Climate Culture

How to reach Joe Sixpack on climate issues

Gore's spending $300 million on it, but actually, I think a more direct approach might do the trick.

The green-collar jobs movement tests its voice in Memphis

Pat Walters is a freelance journalist based in Memphis. He’s captivated by stories about ecology, landscape, and culture. His work has appeared in publications including The St. Petersburg Times and The New York Times Magazine. And he’s very happy his job is green. Friday, 11 Apr 2008 MEMPHIS, Tenn. To read more Grist coverage of […]

Umbra on video games saving the world

Dear Umbra, Does the increasing use of video games as a form of recreation bode well for the environment? Fewer people using real resources means less of an impact on the world. Tadeusz Rockville, Md. Dear Tadeusz, Now that is an interesting spin on things. No one knows the complete answer, and we won’t know […]

Leo’s new condo full of green amenities, paparazzi

Attention, paparazzi: It’s Leonardo DiCaprio’s 11th Hour in his current New York abode. He’s Departed (or will soon) for a new LEED-certified condo in Manhattan’s Battery Park City neighborhood. DiCaprio’s new digs are quite the eco-residence, featuring solar panels, a green roof, and units "decked out with locally obtained renewable materials and low- or nonpollutant […]

A tasting of seven organic beers

Can’t get enough of that frothy stuff. Photo: iStockphoto Why is beer so good? The question has perplexed humanity since the dawn of agricultural civilization 10,000 years ago. Archeological records show that beer-making evolved with bread-making: both are ways of using fermentation to preserve grain, the first cultivated crop. To make beer, you let grain […]

Umbra on library furniture

Dear Umbra, I work in an academic library that has just received funding to purchase new furniture for the first time in over 20 years. As such, the committee examining this is very interested in purchasing stuff that will last a long time and be attractive and comfortable well into the future. We are purchasing […]

Industrial agrofuels: enemy of the entire planet

Apologies for the terrible photo, but it was pouring (and snowing) when I took it. That's Duff Badgley again, the dirty hippie, protesting at a Safeway store. You can see the marquee advertising the price of B-5 (5 percent) biodiesel at $4.20 a gallon.

Biofuel proponents are not going to like having their fuel compared to coal, but think about it. Most of the CO2 in the United States comes from liquid fossil fuels. Replace them with today's biofuels, and you would have an unmitigated ecological disaster of planet-killing proportions. In other words, the more we use, the worse it gets.

Removing mountaintops and dumping the tailings in mountain streams is beyond bad, but biofuels have already razed more ecosystems than all the coal mines in history, and coal has never contributed to food shortages. So, which sign is more appropriate? The icing on the cake, of course, is the new science pointing out that biofuels are also worse for global warming.

NYT says blogging can be deadly

There's a story in The New York Times in which a journalist uses the recent death of two bloggers from heart attacks to cobble together a fairy tale that links blogging to myocardial infarction. Ah, the lay press ... entertainment for the masses -- or better yet, the art of turning nothing into advertising revenue.

The Dream Reborn conference hits Memphis this weekend

Yesterday in Memphis, a crowd stood outside the Lorraine Motel to quietly honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the place where he died 40 years ago. All day long, it rained.

A couple blocks away, another sort of commemoration was going on. There was chanting. A man played a drum and a choir sang. There was lots and lots and lots of clapping.

Several hundred people had gathered in a conference room to kick off The Dream Reborn, a weekend-long event designed to ignite discussion and collaboration among leaders of the green jobs movement.

Green jobs have gotten a lot of attention lately, but in case you haven't caught the buzz, here's the idea: Green industries, including everything from solar panel manufacture to community garden construction, are creating thousands of new jobs. The green jobs movement is helping poor people find those jobs and use them to break out of poverty.

Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx and a leading voice in the movement, explained it like this: "America must be green for all. We believe that the transitional green economy should be used to move people out of poverty, so our country can finally set the example on how to treat people with dignity and protect the earth at the same daggone time!"

Friday music blogging: Thao Nguyen

Thao NguyenThao Nguyen is a San Francisco singer-songwriter who sometimes tours with her band as Thao with the Get Down Sit Down. That’s about all I know about her. I love this song from her new album We Brave Bee Stings and All.