Climate Culture

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  • 15 Green Sports Stars

    Check out our roster of green sports stars, then pitch your own suggestions in the comments section at the bottom of the page. Photo: Imaginechina / WireImage Yao Ming At seven and a half feet tall, NBA star Ming isn’t afraid to stand up for endangered species. He’s spoken out against the hunting of sharks […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Start with CFLs, and let the lightbulb go on

    Today's post on how gloom and doom messaging backfires -- on Katya Andresen's excellent nonprofit marketing blog -- backs up David Roberts' posts on fear-based messaging being bad for green issues here and here. It's more important to empower people than scare them, Andresen says. Grist keeps a good balance in this regard. I think she's right on the money:

    Go negative with caution. You must give people the feeling that they have the power to help, not the feeling they are helpless or that your issue is intractable .... If you scare with scale, you'll lose. If you empower with feasible steps, you'll make social change ... I feel the same way about apocalyptic messages about global warming. I feel powerless to stop the flooding of the world. Ask me to buy different light bulbs, however, or take some other action that is feasible, and I will.

    We can't stop climate change with just CFLs, but encouraging folks to do so opens a window into a deeper conversation about what else we must do.

    Erik Hoffner Culture

  • From Coke to Cockpit

    Don’t let the Gore hit you on the way out Dear Al, did you think we wouldn’t hear about how you slammed Grist List at your little book signing? Did you think your comments about the “trivialities and nonsense” of celeb goss in the media wouldn’t hurt us? We take back everything nice we ever […]

    Sarah K. Burkhalter & Sarah van Schagen Culture

  • Blue lanes, cage locks, and cyclibraries

    Separate bikeways are the lead actors in bike-friendly cities, but many supporting actors complete the cast: bikes on transit facilities, good traffic law enforcement, even bike "lifts" on steep hills. Three more worth mentioning are blue lanes, parking cages, and cyclibraries.

    Blue lanes.

    Alan Durning Culture

  • Looks like the plug-in might actually happen

    volttop.jpgGeneral Motors is apparently serious about introducing a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, which I have repeatedly argued is the car of the future (PDF). The race is now on between Toyota and GM as to who will be the first to introduce this game-changing vehicle.

    The Chevy Volt is to be the "legacy" of Robert Lutz, GM's vice chair of product development, according to Business Week's "Auto Beat" column. The Volt will go about 40 miles on an electric charge before reverting to being a regular gasoline-powered hybrid.

    Joseph Romm Culture

  • Can a bag of potato chips point the way to saving the planet?

    Peter Madden, chief executive of Forum for the Future, writes a monthly column for Gristmill on sustainability in the U.K. and Europe.

    Can a bag of potato chips point the way to saving the planet?

    Green tag. Photo: iStockphoto

    In the U.K., we have started down the path of putting "carbon labels" on products. Tesco, our biggest supermarket chain, has said they will label every product they sell. The Carbon Trust, a government agency, has already produced a prototype label and is trying it out on shampoo, a fruit juice, and a bag of potato chips.

    Clearly we do need to measure and manage carbon. A lot has been done to calculate and reduce the direct climate impacts of companies. Now attention is shifting to the wider climate-change footprint; businesses are looking up and down the supply chain.

    Labeling is a great idea in principle. We have seen labels like fair-trade, organic, energy-rating, and marine stewardship engage consumers, change production, and move markets. And on climate change, consumers tell us they want simple, straightforward choices that are guaranteed to make a difference.

    Peter Madden Culture

  • The Girls of Grist do Sasquatch

    A group of Grist hotties ladies just returned from the Sasquatch Music Festival at the Gorge in George, Wash., where we spent two days volunteering at the TRASHed Recycling Store, sponsored by Global Inheritance, a hip nonprofit based in California that combines creativity, youthful enthusiasm, and activism into unique, progressive-minded projects. They travel around and […]

    Kate Sheppard Culture

  • And start a green tour

    Live Earth organizers announced today that Linkin Park will headline the Tokyo show. They also announced that Japan will be the only country to have two events — one in surburban Tokyo (the mainstage featuring Linkin Park) and one at a Buddhist temple in Kyoto (and I think you get the connection there). The Kyoto […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Two Green Builders Take Trains Leaving From Different Stations…

    U.S. schools betting on benefits of going green When we were kids, the only thing green about our schools was the vomit-hued paint on the bathroom walls. But times change, and these days, schools across the U.S. are incorporating green features that save money, improve student performance, and help protect the planet. The trend is […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • An hour-long discussion

    Here’s Al Gore appearing on Charlie Rose. It’s about an hour long:

    David Roberts Culture