Climate Culture

How to Make the Environment a Hot Election Issue

Umbra on recycling pencil stubs

Dear Umbra, I’m looking for a place that accepts pencil stubs (one to two inches long) to recycle into new pencils. I’ve found recycled pencils online — made from denim, plastic, recovered wood, and paper currency. But what can I do with my stubs? PhoenixCovington, Ky. Dearest Phoenix, All the waste-reduction tips tell you to […]

An interview with green-style guru Danny Seo

If Martha Stewart really is having a new-age awakening as she prepares to enter the clink (she just bought Body & Soul Magazine and rumor has it she intends to give her lifestyle empire a hint, at least, of green), she might want to take notes from one competitor who, at the tender age of […]

I Like Mike

New York City mayor signs long-term recycling contract The debate over whether recycling is economically “worth it” continues, but one famously tight-fisted municipal leader has made up his mind. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) announced that the city will sign a 20-year contract with one of the nation’s largest recycling companies, Hugo Neu […]

Coming Soon to a Rap Video Near You

Navistar Introduces the Commercial Extreme Truck For the driver who enjoys his or her Hummer H2 pickup but just wishes it were a little bigger, a little less fuel-efficient, and a little more obnoxious, the answer has arrived: This week Navistar International introduces the CXT, short for commercial extreme truck. The CXT is 21.5 feet […]

Umbra on ecological footprints

Dear Umbra, I just took the Ecological Footprint Quiz, feeling rather confident that I’ve been doing my part to minimize my personal impact on environmental despoliation. But my results weren’t reassuring. My ecological footprint is nine acres, which is much better than the U.S. national average of 24 acres per person, but still twice what […]

Roof Positive

Green Roofs Are Hot New Design Feature in London In London, the latest rage in building design is green roofing: Roofs covered in soil and foliage that can provide habitat for insects, lizards, and birds. The trend first took off as part of a government effort to protect the black redstart, a black-and-orange songbird that […]

Grist chats with Andre Heinz, environmental activist and stepson of John Kerry

Some may cry nepotism when they see Andre Heinz, the middle son of Teresa Heinz Kerry, take to the podium as one of the leading spokespeople on the environment for John Kerry’s presidential campaign, but his ascent is hardly without merit. True, he has deliberately steered clear of a career inside the Beltway, so in […]

DMBM

Dave Matthews Band Tour Bus Dumps Doo-Doo on Boat Passengers An alleged environmental infraction by a Dave Matthews Band tour bus left passengers on a Chicago River sightseeing tour boat with a bad taste in their mouths — literally. While on a bridge over the river, the driver apparently emptied the bus’s waste tank with […]

Circuit Boards Roasting on an Open Fire

Dumped Electronics Poisoning Poor in Asia Computers and other electronics discarded in the West frequently end up in poor villages in China and India, where they are stripped for residues of valuable metals in primitive procedures that poison local communities. Enviro activists report that Chinese villagers cook circuit boards over open charcoal burners to strip […]