Climate Culture
All Stories
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Umbra on pearl production
Dear Umbra, I’m nearly drowning in jewelry ideas for my valentine, but wary of mined gemstones. Do you know anything about the ecological impact of cultured pearls, or the faux “shell pearls”? Swimming to the Surface Slowly Portland, Ore. Dearest SSS, I apologize for missing your Valentine’s window, but you may have seen my wee […]
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An interview with green designer and TV personality John Bruce
John Bruce is living in a material world. But he’s no cone-chested pop star — he’s a green designer. A green designer who, during the course of an hour-long conversation, speaks excitedly about various eco-building materials, professing his love for natural clay plaster and calling sunflower-seed-based particle board “super beautiful.” He even credits his love […]
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From Bus to Busted
Stop! In the name of love On the rare occasion that a desperate chase ends in actually catching the bus, we always end up plopping our disheveled selves next to someone loud and smelly. To people who find love on public transit, we say: no fare! Photo: iStockphoto Par for the course A little birdie […]
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Fishing for hope at a seafood-industry trade show
Photo: Chris Seufert Viewed from a distance, the Boston Convention Center looks a bit like a great white whale — an appropriate setting for the annual International Boston Seafood Show. The building’s vast interior offers great vistas for people-watching, often through huge glass windows. People move through the hallways and aisles in large groups; watching […]
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Umbra on organic bananas
Dear Umbra, Why are organic bananas always smaller and almost always greener than non-organic? BG Tallahassee, Fla. Dearest BG, Hmm. Fresh organic fruits and vegetables often differ in appearance from their conventionally grown kin. They’re the hippies of the produce world: unwaxed, expressing their individualism, coming to the produce stand as they are, lumps and […]
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A review of six green laundry detergents
Let’s get down and dirty … about your laundry habits. You may think you’re in the clear, but every time you use your conventional, chemical-filled detergent, you could be affecting your health — as well as the health of waterways downstream. That doesn’t sound so fresh (and so clean, clean), so I decided to seek […]
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Percentage of 16-year-olds licensed to drive has dropped
The percentage of 16-year-olds with a U.S. driver’s license has decreased sharply in the last decade, from 43.8 percent in 1998 to 29.8 percent in 2006. Rising insurance costs, expensive driver education, and an increase in indoor pastimes are more likely to be driving the trend than environmental awareness — and sure, most yoots still […]
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Umbra on communal clothes drying
Hello Umbra! I’m a college student working to make my school greener and would like to purchase a few relatively sturdy, high-volume clothes drying racks to place in our laundry rooms so that students have an alternative to using the electric dryers. I know these racks exist because I just got back from studying in […]
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Oscars: green, but not braggy
As I reported last week, the Oscars went green(er) again this year. But if you watched the awards show last night, you might have noticed there was nary a mention of it, aside from a few jokes from Jon Stewart — quite a contrast to last year’s Al-and-Leo show. In other green-award-show news, the Independent […]
