Climate Culture
All Stories
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Highs and lows from the world of green fashion
What? Take away my Aqua Net?!nyki_m via flickrOK, really just one high and one low. It’s been a busy day. The high, fittingly, is related to hair. When I first saw an email subject line that began “Directional Runway Hair” float into my inbox earlier today, I honest-to-god thought it had something to do with […]
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Two new documentaries — ‘Crude’ and ‘Fuel’ — examine two sides of our petroleum problem
Two new documentaries show the damaging effects of the world’s addiction to oil, each film from its own unique angle. Crude, which opened in New York on Sept. 9, traces the story of a lawsuit brought by 30,000 rural Ecuadorians against Chevron, which denies responsibility for turning their traditional rainforest home into a dumping ground […]
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Actor Djimon Hounsou wants to show the human costs of climate change
Djimon Hounsou at the U.N. Climate SummitPhoto: United NationsActor Djimon Hounsou is just as snacky in real life as he was on the big screen in Blood Diamond, The Island, and Gladiator. Better yet, he’s also a climate activist and humanitarian. As a global ambassador for the aid and development group Oxfam, Hounsou has traveled […]
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Umbra reports from the Age of Stupid premiere
What do Stephen Baldwin, the Pope, and the Environment Minister of the Netherlands have in common? They’re all getting hot and bothered about climate change, and they were all at the premiere of Age of Stupid. (OK, the Pope sent a lackey, but he totally would have been there if he could.) Umbra Fisk surveys […]
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Ask Umbra on that new-car smell
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, I have an old and dying Cash for Clunker-eligible SUV with well over 210,000 miles on it … My problem is I find the VOC offgassing of new cars intolerable. Is there any way to offgas a new car before I drive it so that I am […]
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Can plastics make us fat?
Hmm… That title doesn’t quite seem to capture the urgency of the issue, does it? Yet despite rampant skepticism, the data continue to pour in — chemicals in some of the most common plastics and household products, things that surround us every minute of the day, are major culprits in the obesity epidemic. At least […]
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MTV-approved advice on reaching those who aren’t paying attention
He seems cool.Courtesy Energy Action CoalitionPete Griffin spent three years working at Think MTV, the “social issues” and volunteering arm of the entertainment behemoth. He helped run its Choose or Lose election campaign and its Break the Addiction environmental series. He knew these do-gooder campaigns were far from MTV’s sexiest offerings. “Social issues weren’t why […]
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Ask Umbra on giving advice
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, This fall, as part of an environmental ethics course, I would like to create a class blog somewhat along the lines of your column, with students posting questions and answers to environmental quandaries specific to our campus. I wonder if you have any words of wisdom. What […]
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PARK(ing) Day puts people and greenery, not cars, in transformed parking spaces [SLIDESHOW]
I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who thinks parking spaces are prettier and more fun to relax in than public parks. Which is one reason you may see people parallel parking themselves instead of their cars on pavement for PARK(ing) Day 2009, which is September 18. Across the world artists and citizens are […]
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Climate doomsday film ‘The Age of Stupid’ still hopeful, says director in video interview
We can’t believe what’s going on today either, Pete.Courtesy of The Age of Stupid “Why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?” asks the main character of Franny Armstrong’s new film, The Age of Stupid. Living in a world of climate catastrophe, this solitary character, played by Oscar-nominee Pete Postlethwaite, serves as […]
