"I know there's no grand plan here
This is just the way it goes
When everything else seems unclear
I guess at least I know
You do it for the joy it brings
Because you're a joyful girl
Because the world owes me nothing

Over the weekend, my neighbor (my daughter's friend) committed suicide. She was 14. I am withholding her name in the interest of her family's privacy.

Dear Sister,

I ache for your family and for the many friends you left behind. I don't believe you needed to die....

Days after I lost my job, I went to hear Aveda and Intelligent Nutrients founder Horst Rechelbacher speak in Boulder. I went because Rechelbacher is one of a kind, I like the people who organized the event and everyone was telling me I needed to shower, dress and...

"I'm scared," my 14-year-old daughter, Cree, said as we waited for the Boulder Blind Café to start on Friday night. In a room behind two blackout curtains, we were about to sit down to a vegetarian "Sensory Tasting Experience" and a performance by string ensemble Rosh...

"Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." -- Helen Keller

I'm living my worst nightmare. And I haven't felt this good in ages.

I've spent my life doing whatever it took to not be an unemployed single...

After years of delays because of pressure from the chemical industry, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has added eight substances -- including formaldehyde, which is common in household products -- to its Report on Carcinogens, a science-based document that identifies chemicals and biological agents that...

Products designed for newborns, babies and toddlers -- including car seats, breastfeeding pillows, changing pads, crib wedges, bassinet mattresses and other items made with polyurethane foam -- contain multiple toxic chemical flame retardants, according to a first-of-its-kind peer-reviewed study published today in the Environmental Science & Technology journal....

Michael Funk told me he could be just as happy living in a tipi on his 1,200 acres of hills and waterfalls along the Yuba River as he is in his palatial off-the-grid home. I visited Michael's home when I was editor-in-chief of Natural Home & Garden magazine, and I...

Matt and Kelly Grocoff just received the March/April utility bill for their 110-year-old Folk-Victorian home in Ann Arbor, Michigan's Old West Side Historic District. It was -$68.44 -- and yes, that's a minus sign before the dollar sign. Matt and Kelly's home -- America's oldest net-zero energy restoration...

When we were kids, in the chemical-intensive 1970s, we thought nothing of using artificial food coloring and those fizzy little dye tablets to give our Easter eggs festive hues. Back then, we didn't know that chemical dyes could cause ADHD, harm development, ignite hyperactivity, compromise immune systems and...

Tear down one highly unsustainable McMansion and build two small green, handcrafted homes in its place? I like this idea a lot.

Bothered by Australia's homogenous housing landscape, which is dominated by brick veneer and terracotta tile-roofed houses in every climate from the cold highlands area to the tropical north,...

BPA levels in families who ate fresh rather than canned or plastic-packaged food for three days dropped by an average of 60 percent, according to a study released today by the Breast Cancer Fund and Silent Spring Institute. Bishphenol A (or BPA), which is used to...

Most home appliances have become more efficient over the past 30 years, but those gains have been offset by the influx of personal computers, televisions and related devices, according to data released today by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Over the past three decades, the share of...

This morning, to mark World Water Day, I measured my H20 consumption using National Geographic's Water Footprint Calculator. After decades of living in the arid West, I'm a pretty good water miser, but I got nervous when I realized that toilets, taps and hoses were the...

In the wake of such mega-destruction, human nature compels us to think first of our own friends and loved ones. As the earthquake and tsunami ripped through Japan, my thoughts turned immediately to my friend, Buddhist priest Shiho Kanzaki, who makes exquisite wood-fired pottery in Shigaraki. He is...

Record-high food prices have already caused hunger and political unrest across the globe, and several trends indicate that the world is headed toward a food security crisis, Earth Policy Institute president and World on the Edge author Lester Brown said in a teleconference today.

We weren't just being hopeful. Last January, Natural Home predicted that smaller homes would be the trend in 2010. Our readers have always understood the inherent environmental value in keeping their houses as small as possible, and we've been waiting for the world to catch up. This month,...

We claim to live sustainably if we can harvest or extract the earth's resources without depleting or permanently damaging them. By that standard, no one in a country that devours coal, oil and water -- and uses up a quarter of the earth's resources -- can live sustainably. Our collective...

A mixed-use community makes use of a former brownfield site. A flourishing downtown artists' community revitalizes a dilapidated neighborhood. Affordable green housing abounds in Harlem.

Now, that's what we call positive developments.

Natural Home just published its Top 10 Green-Built Neighborhoods list, an opportunity to applaud forward-thinking,...

This year, Earth Day's taking a political focus. To encourage comprehensive climate change legislation, the main event for this year's celebration is a Climate Rally on Sunday, April 25 (a couple days after Earth Day, which falls inconveniently on a Thursday this year) on the National Mall in...