Climate Culture

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  • aka ‘glamping’

    I’m not sure how I feel about glamorous camping — aka “glamping” — a growing trend in North America among "affluent travelers who want to enjoy the outdoors but can’t fathom using a smelly outhouse." (Really? Me neither!) On the one hand, I wanted to start this post off with some comment about how this […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • A Humane Society retailer guide

    After seeing my list of green fashionistas, the Humane Society contacted me about its fur-free shopping guide. It’s a helpful resource that includes information on the fur-free policies of more than 50 retailers. Check it out. (Thanks to commenter amc89 for mentioning it as well.)

    Grist staff Culture

  • Backpacker’s global warming issue

    About six months too late to be part of our "oh look, all the glossies are going green" trend piece, Backpacker magazine has put together its own global warming issue. And yes, before y’all ask, it’s printed on recycled, chlorine-free paper. The cover features a hiker waist-deep in water with a submerged mountain behind him […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • BioWillie pens a biodiesel book

    Willie Nelson is talking about biodiesel again. This time in book form, and the result is On the Clean Road Again: Biodiesel and the Future of the Family Farm. The 90-some-page pocket-size book (it’s like a li’l Willie you can carry with you everywhere!) is divided into two parts: the past (or the history of […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • NYC debates grass v. artificial turf on playing fields

    This NYT piece is interesting in that oh-I-never-thought-of-that sort of way. Grass playing fields are — in New York City, at least — an endangered species: To avoid the ignominy of being trampled underfoot, the grass fields need to be idle all winter, and once a week the rest of the year. As a result, […]

    Sarah K. Burkhalter Culture

  • Is it really a savior for smallholder farmers in the global south?

    In the latest Victual Reality, I addressed the "eat-local backlash" — the steady trickle of media reports seeking to debunk the supposed social and environmental benefits of eating from one’s foodshed. Some of the charges are easy to refute. Hey, in Maine, it takes more energy to produce hothouse tomatoes in January than it does […]

    Tom Philpott Culture

  • A virtual world

    I scream, you scream, we all scream for an orangutan selling ice cream. On WWF’s virtual island in online world Second Life. From the press release: On Conservation Island, if residents "buy" an ice-cream from Mr Tangee, the orangutan who runs the ice-cream van, they will have the chance to learn that plantations to provide […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Eco-events all over the world

    There's a rash of "greener" fashion weeks popping up everywhere for the spring 2008 fashion season. And there must be an alignment of the stars or the higher workings of an omnipotent green god, because there is barely any overlap in dates. If you were so inclined, it would be possible for you to attend every single one of the shows listed below -- though the jet lag and carbon emissions from such an excursion might leave you feeling a bit ... restless.

    I'll be in Seattle, Paris, and New York, and maybe San Francisco, so please drop in and say hello if you are nearby.

    As enthusiasm for the green design movement continues to grow and the market becomes more robust and sophisticated, it is my (secret) hope to dethrone the Karl Lagerfelds of the world, who went on record to say, "If you want social justice, be a social worker."

    Down, down with the status quo. Hear, hear for revolution.

    Summer Rayne Oakes Culture

  • Grist presents lists of eco-notable people, places, and things

    15 Green Actors 15 Green Buildings 15 Green Business Founders 15 Green Cars 15 Green Chefs 15 Green Cities 15 Green Colleges 15 Green Fashion Finds 15 Green Fashionistas 15 Green Movies 15 Green Musicians and Bands 15 Green Politicians 15 Green Religious Leaders 15 Green Sports Stars

    Grist staff Culture

  • Don’t pretend to write about this stuff out of concern, please

    A while back, a guy who writes for a magazine called Radar emailed to alert me of his "exclusive" discovery that Barbara Streisand is totally a hypocrite!!1! I replied, in so many words: eh. Apparently it struck a nerve, as he has now gone on to pen an opus that strains mightily to convince us […]

    David Roberts Culture