Climate Culture

Umbra on the cost of organics

Dear Umbra, How come it’s so expensive to go organic? I could swing it by myself by eating a bare minimum of food, but I’m charged with feeding consume-mass-quantity types who favor the traditional American diet, and they eat meat. I would be in debt buying just half the monthly food consumption. One would have […]

From Bare Ass to Bono

Look at the set of issues on that chick! At a boring heads-of-state summit, a bikini-sporting beauty queen crashed a photo shoot, protesting a pulp mill planned for Uruguay. “It was one of the best things that has happened at this summit,” said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He added, “I didn’t see anything about pulp, […]

The CEI ads

OMFG, so, I finally went and watched the TV ads to be aired by the Competitive Enterprise Institute a week before An Inconvenient Truth is released.

I'm not sure what I expected, but these things are genuinely funny. They look like nothing so much as a parody produced by Saturday Night Live. The tag line -- the last line of the ad, read dramatically as a little girl blows a dandelion -- is: "Carbon dioxide. They call it pollution. We call it life."

It's a pro-CO2 ad. Seriously. It turns out, we breathe CO2 out. And plants absorb it. It comes from animals! And oceans! Who could hate it?

As though there were a huge cabal of people out there who viewed this particular molecule as intrinsically evil.

Obviously, I'm not in the target audience. But I can't imagine anyone being persuaded by something so self-evidently absurd. I guess we'll see, though.

(One thing to note: It's "some politicians" and "global warming alarmists" making these claims about global warming. Not, say, scientists.)

Update [2006-5-17 15:48:57 by David Roberts]: Oh, I also meant to draw attention to a classic interview with CEI founder Fred Smith, from which this amazing passage is drawn:

Umbra on composting weeds

Dear Umbra, I’ve been weeding the garden and yard, and got to thinking about some of the more invasive plants. I’ve heard that not everything goes in the compost pile, but what weeds can I toss in? I’m fairly new to the composting game, so any advice is much appreciated. Danielle Walker Monroe, Ore. Dearest […]

Daryl Hannah makes a splash with her new eco-blog

Daryl Hannah. Courtesy dhlovelife.com. The day started a long, long time ago, but Daryl Hannah’s got that laid-back, just-woke-up vibe — occasionally stumbling for a word, inserting a slow, easy laugh here and there. And who can blame her? She’s been working long nights shooting a film in Vancouver, B.C., about dirty cops. And on […]

Umbra on building a deck

Dear Umbra, It’s spring, my house turns 100 years old this year, and I would like to celebrate by adding a deck. But what type of building materials should I choose? Wood, plastic, or composite? In my market there is no ready supply of FSC-certified wood — I would have to have it milled and […]

Carbon offsets and guilt

Brad Stone has a clever satirical take on carbon offsets over on Newsweek, riffing off the recent partnership of Ford and TerraPass.

I think this is a wonderful idea -- do good while doing bad -- and I urge other businesses to join Ford in this fledgling, guilt-credits marketplace. It just might help us cope with the unreasonable stigma now associated with the proud American tradition known as conspicuous consumption.

For example, the fast-food giants might roll out an initiative called Flatter Tummies. For every bacon double cheeseburger they sell, the restaurant chains could allow customers to make a small donation toward the gastric-bypass surgery center of their choice.

With "Smarter Stitches," clothing manufacturers could help us compensate for the exploitation of low-wage textile workers in Asia. Every time you buy a new pair of sneakers, the footwear company in question would allow you to send an appreciative gift to an overseas textile worker -- perhaps a stuffed animal or the book "Goodnight Moon," translated into the appropriate language.

Ha ha, right?

But here's the thing:

From Flush to Flesh

Mellowed yellow Politico-Brits are rushing to expose their eco-cred — allowing personal tidbits to trickle into the media. London mayor Ken Livingstone says he’s “let it mellow” for 15 months, while the Conservative Potty Party chair eschews the toilet entirely, suggesting that his fellow citizens pee on their compost instead. Talk about a government leak. […]

An interview with accidental movie star Al Gore

Al Gore is on the campaign trail again, and he actually seems to be enjoying it. Like Brad Pitt, but wonkier. Photo: Eric Neitzel/WireImage. For those who remember his ponderous, consultant-driven bid for president, the idea of Gore enjoying anything about campaigning may seem far-fetched. But this time, the campaign’s not about him; it’s about […]

Jason and Kimberley Graham-Nye, eco-diaper entrepreneurs, answer questions

The Graham-Nye clan. What are your job titles? Cofounders, CEO and president, dad and mum of gDiapers. What does your company do? Manufacture and market the world’s only flushable diaper. Every day in the U.S., 50 million waste-filled diapers go into the landfill where they sit for up to 500 years. Diapers are the third-largest […]