Climate Culture

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  • Ask Umbra on how to make organic dog treats

    Brianne DiSylvester, owner of Get Lick’d Organic Dog Treats and Change Agent featured in today’s Ask Umbra video, was kind enough to give us this tasty treat recipe for your furry friends. Enjoy, dearests, and let me know how your pups like the muffins in the comments below (FYI, you can eat them too, but […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Olympic broadcast wins gold for vapidity

    While eagerly watching Bode Miller and the men's downhill Olympic race yesterday, I was treated to an unbelievably vapid interlude by Mary Carillo on the Polar Bears of Churchill, Manitoba, which she showed to Bob Costas. The whole time I was waiting for someone to take this great opportunity to talk about climate change in front of a massive audience. After all, with the bears, there's really obvious stuff going on.

    Auden Schendler Culture

  • Two books that blew my mind

    I have a piece in the latest issue of the American Prospect called “This Is How You’ll Get There.” It’s a review of two books: Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), by journalist Tom Vanderbilt, and Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century, by […]

    David Roberts Culture

  • Ask Umbra on political activism, donating light bulbs, and BPA in canned food

    Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, A while back, you said that political activism was really important. I think I can tear myself away from my new(ish) organic garden long enough to do a little, but I’m not sure what to do. How can I be politically active with my busy schedule? Jon […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Pom-Pom club: Just how ‘Wonderful’ are pomegranates?

    In Checkout Line, Lou Bendrick cooks up answers to reader questions about how to green their food choices and other diet-related quandaries.  ————— Dear Checkout Line, For months now, I can’t seem to walk through my local natural-food market without smacking into a vast display of pomegranates — and I usually put one in my […]

    Lou Bendrick Culture

  • Ask Umbra’s pearls of wisdom on supermarket shopping

    Dearest readers, Sometimes when I’m down in the stacks researching answers to your latest dilemmas, I enjoy taking a stroll down Ask Umbra archives lane. Here are some glossy tidbits I culled from my past advice on lessening your impact when it comes to grocery shopping. Have any of your own green grocery tips? Let […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • I paid $50 for this book and all I got was this lousy feeling of hope and goodwill

    I received a free review copy of The Power of Half, but it ended up costing me $50. Fifty bucks that won’t go toward a much-needed (fine, much-wanted) pedicure, about a dozen cinnamon lattes, a month of cable or my cell phone, or a couple of weeks worth of bus fare for my ride to […]

    Jen Harper Culture

  • Ask Umbra’s Change Agent: Hannah Salwen

    What would you do with half? Half the house, half the lattes, half the TV watching, half the Tweets, half the email checking? More importantly, what would you do with the other half — the extra space, funds, and time? Dearests, meet 17-year-old Atlanta Girls’ School junior Hannah Salwen (you may have read about her […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Car free in Boston, for all the wrong reasons

    I’m currently in transportation transition. By the end of the month, I will have transferred my aging VW into my partner’s name, and canceled my own insurance. I will have tuned up my bike, spent a good chunk of money on a metro pass, and signed up with the local car-sharing business. But I’m not […]

    Andrée Collier Culture

  • Walking: A simple focus for the Smart Growth movement

    I expected to hear a lot more about sexy green urban design projects at the New Partners in Smart Growth conference in Seattle last week. I expected more sleek design and big new developments akin to Dockside Green in Victoria, British Columbia, or Vancouver’s Olympic Village. Maybe American urban planners are better at keeping it […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Culture