Climate Culture

Lessons from a sustainable-food conference at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Information you can eat. Photo: Monterey Bay Aquarium/Randy Wilder A couple of months ago, I wrote about how the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California comes up with its wallet-sized cards — the ones that tell us what seafood choices are sustainable. I got so interested in the topic that when I got an invitation to […]

Harrison Ford’s chest wax as PSA

Remember that whole "Harrison Ford got a chest wax to illustrate the pain of deforestation" thing? Yeah, here’s the resulting PSA for Conservation International: Check out the behind-the-scenes footage.

Umbra on water conservation

We need to live now as if the future has already happened.

Wired magazine bursts a blood vessel doing its contrarian thing

To your right, you’ll see the cover of this month’s Wired magazine. The premise of the issue is that climate change is now the only eco-problem that matters, but to solve it, we’ll have to slaughter the sacred cows of environmentalism. (2001 called. It wants its framing device back.) So what are these heresies that […]

Small-town politics meets big-time energy crisis

Last night I went to the town meeting where I live, which — well, if you’ve never lived anywhere podunk enough to have a town meeting, you’re missing out. This one was just as I remember them from my childhood, though PowerPoint has replaced mimeographed pages: ambition, exhaustion, confusion, and the one crusty, bearded guy […]

Coming to terms with the reality of a world of refugees

There's definitely a survivalist streak building in the environmental movement. Mainstream newspapers are starting to run stories about survivalism.

There are quite a few people who hear that the energy peak or climate change is coming and believe that building up their stocks of ammo and heading for the hills is the way to go. I recognize, even if I do not share, that impulse: It is the impulse to protect your own, the panic you feel when you realize that your society, which on some level is supposed to protect you, hasn't planned ahead for this one. And so there's a tendency of people to get into discussions about what happens when refugees or hungry folk come around, and a lot of times the answer is that you have to protect your own again. Protect your own means "shoot people," in many cases.

A dozen men’s shaving creams get put to the blade

The best a man can get? For men, shaving surely ranks as one of our most bizarre daily rituals: We take a razor-sharp blade, scald it hot with water, and scrape the hair off of our faces and necks — even the regions over our jugular veins. Yikes. And to complicate matters yet more, we […]

Putting the fun between your legs

A very good blog aimed at recumbent bike riders has morphed into what will probably be an even better blog for all riders: EcoVelo.

Hybrid speedboat makes its debut

You knew it had to happen sometime — luxury speedboats have gone green! Well, at least one has: California resource officials got a ride Friday in what Austrian manufacturer Frauscher Bootswerft says is the world’s first hybrid recreational boat. The speedy, sleek 25-footer has a combo electric-diesel engine. California Resources Secretary Michael Chrisman’s reaction after […]

Umbra on tent caterpillars

Dear Umbra, In beautiful Virginia, this is the time of year that the caterpillars start making their “tents” in branches of shrubbery and trees in our yards. Conventional wisdom has been to destroy them, as they will surely eat the leaves inside the tent, causing some damage to the infected tree/shrub. So I have two […]