Climate Culture

Umbra on unclogging without chemicals

Dear Umbra, How does one unclog a clogged bathtub drain without pouring toxic chemicals directly into the waste stream? Allie CatBoiling Springs, Penn. Dearest Allie Cat, I don’t believe that’s your real name. But yours is a noble question. Let’s get motivated by reviewing a Drano material safety data sheet [PDF], where we find that […]

Umbra on the perennial packaging dilemma

Dear Umbra, I was recently elected the social chairperson of my subdivision’s swim/tennis/social club. Now I’m in charge of party planning for a group of about 150 families. While shopping at Costco, I wondered which is better for the environment: several 128-ounce jugs of apple juice plus many plastic cups, or lots of 6.75-ounce juice […]

Mag looking for eco-gals to take it all off

Well, for one issue. Kinda.

From a Playboy press release dated today:

Playboy magazine is searching for the sexiest environmentalists in America, women willing to take it all off for their favorite cause. The magazine is planning a pictorial for an upcoming issue featuring women involved in environmental causes or with groups dedicated to saving the planet or protecting wildlife. In addition to a modeling fee for each of the participants, Playboy will make a donation to the favorite causes of the women chosen to appear in the pictorial.

But will they be as hot as Leona Johansson?

Much as I'd love to help Grist get more exposure (ahem), I won't be entering myself. But the rest of you "enthusiastic and uninhibited environmentalists," as Playboy puts it, have at it. Call 312.373.2717 for details.

(And you thought gastroporn was racy.)

Mega-mall in upstate New York could give birth to a clean-energy awakening

Could a mall mogul’s dream project give a big boost to renewables? Image: DestiNY USA. As the Senate deliberates over the Bush-backed energy bill and enviros send out another round of distress signals over America’s obdurate fossil-fuel dependency, who would believe that the next big thing in renewable energy is being driven by a tenacious […]

A new study on diapers finds no difference between cloth and paper

Ok, that's a dumb headline. But the problem itself -- whether to diaper my babies with cloth or disposables -- was one I spent a bit of time agonizing over.

But perhaps I shouldn't have. A new study commissioned by the British Environment Agency (reported on here and here) suggests there's almost no difference between the two, at least in terms of environmental impacts. Which is roughly the same answer that this 1992 study, at the website of our friends at the Institute for Lifecycle Energy Analysis, came to.

The British study made some suggestions for ways that both disposables and cloth diapers could be improved, to reduce their impacts: for people who wash theyir own diapers, that means reducing washing temperature, using efficient washers, and line drying for home-washed cloth diapers. (Which, of course, is good advice for all your washing, not just diapers.)

All That You Can’t Weave Behind

Fashion consumers tending toward greener garb Increasingly, fashionistas “don’t just want to look good in their clothes, they want to feel good in their clothes,” says Ali Hewson, co-creator (with her husband, U2’s Bono) of eco-sensitive clothing line Edun. With a growing number of ethical and green clothing lines hitting the market and making use […]

A Sorted Affair

Japanese municipalities take recycling to a whole new level Yokohama, Japan, a city of 3.5 million, recently sent its citizens a 27-page instruction book on how to sort trash for recycling into 10 different categories, detailing how to dispose of more than 500 separate items, from used lipstick tubes to old socks. The city aims […]

Revisiting the 1970s eco-cult classic that gripped a nation

In the afterword to the 30th-anniversary edition of his 1975 novel, Ernest Callenbach writes, "Looking back, it seems clear that Ecotopia was the first attempt to portray a sustainable society, and that this, more than its modest literary merit, explains its durability." Sadly, there is no false humility in that statement.

Wired reports on the new power generation

We Americans sure do like labels don't we? (And I'm not talking about food labels.) That's right, in addition to soccer moms cruising around town in hybrids and flexitarians buying their food stuffs at Whole Foods and the like, we now have "hygridders."

What's a hygridder? According to a Wired article:

... people who are both middle of the road and off the grid. Across the US some 185,000 households have switched from the local power company to their own homegrown, renewable energy. The fastest-growing segment of this population - their ranks are doubling each year - isn't doing a full Kaczynski. Sure, these folks are slapping solar panels on the roof and erecting the occasional wind turbine, but they're staying connected to the grid, just to be safe. And in many cases, they're operating as mini-utilities, selling excess electricity back to the power company. Just as their cars aren't kludgy and their food isn't flavorless, their homes aren't drafty or dimly lit. Call them hygridders. And look for them soon in a neighborhood near you. Because - trendmeisters, take note - hygrid is the new Prius.

Learn about this new breed by reading the article. And if you feel so inclined, let us know what you think or tell us about your foray into hygridding.

John Francis, a ‘planetwalker’ who lived car-free and silent for 17 years, chats with Grist

How long could you survive without your car? For the many Americans who think nothing of driving 10 blocks to buy a gallon of milk, the answer is obvious. But before any of you dedicated pedestrians and die-hard cyclists start feeling smug, try this question: How long could you survive without talking? John Francis. Photo: […]