Climate Culture

Lewis Black on celebs giving green advice

Lewis Black on celebs telling America to go green: "So there you have it, advice on saving the planet Earth from a bunch of people who couldn’t even save Planet Hollywood."    

Da Pope!

His Most Excellent Holy Royal Pontificationist would like you to go green: According to Vatican sources, the present Pope is far more engaged in the green debate than John Paul. In the past year Benedict has spoken strongly on the need to preserve rainforests. In the next few weeks he visits Brazil. “There is no […]

Build your stockpile of gas now!

Gasoline supplies right now are plumbing historic lows, just as May and the "summer driving season" are about to roll around. This fact has the industry types at the WSJ's Energy Roundup abuzz with predictions of $4/gallon gasoline, should the inevitable disruption (refinery fire, hurricane, Iran war) occur. As in years past, areas with higher cost gasoline, mostly the blue states along the oceans and Great Lakes, will see the highest prices.

Poll results!

The NYT has a bucketload of important poll results. Here’s the full poll; here’s the summary: Americans in large bipartisan numbers say the heating of the earth’s atmosphere is having serious effects on the environment now or will soon and think that it is necessary to take immediate steps to reduce its effects, the latest […]

From Flushing to Flooding

As a matter of fact, no, she can’t spare a square This turn of events was made for Grist Listin’: A suggestion to tear with care made Sheryl Crow the butt of many, many jokes this week. But did you hear how she wiped the smile off rapmaster Rove, tellin’ him climate change won’t do […]

The new NYT piece does not disappoint

I can’t believe no Gristian has yet commented on the latest Michael Pollan piece in the NYT. What, is saying “Pollan has a new piece and it’s awesome” getting tedious? This one focuses on the farm bill and how it makes us fat: A public-health researcher from Mars might legitimately wonder why a nation faced […]

Yeah, In My Back Yard

Americans digging eco-friendly home improvements If your weekend plans involve puttering in the yard, you’ll dig these eco-trends. Interest in sustainable landscaping is up, with some professionals in the field seeing a 15 to 25 percent increase in business over last year. With native plants, rain barrels, recycled decking, and solar lighting catching on, DIY […]

How Much Wood Could a Wood Check Chuck?

California restricts formaldehyde in wood products It may be a land of earthquakes, smog, and drought, but California’s doing something right. In the latest in a string of forward-thinking green policies, state air regulators passed restrictions on formaldehyde in wood products that are the restrictiest in the world. “There is no safe threshold for this […]

Discuss amongst yourselves

This is heartening: the activist netroots are starting to get serious about figuring out global warming policy. Welcome to the fun, y’all! Stoller comes to a familiar conclusion: carbon tax is preferable to cap and trade. I think he’s a little hard on the latter, but the basic position is sound — and all but […]

Can a mother survive without antibacterial wipes?

A few Sundays back, the newspaper seemed to spill an overwhelming number of cleaning-product coupons onto my living-room floor.

"It's like They know," my husband said. "They're on to you."

"They" are the companies selling household liquids and powders for a little spring cleaning. And the secret my husband thought they'd discovered? I had decided to purge my pine-fresh scents and 99.9 percent germ killers in favor of a few products our "great-grandparents used," as advised by green-parenting maverick MaGreen.