Climate Culture

Guster helps school students on climate change

I’ve told you before about the rockin’ work of environmental nonprofit Reverb, an organization that partners with musicians like Dave Matthews Band, Avril Lavigne, and Bonnie Raitt to "green" their tours and help educate fans about eco-issues. This year, they’re going even bigger by helping Warner Music Group reduce its industry-size carbon footprint, collaborating with […]

Sustainable food meets social justice

Grassroots organic is alive and well, even in the concrete jungles of New Haven and Boston. Today I spent an hour and a half at a talk called "Food Policy: Addressing Social Justice in the Sustainable and Local Food Movements." The event's keynote speakers were two women who work for urban sustainable food initiatives.

One of the organizations, CitySeed, is located in New Haven, Conn. At the talk, CitySeed's executive director, Jennifer McTiernan, spoke about how her organization works with Connecticut politicians to give low-income eaters access to fresh food and urban farmers' markets.

The other organization, The Food Project, hails from Boston, and works to integrate urban youth into their network of small scale organic production. Their speaker was a woman named Rebecca Nemec, who works as a policy fellow for the Project.

From Ferrell to Fuzz

You had us at Old School We’ve tried so hard not to giggle over the flabby buttocks, the shabby accents, even the promise of figure-skating glory. But it’s hopeless. If loving Will is wrong, we don’t want to be right. Besides, the environmental movement could use a little more cowbell. Photo: Vera Anderson / WireImage.com […]

Alternative School

U.S. college students are, like, totally into clean energy In answer to the loathed question “What are you going to do after you graduate?” gaggles of U.S. college students are looking into careers in alternative energy. (A group of college students is called a gaggle, right?) Green technology is having a heyday in schools from […]

Growth promoters in beef may damage sperm

As reported by the BBC, a University of Rochester study found recently that men whose mothers ate lots of beef during their pregnancies had lower sperm counts than the sons of women who ate little or no beef while pregnant:

Don’t want any hypocrisy

… ’cause that would make him a total hypocrite. As it is, he’s fine.

Rising costs affect consumers

One of the side effects of the rapid increase in ethanol consumption in the U.S. is that corn -- the main feedstock for ethanol -- has gotten much more expensive. Just take a look at the futures markets: the July 2007 corn contract started climbing last fall, which was about the time people started to realize just how quickly demand for corn-based ethanol was growing.

Obviously, rising costs trickle down to consumers in all sorts of ways. If corn prices stay high, meat, poultry, and dairy products will all get more expensive, since the animals are fed lots of corn. But more directly, stuff that's made from corn -- such as the corn flour, corn sweeteners, and corn oils that are used in all sorts of processed foods -- will get pricier too. (Sorry, donut fiends.)

So wait, does this mean that there's an upside to the rapid rise in corn prices? If junk food gets more expensive, will we eat more healthfully?

Not likely.

Umbra on greening your wedding

Dear Umbra, How about some practical thoughts on “green” weddings? My daughter is planning an outdoor July wedding in Wisconsin — any tips? The reception is going to be outdoors at our home. Tomm G. Waukesha, Wis. Hi Tomm, This week’s theme is 10-foot-pole topics! Or love! They’re one and the same! And they lived […]

Way to channel that consumerism!

Jane Austen. Monty Python. Ricky Gervais. My Anglophilia runs amok, people.

And it just spiked again.

According to easier.com, 25 percent of British motorists are planning on buying a car in the coming year -- and a full one-fifth of them have made buying a "green" car their priority. That's three times more green-thusiasm than a year ago.

'Course the number of drivers looking to buy cars in the first place could use a little help -- one-quarter seems a tad steep. Still, a big pip-pip to the British isles for at least channeling their rampant consumerism in the proper direction.

Cage-free Croissan’wich, anyone?

This has been a big week for animal-welfare advocates, as BK now commits to buying eggs and pork from animals that have not been raised in cages. There are big environmental impacts here as well, although I'm still trying to sift through them.