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
MorePhilly Releases Action Guide After Trump’s Executive Order on Climate ChangeMayor Jim Kenney released a response in late March to the Trump administration’s executive order aimed at rolling back climate change programs and regulations. The order includes directing the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind the Clean Power Plan, aimed at reducing carbon emission from power
MoreBlowin’ in the Wind by Jerry Silberman Question: How much of the energy we use comes from fossil fuels?The Right Question: How much of the energy we use is dependent on fossil fuels? Last month we identified the sources of energy that make our high-technology civilization possible. What it really comes down to is fossilized
MoreRefugees Take Root by Lan Dinh Growing up on the 4700 block of Sansom Street, an area where many Southeast Asian refugees were initially resettled, I still remember the food oasis in our 5-by-5 back porch. Beautiful, big, fuzzy leaves crawled up every vertical inch of available gate, pole or fencing. My parents were skilled
MoreIllustration by Jameela Wahlgren Stop Confusing Energy with Electricity by Jerry Silberman Question: Can we run our entire society on solar energy?The Right Question: Which kind of solar energy would you like? Right now, more than 90 percent of all of our energy needs are powered by the sun, so we can answer the first
MoreIce Storm by Heather Shayne Blakeslee In 1912, Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo made a gift of 3,000 cherry trees to Washington, D.C., as a sign of the close relationship between Japan and the United States. For centuries, the Japanese have revered the fleeting beauty of the cherry blossoms, which bloom in early spring and
MoreIllustration by Marika Mirren The Everyday Activist essay by Derek Dorsey I work in the music industry. I’ve booked thousands of shows and promoted scores of festivals—and have spent an untold number of late nights watching everything from folk to hip-hop. Outside my home in Kensington, the sound of children playing down the street has
MoreIllustration by Corey Brickley Goodbye to All That interview by Heather Shayne Blakeslee According to landscape planners Claudia West and Thomas Rainer, we should all be saying “goodbye to the real estate industry, good taste, designers’ egos, eco-evangelism and the horticulture industry.” Their book, “Planting in a Post-Wild World,” is a joyous ode to the
MoreIllustration by Jameela Wahlgren Keeping Our Connection to Sun and Seed by Ryan Kuck Every year come tax time I have to pause for a long while when the 1040 asks for my occupation. At first the mild rebellion of writing “urban farmer” was alluring, imagining that someone in some deep office had to scratch
MoreEnvironmental Groups See Bleak Outlook for Clean WaterA 16-state comparison and analysis by PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center gave Pennsylvania a grade of “F” when it comes to preventing lead in drinking water in the commonwealth’s schools. When 40 schools were recently tested in Philadelphia, 14 percent exceeded the EPA’s lead action level limit of
MoreIllustration by Heather Franzen Rutten Second Act essay by Angela A. Bey The 100-year-old brownstone of John M. Patterson Elementary School in Philadelphia held my first-grade classroom. I remember everything vividly—dried-up Crayola markers, paint-chipped walls and photocopies of “Hooked on Phonics” workbook pages. My peers walked in close-knit groups down the halls, and certain
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