Climate Culture
All Stories
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Three guidebooks for a dream vacation at your dining-room table
Eat your way around the world, without leaving home. If you had to choose one place in the world to go for a summer break, where would it be? For me, it would be a place I stayed once in Puglia, at the heel of Italy’s boot. In 2003, my friends and I spent a […]
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Drought hampering Fourth of July celebrations
Friday is July 4, otherwise known in the U.S. as the Fourth of July. Independence-celebrating Americans are accustomed to gazing upon red-glaring rockets, air-bursting bombs, and other shows of pyrotechnic pomp — but this year, many fireworks shows may lose their sparkle. Because of drought conditions, many shows across the country have been canceled, and […]
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Green Onion
The Onion’s green issue is out, and it’s a doozy — from eco-junkies recycling (“If you come across an old needle lying around, by all means, use it”), to crediting Working Assets’ long-distance with the planet’s survival, to an opinion piece by a smokestack (“Soon, my tummy starts to feel full. And when I feel […]
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15 green books you can actually read at the beach
Green books that are fun to read? What a novel idea. So maybe you’ll finally have a chance to catch up on some reading this summer. But so many of those books about the environment seem kind of … well, homework-y. What’s a vacationing enviro to do? Turn to Grist for advice, of course! Here […]
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An interview with author James Howard Kunstler
Author and social critic James Howard Kunstler, known for predicting our post-peak-oil future in nonfiction works such as The Long Emergency, has also brought his forecasts to life through fiction. His newest novel, World Made By Hand, describes the near future in a small town in upstate New York — not unlike the place Kunstler […]
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An absorbing news story
A nice bit of engineering problem solving! Anything that discourages people from switching from incandescents (5 percent useful light, 95 percent wasted energy) to compact fluorescent bulbs while we wait for the prices on good LED bulbs to come down is a bad thing.
One thing you hear from the nutjobs is how terrible the mercury in CFL bulbs is, and what an EPA nightmare you will have on your hands if you break one of these in your house.
A clever solution is pending: Providing a small bit of mercury absorbing treated cloth with the bulbs so that, in event of a break (rare -- I have many of these bulbs, and have moved them several times without breakage), you simply put the cloth over the break and it sucks up the mercury, and you recycle the cloth so the mercury is recaptured. Neat!
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Manufactured Landscapes is as good as they say
Obviously I need to watch movies faster. Almost a year ago today I posted about wanting to watch Manufactured Landscapes, featuring the work of photographer Edward Burtynsky, mainly shot in China. I finally got around to it.Not only is the movie visually arresting, but it is very, very disturbing.
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Mercedes to offer a petroleum-free lineup by 2015
In the next seven years, Mercedes-Benz wants to eliminate petroleum-powered vehicles from its lineup. According to AutoblogGreen, "The German giant is working on a variety of technologies that will help provide crude oil free transport such as battery electrics, fuel cells and highly efficient internal combustion engines that can operate on biofuels."
The automaker already has two new powertrains in either the concept or trial stages of development. The concept F700, which debuted in Frankfurt in fall 2007, is powered by a DiesOtto engine that combines Homogenous Charge Compression Ignition with spark ignition to get nearly the same efficiency as a diesel engine. According to the EcoGeek post, "The engine can run on biofuels, and we may have a purchasable vehicle by 2010."
Last week, Phil Lanning of the Sun (U.K.) gleefully reviewed the F700 on the track in Seville, Spain.
Of more interest to auto consumers on the left side of the pond: Mercedes also intends to offer an electric Smart ForTwo. Currently, one hundred of these adorable multi-colored vehicles scampering around London are already electric (and getting free parking -- but not for long!). Yet the official market release will not occur until 2010. Mercedes intends to offer an electric version of another model but has been tight-lipped about which one. Rumors, however, abound.
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From Yellin’ to Melon
Are you yella? Kids driving you crazy? Steer ’em onto this trike: the louder they scream, the farther away they’ll go. The shitty by the bay San Franciscans will flush with pride when they honor the nation’s Number One with a building that filters their number two. The soon-to-be George W. Bush Sewage Plant is […]
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