Climate Culture
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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] […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Eco dog treats confound canines and humans alike
Everyone’s a critic: one of our panelists gropes for a sniff of biscuit.Photo: Jason Houston I’ve got a bone to pick with conventional dog biscuits. Like commercial dog food, they are made with un-green or even potentially dangerous ingredients. Surely, they’re unworthy of a companion who greets your return from the mailbox with nothing less […]
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Updating the "Granny Cart"
Transport guru Todd Litman says the biggest vehicular breakthrough of recent decades is the rolling suitcase. That’s not the conventional wisdom. Most recent attention to the wheels of the future focuses on electric cars, and they are clearly essential. Still, for some, they are also a false hope, suggesting that all we need to change […]
