Climate Culture

All Stories

  • Test-tube flesh, coming soon to a hot dog near you

    In Checkout Line, Lou Bendrick cooks up answers to reader questions about how to green their food choices and other diet-related quandaries. Lettuce know what food worries keep you up at night. —– Dear Lou, I hear that PETA has come out in favor of the development of test-tube meat. What’s up with that? I […]

    Lou Bendrick Culture

  • Review of a converted 3Prong Power plug-in Prius

    The world is waiting for the major car companies to offer electric vehicles. But you — you are accustomed to instant gratification. This is America, after all, and you want to plug-in now. Well, you don’t have to wait for the Big Three to get out of their corporate jets and get to work. You […]

    Adam Browning Culture

  • Long forgotten, chestnuts are coming back with a vengeance, and make a delicious holiday pudding

      Nuts about chestnuts.   I first learned about chestnuts from “The Christmas Song” (most likely, the Chipmunks’ version), not from tasting one. That happened much later. A couple of years ago, a farmer brought locally grown chestnuts to the back door of the restaurant where I worked. My coworkers and I were excited to […]

    April McGreger Culture

  • Umbra on turning down the heat

    Dear Umbra, Many of my friends are environmentally minded and do lots of things to try to have a smaller carbon footprint. Yet when I tell people I turn my heat down when I leave the house even for an hour or two, and that I turn it down to 50 at night, they say, […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • A taste test of seven ‘natural’ frozen dinners

      I have fond memories of microwaveable TV dinners from when I was a child: mac ‘n’ cheese, chicken nuggets, unidentifiable green lumps, mushy brown things. The wonder surrounding them was probably due to the fact that we weren’t usually allowed to eat them. Mama Shep is a great cook, and since we grew up […]

    Kate Sheppard Culture

  • Study links fast-food diets to Alzheimer’s

    As the economy plunges into an abyss, consumers are cutting back on spending. They’re desperately seeking bargains, including culinary ones. While most companies deal with declining demand, McDonald’s saw its U.S. sales jump 5.3 percent in the last quarter. At the supermarket, meanwhile, sales of stuff like Spam and Dinty Moore canned stew are surging. […]

    Tom Philpott Culture

  • Turning old bus seat fabric into shoes is a fashion fail

    Recycling? Hot. Public transit? Also hot. Recycling bus seat covers into shoes? Fugly.

    Holly Richmond Culture

  • Umbra on greening the office

    Dear Umbra, The Powers That Be at my job have decided to start a Green Initiative. The project got put on the desk of the office manager, who doesn’t know where to start. I signed up to be a part of the committee, and I was wondering if you had any advice about how to […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Rumors swirl that Brazilian bombshell’s NFL heartthrob BF caught MRSA

    I’ve been writing about the antibiotic-resistant bacteria strain called MRSA for a while. Evidence is mounting that by regularly dumping strong antibiotics into the feed rations of confined hogs, the meat industry is creating virulent bacteria strains that infect humans. My BF’s got a nasty bug! Photo: Daniel Semper. Well, I knew antibiotic abuse by […]

    Tom Philpott Culture

  • Green stuff from the L.A. auto show

    We didn’t do much coverage of the L.A. Auto Show, because we don’t have the resources WE CONDEMN THE DECADENT LEMMING CARBURBAN FANTASIA! But I just read a bunch of stuff about it over on CNet’s CarTech blog, and some of it was quite cool. Probably the biggest news — something I may devote a […]

    David Roberts Culture