Climate Culture
All Stories
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Ask Umbra on offsetting work trips
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, Lately I have been traveling a lot for work. This has made me seriously consider buying offsets for these trips. I know that it is better to not travel at all, but outside of quitting my job I can’t get around it. I have considered spending money […]
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NASCAR and the high-octane American dream
The action at the Talladega Superspeedway.At dawn on a hazy autumn morning, the rising sun spilled over the steel grandstands of the Talladega Superspeedway like foam from a cracked can of Bud. This image likely came to mind because I was lying beneath a tarp in a scrubby Alabama meadow carpeted with empty beer cans […]
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Entourage season finale delivers surprises and sustainability
Warning: If the season finale of Entourage is waiting on your TiVO and you haven’t watched it yet, come back and read this post later as it contains spoilers. On the season finale of HBO’s Entourage, Matt Damon stole the show with a guest appearance as a well-meaning yet overbearing version of himself. But another […]
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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.
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
