Name Name
titledescript
Forget what you heard about the Occupy movement being dead. If last Saturday's All in for the 99% event is any indication, there's plenty of life left yet. The arts and music festival on South La Brea Avenue amplified the voices of the 99 percent with Funny or Die short film screenings, Slake magazine readings, a Van Jones talk, DJ sets, and an art exhibit featuring over a hundred artists......read more
It's been a long time since farmers congregated in downtown Manhattan -- around 350 years, to be exact. The folks who populate Wall Street and rural America don't cross paths much these days. It's easy to forget that Wall Street used to be rural America; in 1644, the area contained so many cows that the Dutch colonists had to erect a cattle guard to keep them from straying.......read more
In the five short years since Javier Goyeneche founded Ecoalf, the Madrid-based clothing company has become a global leader in the burgeoning field of sustainable fashion. With a robust commitment to R&D, Ecoalf creates full collections using sophisticated recycling processes on waste products like fishing nets, tires, post-industrial cotton, coffee, and PET bottles. We had a chance to meet......read more
Over the last twenty-odd years, a new American food economy has emerged, and if you're reading this, there is a pretty good chance you are a part of it. The food shift is exemplified by the resurgence of farmers' markets and the rise of community-supported agriculture and sustainable farming. To date, however, the so-called "food movement" has yet to enter the fray of politics. That will change......read more
In September of 1962, the first edition of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" hit bookstore shelves. Fifty years and two million copies later, the book is widely regarded as the catalyst of the modern environmental movement. In "Silent Spring," Carson wrote in eloquent and sometimes sentimental prose about effects of manmade pesticides on the natural world -- and on humankind. A scientific......read more
Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu say they know what’s wrong with the food system: local food purists. In their new book, The Locavore’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-Mile Diet, the husband-and-wife team (a University of Toronto geography professor and an economist) argue that the excitement over this movement is misguided to the point of having “utterly disastrous”......read more
The two most visible environmental issues today, climate change and agriculture, are about as different as they could be. Taken together, though, they give some reminders. Environmental consciousness is very young. Its challenge to some of the ways we live is deep. And it can be a great source of cultural and political creativity and renewal. Climate change is huge and diffuse. It works on a......read more
The airport beekeeping movement, pioneered a in Germany a few years back, has a new member. Last spring, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport became the first North American airport to experiment with beekeeping, installing 23 beehives on a vacant patch of land on the airport's east side. The airport bee program is now on cruise control. Unlike the projects in Germany, O'Hare's beekeeping......read more
In a strong move for the marine conservation movement, the government of the Bahamas has banned commercial fishing for sharks, as well as selling, exporting, or importing shark meat. The archipelago has one of the most diverse and healthiest shark populations in the world, and this move will ensure a healthy future for the often maligned creatures. Not only is it a good move from a conservation......read more
If the U.S. coal industry and their Republican comrades have their say, Americans will soon be filling their tanks with — you guessed it — coal. Or a refined version of it, anyway. At the Huffington Post, Tom Zeller Jr. lays out an in-depth exploration of liquified coal fuels, which are being pushed in Washington as an important element of the road energy independence. Sound like a......read more
