Coca-Cola isn't alerted by Rickie's Convenience Mart every time you buy an ice cold bottle after walking past their signs at the local little league field. Nike can't run the numbers (groan) on how many times people have...

Ok, I get it. You don't want to dig up your lawn and plant a vegetable garden. Lawns can be good for some things, I guess--a family game of touch football, Frisbee golf, throwing tennis balls for the dog, etc. Plus, I admit, it totally sucks when you make a...

It's hard to argue that there's a more lasting and clear example of the destructive force that unchecked corporate greed has on our environment and communities than the Exxon Valdez oil spill that devastated Alaska's Prince William Sound 20 years ago today. Then, like now, we are hopelessly addicted to...

It is hard to talk about, even now, two days later. Yes, the country has changed. Yes, there is a new energy in the air. Yes, I was in front of the Capitol the day Obama took the oath of office. And yes, I missed the whole thing.

My inauguration...

The Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground in the Prince William Sound on March 24th, 1989. Over the next three days, three-thousand miles of Alaska's coastline were coated with somewhere between 11 and 38 million gallons of crude oil. To give you a point of reference: had the spill occurred off...

When I first learned about Naomi Wolf's book, The End of America--in which she chronicles America's slide toward becoming a police state, I considered it a well-played game of "what if...?" I regarded it much in the same way that I regarded Alan Weisman's The World Without...

When it comes to the mass marketing of ideas, the conservatives have been embarrassing the progressives for years. I attribute this to the simple fact that it is easy to rally around the simple battle cry, "Nothing new!" That's it. Any change is the enemy. Fight all that's not here...

In case you missed it, Al Gore gave a speech today [video here] in which he challenged America to transition entirely off carbon-based fuels for 100% of the nation's electricity generation within the next 10 years. Certainly, it is a bold challenge from a bold leader. It is a...

There's been a lot of talk in the media and government about cap-and-trade, cap-and-auction, cap-and-somethingelse systems to address reducing carbon emissions. If you're like me, you glaze over when you hear advocates of one of these strategies begin to push for the adoption of their pet strategy. Is there a...

J.S. McDougall is the lead blogger at Chelsea Green. Dr. Riki Ott is an internationally known expert on how oil spills affect marine life. A former fisherwoman, she was on-scene in Cordova before, during, and after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Her forthcoming book, Not One Drop:...

J.S. McDougall is the head blogger at Chelsea Green. The full version of this article first appeared there.

Research from The National Energy Assistance Directors' Association (NEADA)--an organization representing state-run low income energy assistance programs--predicts that the national average cost to heat a home with oil...

Necessity is the mother of conservation.

Let's face it, we, as a society, will not surrender our excesses until we are forced to do so--primarily because we don't see our excesses as excesses. One car per driver, cell phones in every purse, MP3 players in every pocket, strawberries in January,...

Think of it: a beautiful home with no mortgage; a house that's environmentally-responsible; a house with almost no heating and cooling costs due to fantastic insulation; and an opportunity to laugh and drink with friends.

It's all possible. And that's the message that straw bale homeowners and enthusiasts...

I submit for your pleasure the first cartoon in the Chelsea Green Cartoon Series, The Emperor Changes His Clothes, by Dennis Pacheco.

Watch chelseagreen.com for more.

The following article was adapted for the web from Composting: An Easy Household Guide by Nicky Scott and The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins. J.S. McDougall is the Web Editor at Chelsea Green Publishing.

There are a bewildering amount of different composting systems and bins...