Culture

  • Prez steals, owes fines

    OK, so you couldn’t tell a lie, Georgie boy, but apparently you made no bones about stealing a couple of library books and not paying your fines. Gasp! That’s right, Pres. George Washington was just as big a fan of the library as Ask Umbra (woot for reusing, Mr. Prez); however, according to an old […]

    Jen Harper Culture

  • Come to the largest climate rally ever on the D.C. mall on April 25

    Guest blogger Denis Hayes was national coordinator for the first Earth Day in 1970, and director of the federal Solar Energy Research Institute from 1979 to 1981. He is now president of the Bullitt Foundation and international chair of Earth Day 2010. Find out about the Earth Day big rally in Washington, D.C., as well […]

    Denis Hayes Culture

  • Ask Umbra on food dehydrators, cage-free and free-range poultry, and e-readers

    Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, I am enthusiastic about growing my own food in my small garden and I am looking for ways to preserve my produce for use out of season. I cook and freeze some things and have done some canning, but this year I thought I would make things […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture