Nature Kids, Hot Water Woes, and Pellet Stoves
I want my child to connect with nature, but how can a suburban park be designed to both protect visitors from Lyme disease–carrying ticks and restore the natural ecosystem? —Lena Crandall, Scarsdale, NY The funny thing about wildlife (even the kind that finds its way into parks and playgrounds in…
Infanticide and Vera’s Cub: Why Some Mothers Eat Their Young
Post copied from Living Now section of the Huffington Post. I want this baby polar bear! Well, on second thought, I want this baby polar bear for just a few weeks–before it gets teeth. In a year, that cub will look at me and say, “Hmmm, I bet you’d make…
Roam If You Want To (But Not if You're a Bear)
This map, scanned from Patagonia’s latest catalog, details a grizzly’s 50-mile journey, which in the world of a bear, isn’t even really that far of a trip- they’ve been known to travel 500 miles or more as part of their natural movements. “For many wild animals, to roam means to…
Smartest Car; Still Worse Than The Dumbest Bike
The process of buying and making new cars isn’t the solution to this enormous fossil fuel problem we’re having. Hackneyed as it might seem, we need to develop long term sustainable community transportation, AND to rethink the way that we structure our lives around cars. Buying a smart car is…
Green Gifts for All the Lovable Weirdoes in Your Life
You know those lists of gifts everyone has now? They’re killing me. So I had to make my own because my friends and family are a motley bunch, and the usual stuff (even the usual green stuff) isn’t going to cut it. Plus, they have high expectations because I am…
Don't Be A Turkey: Get Your Thanksgiving Feast Green
Originally posted on The Huffington Post on November 14th, 2007 Photo from Channel14.com. In 1621 the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Indians stuffed their faces in an autumn harvest feast–the first Thanksgiving. Although Historians aren’t certain of the menu, it’s safe to say the pilgrims weren’t gobbling up pesticide-smothered potatoes…
Green Guru: Environmental Costs of Dried Fruit, Battery-Powered Mowers, and Red #40 on Hummers
Since I write this column for Audubon Magazine, I thought I would share my (laboriously researched) advice with Eco Chick readers. In considering the hidden costs that come with shipping fruit—trucking it around the globe in refrigerated containers—I’m wondering whether it’s more energy efficient to eat dried fruit? —Justin Van…
Swimming With Dolphins: The Reality
This video shows what goes on in the dolphin hunts and includes Hayden Panettiere (of the TV show ‘Heroes’) and a team of surfers who tried to protest and protect the mammals. Some think swimming with dolphins, or going to see animals/mammals in captivity, is somehow “environmental” or serving some…
How to Score an Eco Chick?
Mr. EcoGeek himself (aka Hank Green) put together this hilarious piece on how to impress (read: seduce) a green girl with your enviro cred. Title: “EcoGeek’s Guide to Getting Girls”! Love it. Being a guy, naturally he wrote a lot about how to get a woman in bed, or at…
“We want to protect our lands, but we also need to awaken the people in The North. You are living in a dream, what you are doing is destroying the Earth.”
Talk about an Amazon woman! Anthropologist Zoe Tryon is working with the Achuar people of the Ecuadorian rainforest to help both protect their culture from undue outside influence while still giving them the skills they need to deal with those same outsiders who see their land as a place to…