One of the things that drew me to Germantown was the amount of space to plant things in the ground. I’ve had my share of container gardens in concrete backyards that left me wanting to grow more plants. What I really wanted was enough space to grow my own food. In a time when supply
MoreThrowing It All Away by Heather Shayne Blakeslee American women do 10 more hours of housework per week than their male partners—more than a full workday. Marketers, smartly, continue to target women with messages about convenience and saving time. My sister, a chemical engineer and mother of three, is fully aware of this dynamic. She
MoreIllustration by Chelsea Manheim Let’s Trash the Idea of Garbage by Jerry Silberman Question: How much of my household waste can I recycle, and does it decrease energy and materials use? The Right Question: Why do I have waste, anyway? If you are my age or older, you probably remember when beer and soda came
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Illustration by Laura Weiszer A Plague of Plastic Bags by Phil Bresee Throughout much of 2015, negative stories and shortsighted opinion pieces on recycling dotted national and local media. The stories, including a particularly exasperating editorial by John Tierney in The New York Times, mostly stemmed from reports on the historic low-market values for
MoreMend Your Ways by Anna Herman Buttons pop off. Sweaters snag. Jeans wear out. So, unless tattered clothes are your fashion preference, resolve to get to know a needle and thread. (Way) back when I was in junior high school, one was required to take sewing, home-ec and shop classes. At the time, it seemed
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The Smog of War by Heather Shayne Blakeslee In Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 2013, a giant digital television was broadcasting pictures of a blue sky and white clouds: The toxic smog over the city prevented people from seeing the actual sky. For years, some weather forecasters said the opaque skies were caused by “fog,” without
MorePeople Like Me by Miyah Davis If I hadn’t walked onto a tennis court five years ago when I was 10 years old, Lord only knows what I’d be doing. Who knows who I would be. I am 15 now. I have a lot of childhood friends who are doing great—and I have a lot
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Illustration by Narrator Choking on the Past by Patrick Ammerman The city of Philadelphia is at a crossroads: We must choose between our past and our future. We are still struggling to fill the most basic needs of our residents: From grossly defunded public schools to the 25 percent unemployment rate among young adults of color,
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Illustration by Laura Weiszer First, Do No Harm by Jerry Silberman Question: How can our health care system develop the technology to cure illness? The Right Question: How can we build a system that maintains health for people and planet? When we think about making changes to limit the poisoning of our environment and the
MoreParsnips and Carrots by Peggy Paul Casella These earthy-sweet cousins have a lot in common: They both belong to the Umbelliferae (or Apiaceae) family of plants—along with parsley, fennel, celery, cumin, coriander and dill—which are characterized by feathery leaves and umbrella-shaped clusters of flowers. They both grow wild in Europe and West Asia, and they
MoreIllustration by Kathleen White Blowing in the Wind by Jerry Silberman Question: Is large-scale renewable electricity production sustainable? The Right Question: Is renewable energy the future for human society? The recognition that burning fossil fuels may burn us out of the planet’s ecosystem has made the abandonment of fossil fuel resources the right choice, regardless
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