Climate Culture

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  • A sizzling test of seven eco-sunscreen brands

    Ah, summer. It’s here at last! Before you rush out to revel in the rays, you’ll (of course) slather on some sun protection. Since you know the problems with conventional sunscreens — which range from coral bleaching to hormone disruption — you’ll choose a brand that’s better for your body and the planet. But which […]

    Katharine Wroth Culture

  • Why you shouldn’t recycle that bright-orange paper

    One of the thorniest questions I used to get as a recycling educator for the awesome grassroots recycling company EcoCycle in Boulder, Colo., was why ‘astrobright’ papers weren’t recyclable. You know this stuff: the super-dyed paper used by everyone from bands to Girl Scouts to make posters announcing their bake sales and death-metal guitar battles. […]

    Erik Hoffner Culture

  • Must-see TV on ABC tonight — “Earth 2100: Is this the Final Century of our Civilization?

    Tonight at 9 pm on ABC, “Bob Woodruff explores what might be the worst case scenario for civilization.” Hurray for the mainstream media exploring the worst-case scenario aka Hell and High Water! I am very interested in your thoughts on this show — before and after. One of the most commented on posts of this […]

    Joseph Romm Culture

  • ‘Garbage Dreams’ explores life in Cairo’s garbage villages

    Eighteen million people live in Cairo. They produce 13,000 tons of garbage every day, and they have no waste disposal system. Ew. Mai Iskander presents Al Gore with a drawing made by the children at The Recycling School in Cairo.Courtesy Garbage Dreams via FlickrBut the trash also presents an opportunity. For the past 50 years, […]

    Sara Barz Culture

  • Around the Americas mission raises sails — and awareness

    Photo: Sarah van SchagenSomewhere off Canada’s Pacific Coast, the wind is filling the colorful octopus-adorned sails of the Good Ship Ocean Watch as it weaves its way clockwise around North and South America on a “voyage of discovery.” Manning that ship is a crew of seasoned sailors, educators, scientists, and writers — with a singular, […]

    Sarah van Schagen Culture

  • Grist profiled in Finnish paper — read all about it

    These editors have begun to slightly hack.Photo: Tom Clements/Vihrea Lanka Grist recently found itself the focus of a feature story in a Finnish newspaper under the headline “Tässä ei ole mitään hauskaa.” We were briefly flattered, as all those umlauts struck us as quite sophisticated, and we’re pretty much suckers for any outside attention. Until […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Culture

  • Greenpeace: your boots are made for climate change

    These boots are made for … trampling the rainforest? A lot of eco-minded folks these days generally know where their food comes from. They’d never walk into a supermarket and plunk an anonymous ribeye into their cart. They understand the tremendous greenhouse-gas footprint of beef; if they consume it at all, they do so sparingly, […]

    Tom Philpott Culture

  • Ask Umbra on chippers

    Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, Is it better to use a gas-spewing grinder/chipper to mulch up yard waste for plant beds or just burn it? I am thinking you will be tempted to say do neither and let it rot in place, but many don’t have a big enough yard to leave […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • A climate-news poem for the week of May 25

    Here’s how to fix the climate: Take trips that are quite fancy.In the mood for Chinese? Bag Beijing with John and Nancy.Hit London, why don’t Chu, or give a crepe with Todd.Just don’t think of your carbon trail, and make your peace with … dog. A wing and a player.beigeinside via flickr

    Katharine Wroth Culture

  • From “local” Lays to Oprah’s KFC promo, hypocrisy abounds in the food world

    War is peace, junk food is real food….Nobody likes hypocrites, despite the fact that everyone is a hypocrite to one degree or another: the smoker who tells her kids not to smoke; the closeted politician who works against gay rights; the police officer who throws the book at stoners but who himself gets high. But […]

    Kurt Michael Friese Culture