Climate Culture

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  • Wildfire breaks out at Burning Man

    Strange fires are happening everywhere: California, Europe, and Burning Man.

    Somehow, this morning, the giant effigy at the center of Black Rock City -- the site of the Burning Man Festival in the Nevada desert -- went up in flames this morning at 3 a.m. This is the "Man" I'm talking about, the one that burns at the end of the event on Saturday. The neon -- and this year, for the first time ever, solar-powered -- creature that you orient yourself with to find your way home ... he's gone.

    Burning Man burns
    (photo: Focal Intent, via Flickr)

    Judith Lewis Culture

  • Ball-kickers power stadiums with renewables

    And you thought by “football” in my title I meant football? Pssh. I do love me some obscure European soccer news. So with no further ado: Scottish soccer team powers its stadium floodlights with wind power! Swiss soccer team has the world’s largest stadium-integrated photovoltaic system on the roof of the Stade de Suisse Wankdorf […]

    Sarah K. Burkhalter Culture

  • Colbert on the Northern Passage

    Funny:

    David Roberts Culture

  • Rich lifestyles are getting greener, if not smaller

    I guess how you react to this story about the rich trying to go green will depend entirely on the assumptions you bring to it: Yet with the green movement in vogue, the rich are looking for ways to compensate for their carbon-dioxide generation, which is linked to global warming, without crimping their style. Some […]

    David Roberts Culture

  • New WA cell phone is ‘climate neutral’

    In the interest of persuading the company’s extremely tenacious PR person to give me a moment’s peace, I’d like to direct your attention to the new (and world’s first!) "climate-neutral phone" from Working Assets. (Moral hazard alert: The phone is climate neutral through the purchase of offsets, which we all know are just medieval indulgences […]

    David Roberts Culture

  • Strung Out

    Clotheslines growing more popular in U.S. The clothesline, nemesis of backyard cyclists everywhere, is making a comeback thanks to green awareness and energy costs. Many communities and homeowner’s associations have banned the misunderstood expanse of rope, assuming that neighbors aren’t interested in each other’s dirty — or clean — laundry. But as a burgeoning “right […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • From Glamp to Glam

    Best of in-tents Hello muddah, hello faddah, here we are at Glamp Granada. Glam’rous camping‘s entertaining. And we’ll surely have some fun once we’re deplane-ing. Butler’s tending to the fire. Of chef’s prepped food, we won’t tire. Maid gives pillows a little fluff-it. Why would anybody ever want to rough it? Puff daddy In an […]

    Sarah K. Burkhalter & Sarah van Schagen Culture

  • And synthetic turf, to boot

    Beijing’s four-day trial run of keeping vehicles off of its roads was either wildly successful or a complete wash, depending who you ask. The city plans to put 50,000 bicycles out to rent during the Games in hopes of easing congestion and pollution. (But will they be in fancy vending machines)? You’ll also be glad […]

    Sarah K. Burkhalter Culture

  • A biodegradable doggie bag

    This week, here at Grist HQ, we got an interesting package in the mail that contained two biodegradable doggie bags. No, not for your leftover takeout … but rather, ahem, for your doggie’s leftovers. The Skooperbox, which actually looks quite like a takeout box, is apparently made of 100 percent recycled material and is 100 […]

    Sarah van Schagen Culture

  • Bush administration complicit in lead-toy debacle

    While China has endured a lot of criticism from the lead-toy debacle, the Bush administration is not off the hook. Consumer advocates say the anti-regulation administration has hindered attempts to crack down on inspection of imported Chinese playthings; in addition, critics accuse the feds of encouraging the Consumer Product Safety Commission to be less oriented to consumer safety and more focused on pleasing manufacturers. "We've been complaining about this issue, warning it is going to happen, and it is disappointing that it has happened," says Tom Neltner of the Sierra Club, which sued the U.S. EPA in December after the agency chose not to require safety studies for companies using lead in children's products. China is, of course, far from guilt-free: It's currently fighting a CPSC proposal that would reduce allowable lead levels in children's jewelry.

    source: McClatchy Newspapers

    Grist staff Culture