Climate Culture

Reflections on protecting your offspring without losing your sanity

Kidhuggers. It’s a gag-me kind of word, too precious to be catchy. And it certainly won’t ever replace the slur-cum-badge-of-honor for enviros — treehuggers. But maybe it should. Illustration: Keri Rosebraugh The green movement has never been about people with an overfondness for bark and flora. Instead, it’s based on a natural protectiveness, an urge […]

Veganism: All or nothing?

The average American weighs about 170 pounds, eats about 180 pounds of meat, gets about 24 mpg, has about two kids, owns about one-third of a cat or dog, and lives in a 2,350-square-foot home. There are lots of ways to alter your carbon footprint. Depending on your personal proclivities, some ways are "easier" than others. You get to pick what is "easiest" for you. For some, the "easiest" thing to do is not have kids. For others it is to go car-free. Not having cats and dogs is easy for many. Choosing a small, energy-efficient home, condo, or apartment works great for some. Eating less meat or less environmentally destructive meats is also an option. This explains why a street person (being largely child-free, car-free, pet-free, meat-free, and homeless) would win any carbon-footprint pissing match. I suppose one could eat meat but still promote veganism, just as I support women's reproductive rights even though I have two children.

Here in America, corn ethanol is supposed to be about 13 percent carbon neutral, and soy biodiesel about 40 percent. Let's say just for the sake of discussion that the less meat you eat, the more vegan you are. Eating no meat makes you 100-percent vegan (100-percent meat neutral). Eating half the national average would make you 50-percent vegan, and eating the national average would make you 0-percent vegan. The beauty of this concept is that we all get to be vegans! I put together a spreadsheet to see how your degree of veganism compares to other choices when it comes to carbon neutrality:

A look at the Emmy’s eco-efforts

The carpet may still have been red at the Emmy Awards last night, but the entire production definitely had a tinge of green. As reported in Grist List on Friday, the event included a solar panel canopy over the grandstands outside, hybrid and alternative-fuel vehicles for transporting stars, locally grown and/or organic food in the […]

A Grist special series on parenting and health

Got kids? Got thoughts on kids? Come on over to our parenting blog to chat. Among environmentalists, a common rallying cry is to protect the planet “for our grandchildren.” It’s a lovely sentiment, and a powerful notion — that the choices you make today affect generations yet to come. But what about the generation spattering […]

From Models to Mates

Televisionary From a solar-panel canopy to locally grown catering goods, the stars walking the recycled red carpet on Sunday will be “green with Emmy.” And speaking of modeling eco-behavior, Tyra’s banking on green as the fashion color of the season. Photo: the CW Network Everybody’s surfin’ now More than 80 surfers recently got on board […]

U.S. Transportation Secretary blames bikes for decay of roads and bridges

When one rides a bicycle, one is able to transport oneself from place to place — thus, one might call a bicycle “transportation.” But not if one is U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. Despite the fact that 10 percent of all U.S. trips to work, school, and store happen on bike or foot, Peters said […]

It’s not that individuals can’t do anything about climate — they just can’t do it by themselves

I’ve been thinking about this debate over voluntary individual action and its place in the larger fight for sustainability (see here, here, and here). It’s missing something. A huge gulf has developed in America between public and private life. This has put green activism — all of progressivism, actually — on the horns of a […]

Talking Rain adds organic water flavors

Talking Rain now has four flavors of organic bottled water. Wow.

Alex Steffen on individual action in context

The perennial debate over the value of voluntary individual action — recently revived by Tidwell’s piece and the sociologists’ response — reminded me that some of the best, or least my favorite, writing on the subject comes from Worldchanging’s Alex Steffen. Like this: And here’s the essential break between lite green and bright green thinking: […]

Washington Post vets green sporting gear

The Washington Post takes a look at athletic products claiming to be green — surfboards, sports balls, skateboards, bikes, and snowboards — and gives a rundown of their eco- and consumer-friendliness from both a layperson and expert perspective.