Climate Culture

Greenpeace ranks Apple as least eco-friendly electronics firm

Are you reading this on a Mac? D’oh. A new Greenpeace report ranks Apple’s environmental record worst among 14 major electronics firms, based on use of hazardous chemicals in production and efforts to recycle products at the end of their lives. The iPod manufacturer was i-poohed for continuing to use several types of harmful chemicals, […]

A great chef pimps his name for industrial food

Mario Batali is a great chef and restaurateur. I’ve never had the chance to eat at his celebrated restaurants Babbo and Del Posto, but I have eaten several times at Otto, his relatively modest pizza joint in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The food there is very, very good. (Try the gelato — especially the incredibly delicate […]

Umbra on aluminum bottles

Umbra, Are aluminum bottles safer than Nalgene bottles? I’m looking at getting Sigg bottles for my self, wife, and son. Vendor agnostic, are the materials used by aluminum-only vendors safer than those that incorporate Lexan? Chris Webber Seattle, Wash. Dearest Chris, I swear, I pick questions and only then do I notice that yet again […]

Sea-dweller stops McConaughey in his tracks

The recent discovery of Irukundi jellyfish off the coast of Fraser Island, Australia, has stopped production of Fool's Gold, a sure-to-be-Oscar-contender starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. The teensy-tiny toxic creatures ("no larger than a thumbnail") are usually found only in northern Queensland, but -- you guessed it -- warming temperatures seem to be pushing the deadly (and we mean deadly) critters south.

The upside: Now that global warming has deprived the world of the wacky romantic-comedy stylings of Matt and Kate for a few whole days, maybe the administration will finally have the motivation it needs to do something about global warming.

Yeah. And maybe Matthew McConaughey will finally go a whole day without taking his shirt off in public.

Dare this mom to change her life

Few things are less environmentally friendly than kids.

You know it's true. They stand as examples of our populating an overpopulated planet. They need a lot of stuff, or at least that's what other parents and Babies 'R' Us tell us. And nothing says "earth hater" more than the billions of dirty diapers now calling landfills home.

But here's the thing: Before kids, I wasn't much of an environmentalist.

You heard it here first

The lawsuit filed by automakers against states that have adopted California’s greenhouse-gas restrictions on vehicles may be dismissed as early as tomorrow (Wed.) afternoon. When the Supreme Court ruling in Mass. vs. EPA was announced, the judge handling the automakers’ lawsuit — Judge William K. Sessions III of the U.S. District Court of Vermont — […]

SLC mayor at it again

Have we mentioned how cool Rocky Anderson is? The Salt Lake City Council is pondering a resolution to keep chain stores with "cookie-cutter architecture" out of neighborhood business districts. Mayor Rocky and his staff are pushing them to take it step futher and keep chain stores out, period. "I don’t care what kind of facade […]

Only a few days late on it, but still funny

Check out NPR’s April Fool’s Day contribution (mp3).

It’s the wrong lever for creating social change

On Saturday night, I was on a panel at the Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival on the subject of "communicating about climate change." My co-panelists were KC Golden of Climate Solutions, LeeAnne Beres of Earth Ministry, and Sean Schmidt of the Sustainable Style Foundation. The moderator was Steve Scher of local public radio station KUOW. […]

Then There’s the Short Term

Long-term radiation risks lower than some daily hazards, study finds Living in fear of a nuclear meltdown? Now you can relax! A new study says the long-term risks faced by survivors of two of the world’s most notorious nuclear episodes — the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and the 1945 bombings of Japan — are lower than […]