Climate Culture
All Stories
-
The Roof Is on Fire
By passing regulations to encourage developers to install green roofs, Portland, Ore., has become a pioneer in the growing worldwide ecoroof movement (what, you aren’t a part of it yet?). Rooftops planted with vegetation such as ferns and wildflowers can reduce runoff after rainstorms by up to 90 percent and diminish a building’s energy costs […]
-
Umbra on sustainable bunk beds
Dear Umbra, I’ve been looking for a sustainably harvested bunk bed for my five-year-old son for quite some time now. I have found only one company, Pacific Rim, that makes such an item. It seems like a great company, but it doesn’t have exactly what I’m looking for. When I search online, all I read […]
-
Umbra on making mulch from paper
Dear Umbra, I know this is a silly question, probably the strangest you’ve ever gotten, but I’m curious. Where I live, there isn’t a place nearby to recycle paper. I reuse most of my paper as scratch paper and have attempted to make my own paper using a blender and a screen. The problem is, […]
-
Umbra on used soap
Dear Umbra, At a gym I go to, lots of guys pick up bars of soap, use them for two minutes, and then leave them (even though there is a liquid soap dispenser in the showers). Is there any good use for several pounds of partially used soap per day? DennisSeattle, Wash. Dearest Dennis, I […]
-
A Catalog of Ills
Of the 17 billion catalogs mailed every year to American consumers (that’s 59 catalogs for each and every one of us!), a surprising few contain recycled materials. An Environmental Defense survey released yesterday found that only six of 42 major catalog companies are using significant amounts of recycled paper, and most don’t use any. Nary […]
-
![]()
![]()
Michelle Nijhuis reviews Hunting Season, A Killing Season, and Hoot
If the pen really is mightier than the sword, it seems like environmentalists should have worked themselves out of a job a long time ago. Take a stroll through almost any bookstore, and you'll find a nature-writing section full of lushly designed covers, beautifully turned prose, and impassioned arguments on behalf of the land. It looks like a slam-dunk for Team Green.
-
Time for a Change
No need to throw the dirty diapers out with the bathwater! Santa Clarita, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles, is the first municipality in the United States to institute a diaper-recycling program, which will transform the soiled, disposable sacks of goodies into oil filters, roof shingles, and vinyl siding. Some 20 billion diapers are buried […]
-
Chips Ahoy … Ahoy, Ahoy
Think twice before you scrap that computer for the latest flat-screen iMac. Pound for pound, the average computer chip causes more harm to the environment than a car, according to a study by a team at the United Nations University in Tokyo. The researchers looked at all the materials (including chemicals and fossil fuels) required […]
-
Uplifting News
If only Bob Dole had known, he could have raked in some environmental brownie points while touting Viagra as a wonder cure for erectile dysfunction: The little blue pill could be the saving grace for thousands of endangered animals, according to research published recently in the journal Environmental Conservation. Tigers, reindeer, and harp seals, among […]
-
Umbra on corpses
Dear Umbra, What’s the greenest method of disposing of one’s corpse? I’m just dying to know. BuchachaAustin, Texas Dearest Buchacha, You are not the only one thinking of the Great Green Beyond; there are more choices about the fate of your corpse than you might imagine. Let’s start with the traditional options: Cremation is greener […]
