Climate Culture

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  • Ian McEwan writing a novel about climate change — with funniness!

    Ian McEwan. Photo: Eamon McCabe Booker Prize-winning British novelist Ian McEwan, now best known for Atonement, is at work on a new novel about climate change that will include “extended comic stretches,” The Guardian reports. The unnamed work isn’t due out for another two years, but McEwan read an excerpt to an audience in Wales […]

    Lisa Hymas Culture

  • Umbra on carbon calculators

    Dearest Umbra, I recently heard an interesting interview on NPR, and the speaker was talking about how, to stop global warming, all humans would have to limit their carbon emissions to just one ton of carbon per person, per year. I’ve never weighed my carbon emissions, but I’m going to guess that I throw a […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Discovery’s new green network launches tomorrow

    Do not adjust your television set. What you are seeing — the rebranding of Discovery Home Channel as Planet Green — is perfectly normal. Actually, it’s better than normal; it’s making “green” normal. Beginning at 6 p.m. EDT tomorrow, some 50 million homes will be introduced to 250 hours of original green lifestyle programming as […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Are we medicating and educating our solutions away?

    Best talk on education ever, from Sir Ken Robinson:

    JMG Culture

  • An Inconvenient Musical plays on

    Think the idea of An Inconvenient Opera is a bit off-key? You might be singing a different tune after reading this: Apparently, An Inconvenient Musical opened to sold-out crowds in Toronto last summer. Says Kurt Firla, co-director/writer of the production: It’s a satirical look at the climate crisis, corporate greed, and the general public’s reluctance […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Your sporting roundup for the month

    Apparently, people are still playing sports. Who knew? Beijing Olympics 2008: The Games will be “basically” carbon neutral, according to one official. Technology Minister Wan Gang predicts that the Olympics will emit 1.3 million tons of carbon dioxide — thanks in large part to athletes’ travel — but that keeping cars off the road and […]

    Sarah K. Burkhalter Culture

  • Ozone-depleting asthma inhalers being phased out

    Asthma inhalers containing ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons will be phased out by the end of 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Friday. The phaseout of CFCs is required under the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty that the United States actually deigned to sign on to. Alternatives to CFC inhalers use hydrofluoroalkanem as a propellant; HFA […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • More hybrid electric bikes hit the streets

    I have received hundreds of emails from people wanting to build a hybrid electric bike. I have a standard response that attempts to dissuade them, which seems to work pretty well: You will have to spend about $1,400 on parts, excluding the bicycle. When it breaks -- and it will break -- you will be on your own to fix it. If you are not a reasonably fit cyclist and expect this bike to perform like a scooter, you are going to be disappointed.

    This generally takes care of the technically challenged chain smokers looking for a cheap scooter. I don't hear back from most, other than maybe a thank you note. If you have to ask for help, you probably shouldn't be building one.

    Biodiversivist Culture

  • Implications of the study linking childhood lead exposure and adult criminality

    A study just published in the journal PLoS Medicine (and written up in the L.A. Times) suggests a link between childhood lead exposure and adult arrests for violent crimes. Studying 250 adults for whom they had prenatal and childhood blood lead level measurements, University of Cincinnati researchers found that each 5-microgram-per-deciliter increase in blood lead levels at age 6 was associated with a nearly 50 percent increased risk of arrest as a young adult (the risk ratio was 1.48).

    The good news is that overall, U.S. children's blood lead levels have dropped dramatically since manufacturers started phasing lead out of paint and gasoline in the mid-1970s. The bad news is that 40 percent of the nation's housing still contains lead-based paint, and hundreds of thousands of children still have blood lead levels associated with neurological problems.

    When we as a society consider whether to regulate hazardous substances, we need to remember that allowing their continued use can have severe consequences. The lead saga demonstrates that even when environmental and health advocates succeed in getting hazardous substances out of consumer products, the damage can be extremely costly and long-lasting.

    Liz Borkowski Culture

  • More employees encouraged to telecommute, work short weeks

    Employers across the country are offering workers the option to telecommute or work a four-day week to help cut down on fuel costs. Compressed work weeks are particularly attractive to employees who work in places without reliable mass transit — especially since a 10-hour day can mean coming in early and leaving late enough to […]

    Grist staff Culture