Climate Culture
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Ask Umbra on Ronald McDonald’s retirement, card games, and a coffee stirring stir
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, After close to 50 years of hawking fatty food directly to kids, a groundswell of parents, health experts, and children’s advocates are calling on McDonald’s to retire Ronald McDonald. A new report and national poll released by Corporate Accountability International found that close to half of the […]
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My family (yours, too) needs rich social spaces–not cars–to be happy
Lisa’s fantastic essay, “Say it loud: I’m childfree and I’m proud,” had 196 comments last time I checked. If you haven’t read it, you really should. I’ll wait here. … It got me thinking. Pardon a weekend ramble. Me and my little resource hogs.I’m a father of two boys and I’ve absolutely loved it. I […]
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Easter and plastic eggs
There’s always a place for some old-fashioned hating on plastics, especially if there’s a timely hook: “If the traditional Easter egg is a symbol of resurrection, or a more paganesque generalized celebration of fertility, than what does a plastic Easter egg signify?” Andrew Leonard asks at Salon. He learns that Easter, historically a high-sales season […]
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Debunking the “you’d be a great green parent” argument
A number of commenters on my “I’m childfree and I’m proud” post, both here and on Facebook, argued that I’m just the sort of smart, eco-groovy person who should be having kids, to ensure that there’s a new generation of thoughtful and active citizens to carry on the good fight. Thanks for the compliment! But […]
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Al Gore wants Earth Day volunteer videos
Al Gore is calling on volunteer videographers to create short videos about their favorite organization working on climate-change solutions. Three of them will appear on YouTube’s homepage on Earth Day, April 22. Then millions of YouTube viewers will have their climate awarenesses raised. For one whole day … Can’t hurt, right? “This year on Earth […]
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Ask Umbra on Babeland’s boinking for bucks
Birds do it. Bees do it. You know what I’m buzzing about. And as long as you’re doing it, why not do it for Grist? For the entire month of April, Babeland will be donating 20 percent of sales of all their eco-friendly sex toys to Grist. You might remember this video about breaking up […]
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Ask Umbra’s pearls of wisdom on spring cleaning
Dearest readers, Ah, spring is on the calendar and in the air. Birds are singing, bees are buzzing, flowers are making me sneeze—or perhaps it’s this dust that’s been building up all winter. Time for the annual washing, scrubbing, wiping, sweeping, and general expunging of stuff known as spring cleaning. I scoured the archives for […]
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How much renewable juice does it take to power an Apple iPad?
With Apple fans’ fingers itching for the newest glossy touchscreen machine to hit the market this Saturday — the legendary iPad — it only makes sense to ask how the latest gee-whiz gizmo will impact the environment. Even with ten to twelve hours of battery time, they’ll have to recharge the wunder gadget sometime. So […]
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How to improve a Hummer’s mileage and add retro style
Improving a Hummer’s mileage doesn’t take much. And it doesn’t even require pricey, high-tech electric batteries. Artist Jeremy Dean says you have to go Back to the Futurama, which is more 19th century than lithium-ion centric. But how to actually improve a Hummer’s mileage? Easy: Put two horses in front of it and take it […]
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Do Americans really make the connection between transportation, oil use, and environmental impacts?
The national poll that Transportation for America released this week makes it clear that Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of increasing our access to transportation options, no matter where they live in America — big cities, suburbs, small towns, or rural areas. The majority believes that their community — and the country as a whole […]
