Climate Culture
All Stories
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Four years after my pleading essay, climate art is hot
That pleading little essay I wrote in 2005? It was probably the last moment I could have written it. Clearly there were lots and lots of people already thinking the same way, because ever since it’s seemed to me as if deep and moving images and sounds and words have been flooding out into the […]
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Portrait of an artist as a climate activist
This image of a polar bear on Barnard Harbor in Alaska was used in a Senate debate about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.Photo: Subhankar Banerjee “Art has always reflected what is in our world and in our horizon and what our fears are — which is all tied in to climate change.” Coco Howard, […]
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How to green your grocery shopping on a tight budget
Three months ago, my husband and I took a magnifying glass to our finances, examining a mountain of bills and receipts. We had two main concerns: paying the lingering tab for the birth of our second son (now one), and finding a way to afford a year of preschool for our highly-energized, insatiably-curious three-year-old. We […]
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Peeing in the shower goes, um, viral
Dearest Readers, Today brings news — oh, and wildly spreading it is — of an ad campaign in Brazil aimed at convincing people to save water by peeing in the shower. Here is the video, and here is the website, if you are seeking extra credit for your Portuguese skills (beware, it starts with a […]
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Ask Umbra on smarter outlets
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, I recently spent several months in New Zealand and was impressed with the simple energy-saving electrical outlets they used. Every outlet is equipped with a small switch allowing you to “turn off at the wall” whatever device you have plugged in. I want to replace my current […]
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Would you trade your car for a bike?
Would you trade your car for a bike? That’s what the folks behind the Tour de Fat want to know. New Belgium Brewing’s now-annual cycle celebration is pedaling to Seattle this Saturday — and they’ll be taking a car off the hands of one (lucky?) local driver and handing him a cool commuter bike in […]
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It’s time to end the practice of shark finning
This post is co-authored with Discovery Channel GM & President John Ford. —– Photo: Willy VolkEvery half-second a shark is killed for its fins, so in the time it takes you to read this post, hundreds of sharks will die. “Finning,” as the practice is known, is decimating shark populations world-wide. Every year up to […]
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Ask Umbra on power-strip alternatives
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Hi Umbra, I know that the little trickle of electricity that so many appliances use even when they are “off” adds up to a significant amount of power. I also know that a power strip with an on/off switch can help. But there are places in my house where […]
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Climate-news poem: Forgery edition
There once was a firm known as BonnerWhose tactics were lacking in honor.“Can’t get white letters read?We’ll forge brown ones instead!”Oh Bonner, you should be a goner. Whose words these are I think I know.AFLCIO2008 via flickr
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That smarts! Dutch pranksters go car-tipping, and more
Dutch treat Forget cow-tipping. Dutch pranksters are all about car-tipping these days, dumping dozens of lightweight Smart cars into Amsterdam’s canals. What tossers! Image created by The Sun
