Climate Culture
All Stories
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Volunteer for the planet
Tip #8: Pimp yourself out for the planet. Take time out to volunteer with an environmental organization, and give the greatest gift of all: your fine self. We’re not just talking about a one-night stand here; we’re looking for commitment. A relationship, even. After all, it takes gajillions of dedicated volunteers and their sustained efforts […]
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EPA announces collegiate Green Power winners; competition fails to change power buying habits
The Ivy League is the greenest of them all, according to the EPA, which today announced the college and university winners of the Green Power challenge — a competition to motivate American schools to purchase more renewable energy. Participating schools compete within their athletic conferences to purchase the most certified green power, but conferences only […]
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Frontline explores “Poisoned Waters” of Puget Sound, Chesapeake Bay
Photo: ehpien via Flickr.Views like this are one of the reasons we Seattleites suffer through our long, cloudy, rainy fallwinterspring season. But the beauty can be quite deceptive. Beneath that reflective surface flow poisoned waters, contaminated with chemicals from agricultural runoff, prescription meds, cosmetics, industrial pollutants, and more — reflections, you might say, of modern […]
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The New York Times Magazine’s take on environmentalism is more interesting than most
It’s Earth Week, so the MSM is trotting out its obligatory parade of environmental coverage. The New York Times Magazine‘s green issue is better than most. Check it out: The cover story by Jon Gerter asks, Why isn’t the brain green? “Scientists are trying to figure out why it’s so hard for us to get […]
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Environmental Organizing as Solution to Family Discord
This weekend, The New York Times Magazine ran as its cover story an article entitled “Why Isn’t the Brain Green?” (i.e. why humans don’t generally make environmental choices automatically, even though it’s good for us in the long term). And a front page Monday story in The Washington Post, chronicled how “going green” could lead […]
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Pare down the pesticides
Tip #7: Be a picky eater. Pare down the pesticides in your diet (without cutting too far into your food budget) by focusing your organic purchases on the “dirty dozen” fruits and veggies that tend to be chem-laden to the core. Buying local and organic as often as possible is a good way to help […]
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Umbra advises on elevators
Q. Dear Umbra, Every time I bring a load of groceries back to the condo, I contemplate the energy and number of trips required to get everything upstairs three stories. If I think I can do it in two trips, I do, but on occasion I succumb and catch a ride. How much energy does […]
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Solar powered pogies and other assorted oddities
A few weeks ago I rode my hybrid electric bike from Fremont, which is at sea level, over Capitol Hill, down into the Rainier Valley and back. It was about 15 miles round trip. I took mental notes on the discomfort I experienced along the way.Biodiversivist Although I had on thick gloves my fingers still […]
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Broadening the Earth Day tent
Mike CermakAs someone who spends half his time teaching and studying in a university among some rather well-off and highly educated young people, and the other half working as an environmental educator in urban high schools, I see a range of responses to the message and spectacle of Earth Day. At my university, I’m fairly […]
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Green your landfill
Tip # 6: If you find yourself holding a plastic water bottle, recycle it. Lots of plastic — bottle-form or not — is recyclable these days. It’s OK, really. It happens to best of us. You’re at the airport and you just have to have water for that long flight. Go ahead, buy that over-priced […]
