Climate Culture

Depends how you define green

On 7/7/07, climate change awareness will officially rock, as a series of concerts kick off at venues as far afield as Shanghai, Sydney, and the South Pole. Chatter about the Live Earth concerts has been rampant for months as bits of gossip trickled in here and there. Though organizers still promise a few surprises, much […]

Natalie names a baby gorilla

Adorable actress and Grist–darling Natalie Portman visited a Rwandan wildlife park Saturday to name one of 23 baby mountain gorillas. Naming her gorilla “Ahazaza,” meaning “future,” Portman and others hoped to draw attention to conservation efforts for the highly endangered primates. I’ve yet to find any images from the event, but I’m sure Cute Overload […]

A good reason we shouldn’t love trees, at least not in this case

Everybody loves trees. They are so popular as offsets they even make Wikipedia's definition:

When one is unable or unwilling to reduce one's own emissions, Carbon offset is the act of reducing ("offsetting") greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere. A well-known example is the planting of trees to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions from personal air travel.

But does planting trees reduce global warming? Not in most places on the earth. The Carnegie Institution's Ken Caldeira summarized the result of a major 2005 study (PDF) this way: "To plant forests to mitigate climate change outside of the tropics is a waste of time."

Why? Because forest canopies are relatively dark, compared to what they replace outside the tropics -- grass, croplands, or snowfields -- and so they absorb more of the sun's heating rays that fall on them. That negates the "carbon sink" benefit trees have soaking up carbon dioxide. Worse, the study found that planting a large number of trees in high latitudes would "probably have a net warming effect on the Earth's climate." Ouch!

Umbra on fireworks

Dear Umbra, Our family has always lit a fair amount of fireworks for our 4th of July celebration. I would like to encourage my family and friends to find other ways to celebrate due to the CO2 emissions that will result. However, I don’t really know how much carbon is emitted. I already have to […]

After All, She Knows The Secret

Poll respondents pick Al, Oprah, and Kofi as climate messengers Recent polls have shown that people all over the world … join hands, start a love train, love train! Oh sorry, we get distracted. People all over the world are worried about the environment — and the latest poll says that Oprah could help save […]

Another rad bike

The coolest, greenest bike ever.

Tubular, dude!

Nature is still the best engineer -- though good human ones take advantage whenever possible.

Here's a terrific, hopeful story about a bike designer who got a dog-gone good idea about making bike frames out of a widely grown, cheap, strong, environmentally sound material: bamboo.

Now we just need to get BioD and this guy hooked up:

What next? Socialized medicine?

A new report (PDF) claims that more Americans are likely to opt for diesel vehicles over hybrids in the near future in the quest for fuel economy: total sales of hybrids and diesels will hit 2.7 million annually by 2012, and diesels will account for more than half (1.5 million) of those sales.

"A new diesel's cost burden is lower than hybrid's for similar fuel economy -- even with the 'clean' technologies needed to meet tough U.S. emissions regulations (including California)," the report claims.

Good or bad, there's little doubt that more diesel vehicles are on the horizon.

15 Green Movies

And … action! We’ve reeled in a cast of green-themed flicks; pop some popcorn, see what made the cut, then play critic in the comments section at the bottom of the page. An Inconvenient Truth Mr. Gore went to Washington, and we all know how that turned out. But when Al hit Hollywood, it was […]

From Die Hard to Diet

Welcome to the party, pal Is Bruce Willis saying he’d live green or die hard? On David Letterman this week, the fourquel star wore a wind turban and recycled-rubber boxers, joked about “global humidity,” and plugged a new film project, An Unappealing Hunch. Uh, what you talkin’ ’bout, Willis? Photo: Harold Cunningham / WireImage.com Pipe […]