Climate Culture

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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 […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • 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 […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • 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 […]

    Biodiversivist Culture

  • 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 […]

    Mike Cermak Culture

  • 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 […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • From Leo to Lunchables

    Photo: Steve Granitz / WireImage.comWin a date with Leonardo DiCaprio In a bid to raise funds, Global Green is offering a titanic opportunity: Be part of this boy’s life … if only for one night. Catch him if you can — bidding is likely to continue ’til the 11th hour. (Click below to see the […]

    Sarah van Schagen Culture

  • Losing Earth Day in the eco-babble

    Jennifer OladipoOnce I started to honestly contemplate the issue at hand, a tiny wave of anxiety came over me. I’d sat down ready to list all the reasons why Earth Day Matters, but none came. None that I believed in wholeheartedly. OK, the commemorative day is certainly a useful tool for organizing events, and a […]

    Jennifer Oladipo Culture

  • Eating your veggies doesn’t have to be scary

    Tip #5: Eat your vegetables. Save some moolah (and Ma Earth) by switching out meat for veggies at least one day a week. Don’t let them sense your fear.Jeremy E.W. Fredericksen via Creative CommonsIt’s tried and true advice, from the USDA to First Lady Michelle Obama to your mom: Eat more veggies. Considering 78 percent […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Green Tea Party

    House of Sims via Flickr It’s Tax Day, and since our eco-advice on that front is pretty straightforward (save paper and file online!), we thought we’d focus instead on the other event that’s brewing. Unless you’ve been ignoring cable news altogether for the past few weeks, you already know that lots of people plan to […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Earth Day: the ultimate empty gesture

    Dan AkstThank God for Earth Day: another occasion for affluent white Americans to feel good about themselves by enacting some pointless environmental ritual. Perhaps we can all drive to the festivities in our hulking SUVs. Can you blame me for being cynical? Every dinner party I attend is marked by pious denunciations of greed and […]

    Daniel Akst Culture