Climate Culture

We shed a tear

Fundamentalist Christian minister Jerry Falwell is dead at 73. It’s probably churlish to use the occasion of someone’s death to point out that said person was a paranoid, avaricious, hate-spewing enabler of America’s basest lizard-brain impulses, so I won’t go there. I will, however, note that one of the proudest moments of my young career […]

When is pizza not a turkey sandwich?

What we have available to eat is controlled by different businesses in different ways. Whether they are responsive to our needs and desires is something about which Americans can and should be at lot more vocal.

We arrived at the boarding gate at George Bush Intercontinental Airport about an hour before the scheduled departure time, stripped of any liquids over 3.4 ounces not stored in a clear, quart-size, zip-top plastic bag. I went to the service desk to ask the airline rep what food would be provided on our flight. (This is the airline which runs TV ads boasting that unlike their competitors they offer food on their flights.) The airline's website establishes that economy passengers get a sandwich on a flight like this one. Here's what we got:

Trouble With a Capital B

Chemicals play a big role in breast-cancer cases, says report You know how Tammy Wynette said sometimes it’s hard to be a woman? Well, it just got harder: a new report finds a potential link between breast cancer and 216 chemicals, including 35 common air pollutants and 73 food or consumer-product ingredients. Racking up evidence […]

Isn’t aiding and abetting tax evasion a crime?

Does anyone remember what a petard is? I think most folks only know them from the line in Shakespeare -- they picture some kind of quaint device, a Flintstones-like crane ... so you could be "hoisted on your own petard" in a clever, comical way.

Actually, a petard is a kind of primitive land mine.

The airlines have built an enormous petard beneath themselves; alas, they will not be the only ones hoisted when it explodes. 14 trillion miles of "free" flying outstanding ... man, that's a bunch of flying. OK, if only 1 percent are actually turned into flights, then it's only 140 billion miles of "free" jet travel.

The wheels on the bike go round and round …

Happy Bike-to-Work Week! (She said hypocritically, eyeing her bus pass.) If you can’t handle the whole week, this Friday, May 18, is Bike-to-Work Day. (She said hypocritically, eyeing her invisible bike.) And FYI, May is Bike-to-Work Month. (She said tardily, eyeing her calendar.) Here are 50 things you can do to celebrate [PDF]. Or just […]

From the guy who wrote the book on the GM EV1, literally

Michael Shnayerson, who literally wrote the book on the ill-fated GM EV1, has an excellent piece in last month's Vanity Fair about the Tesla Roadster.

Quoting is redundant -- the whole article is fun and packed with attention to personal detail. Eventually, someone is going to have to write a biography of Alan Cocconi, who seems to be at the center of all the electric car efforts of the last quarter-century or so.

Eric Henry, sustainable T-shirt maker extraordinaire, answers questions

Eric Henry. What work do you do? I am the president of T.S. Designs. How does it relate to the environment? We provide the highest-quality, most-sustainable printed T-shirts on the market. We define that as being made of organic cotton or other sustainable fibers, manufactured in the U.S., and printed and dyed with our environmentally […]

Why we need to make makers take back what they make

Here's an actual photo of something some bikers found while doing a bikelane/bikepath cleanup day -- now, who says we don't need extended producer responsibility laws?

Critical Mass Seattle style

I participated in my first Critical Mass ride a few Fridays ago. I thought I'd better post on it and get this photo out of my cell phone. Can you spot the guy with no pants on?

There was also a dude with a drum on his handlebars and someone else with a nice sound system on a trailer. I'm guessing that there were about 300 riders.

A public service announcement

It has nothing to do with green anything, but this is the funniest damn thing I’ve ever read.