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  • A video interview with Bill Moyers

    Renowned journalist Bill Moyers has seen a thing or two during his career, including the incredible social change wrought during the LBJ administration. He talks with Grist about what it takes to change direction in America, whether it’s too late to act on climate, and what he thinks of climate skeptics.

    Grist staff Culture

  • Ask Umbra on buying carbon offsets

    Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, I’ve been hearing about carbon offsets for awhile and even have purchased some for my car emissions through Terrapass. But I just got an email from my local power company saying that I can pay to offset my own carbon emissions at the low rate of just […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Ask Umbra on replacing hot-water heaters

    Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, We are a family of five, with three little boys growing bigger every day. Which is the better environmental investment for our family: to replace our existing hot water heater with a solar model, or to switch to an on-demand, “instantaneous” hot water system? Thanks! Gillian and […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • The Yes Men reveal their next big stunt

    Grist catches up with The Yes Men — those high-minded pranksters behind the faux climate-week New York Post and the notorious SurvivaBall — to talk about runaway climate change, that Big Apple arrest, their plans for Copenhagen, and their latest movie, The Yes Men Fix the World, which comes out on October 7. To get […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • The assumption of inconvenience

    Cross-Posted from Streetsblog. Early this week, I noticed a number of my favorite bloggers linking to this Elisabeth Rosenthal essay at Environment 360, on the mysterious greenness of European nations. The average American, as it happens, produces about twice as much carbon dioxide each year as your typical resident of Western Europe. Rosenthal attributes much […]

    Ryan Avent Culture

  • Does anyone still care about “the land”?

    So earnest it hurts.The new climate anthem is out — you know, the remake of “Beds Are Burning” that features such hip, 21st-century acts as Duran Duran, Bob Geldof, and Youssou N’Dour — and I can’t get it out of my head. Actually, it left my head pretty much as soon as the 4:02 video […]

    Katharine Wroth Culture

  • Ask Umbra on anti-idling campaigns

    Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, My daughter’s Girl Scout troop wants to start an anti-idling campaign at her school. We need help justifying why a car should be turned off for more than 30 seconds. Although they have found that it saves gas and wear and tear on the engine and other […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Therapy on the Titanic

    A recent Facebook exchange was striking. Someone posted a Washington Post article on the latest climate science. It predicted a temperature rise of 8 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century if no systemic changes are made to reduce our carbon output. The better case scenario — in which world governments implement their current […]

    Andrée Collier Culture

  • Ask Umbra’s video advice on making lunch matter

    Common wisdom tells us there’s no free lunch. But you can have a guilt-free lunch, thanks to Umbra Fisk’s recipe for midday munchers everywhere. You won’t have to swallow your pride — you can eat well, save money, and help this juicy planet we call home. “Ask Umbra” is the first video series produced by […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • As Philadelphia goes, so goes the nation

    More green on the streets will mean less brown in the rivers.Tony the Misfit via flickrPhiladelphia has a poo problem. Old, failing pipes plus a swelling population plus lots of rain equals — well, yuck. So the city has pondered its options, and now it’s poised to make a major splash in the world of […]

    Katharine Wroth Culture