Climate Culture

All Stories

  • Can you hear me now that I’m standing in the field with no yield?

    Don't know if this story will turn out to be a tempest in a teapot or kick like typhoon in a tender spot, but the implications if the latter are profound.

     

    For you youngsters, Jack Benny's stage persona was as a miser; he used to do a bit where he would get held up and the robber would say, "Your money or your life!" Then there'd be this pause. "Well?!"

    And Jack would reply "I'm thinking ..."

    JMG Culture

  • The Talmud and global warming

    As global warming deniers move from "it's not happening" to "it's not human-caused" to "but it's good for you" to "it's too expensive to fix," I'm reminded of a tale from the Talmud.

    It seems a family was accused of returning a clay pot they had borrowed cracked beyond repair.

    The accused family had three defenses:

    1. They never borrowed the pot.
    2. The pot already had a crack in it when received.
    3. They returned the pot completely unharmed.

    Perhaps it is unfair to assume this story is about global-warming deniers just because it centers on a cracked pot.

    Gar Lipow Culture

  • Something that destructive outside SHOULD be unpleasant inside

    A comment left on Sam Smith's Progressive Review discussion of cell phone bans on commercial airline flights:

    I don't give a wet slap why the FAA continues to ban cell phone use on airplanes so long as the keep doing it. People who use their cell phones in public places are loud and obnoxious, and on an airplane there's nowhere for anybody else to go. I can always move to the next car on BART, or get off the bus and walk, but for eight hours across the Atlantic trapped in a metal tube with five hundred strangers ...

    JMG Culture

  • Green glitterati come out to toast new eco-programming on Sundance Channel

    The green glitterati of New York City — a surprisingly expansive and glamorous bunch — convened last night to celebrate the launch of Sundance Green, the new block of green programming that will begin airing on the Sundance Channel this coming Tuesday. (Full disclosure: I am a member of the project’s advisory board.) While Robert […]

    Amanda Little Culture

  • From Pimpinator to Prom Night

    Muscle preach Listen here, enviros: A-Schwarz wants to pimp you up. And he’s got plans for the climate-hatas, too: soon they’ll be the ones “like prohibitionists at a frat party,” while greens are hot and sexy. Hey, guess we can cross that off our to-do list. Photo: H. William Foster / WireImage.com The less brief, […]

    Sarah K. Burkhalter & Sarah van Schagen Culture

  • They’ve got it, they shouldn’t be ashamed of using it

    In a previous post, I argued that the public doesn’t particularly need a sophisticated scientific understanding of climate change (or evolution, or stem cells) in order to make the right basic policy decisions. A rudimentary understanding, deliverable and understandable by a layman, is perfectly sufficient. We’re warming the climate? It’s gonna hurt us? Let’s stop. […]

    David Roberts Culture

  • They’re not happy until you’re happy

    Why is the Oregon bottle bill, once a shining environmental breakthrough, failing?

    As a wise person named Lee Barrett noted here:

    It's the distributors than own the reverse vending machines. They are the ones that start the 5-cent deposit. The more disgusted you get with the process of returning the cans and bottles the more nickels they get to keep. They're not happy until you're not happy.

    JMG Culture

  • Check it out

    The Christian Science Monitor has always had excellent environmental coverage, but now they’ve gone above and beyond by creating an entire website devoted to global warming. It’s great one-stop shopping for the latest news. Speaking of, check out “Many new constraints for Bush on the environment,” a delightful rundown of all the setbacks and humiliations […]

    David Roberts Culture

  • He Covers the Hotter Front

    Schwarzenegger says sexy greens are successful — and he should know In a speech at Georgetown University yesterday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said environmentalists need to get hip and sexy to counter their image as “prohibitionists at a fraternity party.” Brandishing a batch of recent green-themed magazines — some featuring his mug on the cover […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Colorado soccer team first to go carbon neutral

    The sporting news comes fast and furious! Yesterday, big names who are going eco. The day before, jolly green Giants. (And by “yesterday” and “the day before” I don’t mean sporty things actually happened those days — I just mean I got around to writing about them.) But! Timely news, from — doth mine ever-behind-the-times […]

    Sarah K. Burkhalter Culture