Climate Culture
All Stories
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Umbra on LEDs
Dear Umbra, Where are the LED replacement bulbs for normal household incandescents? They’re supposed to be more efficient, cheaper, cooler, longer-lasting, and less toxic, right? So why aren’t there any LED bulbs similar to CFLs? I’ve been looking around but haven’t been able to find any yet besides flashlights, holiday lights, and the like. Still […]
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From Strippers to Stingrays
It’s getting hot in herre … Climate scientists got hot and bothered last week when a group of burlesque dancers began a striptease at a government-sponsored conference in Australia. When the show started rubbing the researchers the wrong way, the seven performers were asked to pull out prematurely. Prius passes GO, collects more than $200 […]
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Grasping at Straw
Alternative fabrics hit the action-sports market Surf’s up, dude — and so is action-sports apparel makers’ interest in alternative fabrics. (OK, that was a stretch.) Clothes made from organic cotton, hemp, bamboo, and even recycled plastic bottles are hitting the action-sports apparel market. Sustainability will “definitely be the next big wave,” says the oh-so-punny Don […]
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Colleges and universities are learning what it takes to go green
The dawn of the new school year has brought with it a corps of fresh-faced ideas and initiatives aimed at making colleges and universities cleaner and greener. And, like any freshman class, they are all beaming with potential: Most will succeed, a handful will excel, and a few will end up disappointing their parents. Campuses […]
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In Da Strauss
Levi Strauss will debut organic-cotton jeans Good old-fashioned Levi’s jeans will become new-fashioned in November, when the company debuts Eco jeans. The denim dungarees will be organic cotton, naturally dyed, and U.S.-made — and, like all too many eco-products, woefully expensive, with a hefty $250 price tag (printed on recycled paper with soy ink). Spent […]
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Go and Cinema More
New climate-change documentary focuses on people of faith If An Inconvenient Truth didn’t exactly bring evangelicals to the multiplex in droves, The Great Warming just may. Religious leaders hope the documentary, to be screened in September and distributed in October along with voter guides and eco-sermons, will mobilize religious groups around climate change — just […]
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Umbra on motivating teenagers
Dear Umbra, I’m an officer for my high school’s chapter of the National Honor Society, and we stress academic importance and help our community by doing service projects. I’m trying to get a service project going in support of the environment. Greenhouse-gas emissions and alternative fuels are some things I tried to bring up at […]
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From Vixens to Vodka
If you’re going to starve yourself skinny, why not go vegan? Call us crazy, but maybe a bevy of bone-thin women swaying listlessly on stage is not the best advertisement for a vegan diet (our first thought: woah, somebody needs a hamburger!). Memo to Vegan Vixens: show Americans they can be fat and lazy and […]
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Meet the eco-model who’s changing the face of fashion
SUMMER SAYS GIVE Watch a video of Summer Rayne Oakes telling you to donate to Grist. It’s a strange scene: a sexy fashion model in skintight jeans, belly showing, telling a bunch of teenagers, “I studied sewage sludge and absolutely loved it!” Twenty-two-year-old Summer Rayne Oakes then confesses a fondness for bugs. From behind their […]
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Umbra on greener golfing
Dear Umbra, I am getting an early start on my Christmas shopping this year, and always try to find sustainable gifts whenever possible. My father is an avid golfer. I have been pleased to see that the golf community’s efforts to be more ecologically sensitive have been making news lately. I would like to treat […]
