Chelsea Green Blog
Green & Renewable Energy
Easy-to-Make Drying Trays
Looking for a new way to enjoy the benefits of your garden all year long? Follow this easy tutorial for making drying trays to expand the lifespan of fruits, vegetables, and herbs. The following is an excerpt from Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning by The Gardeners & Farmers of Terre Vivante. It has been adapted for…
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Weatherproofing Your Windows: Preparing for Winter
Getting ready to pile on the blankets this winter? Warm up your home and increase efficiency this winter by weatherproofing or replacing your windows! The following is an excerpt from The Greened Hour Effect by Jeff Wilson. It has been adapted for the web. Weatherproofing Windows for Winter Unfortunately, shopping for windows can be frustrating. The…
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Energy and Transition
The new threshold for green building is not just low energy, it’s net-zero energy. In The New Net Zero, sustainable architect Bill Maclay charts the path for designers and builders interested in exploring green design’s new frontier net-zero-energy structures that produce as much energy as they consume and are carbon neutral. The following is an excerpt…
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An Era of Climate Chaos: Finding Hope
Scientists maintain that a mere 2 percent increase in the carbon content of the planet’s soils could offset 100 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions going into the atmosphere. But how could this be accomplished? What would it cost? Is it even possible? The following is an excerpt from Grass, Soil, Hope by Courtney White. It has been…
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The Energy Consumption Crisis
At the rate humanity is currently burning fossil fuels, we will create an uninhabitable earth long before we run out. So if the pressure of a finite resource doesn’t push us towards a renewable energy revolution, what will? And what will this revolution look like? This is an excerpt from A Small Farm Future by Chris…
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A Call to Action on Climate, Farming, Food, and a Green New Deal
The following is an interview with Ronnie Cummins, author of Grassroots Rising, and originally appeared in the Chelsea Green 2020 Spring Journal. It has been adapted for the web. It has been adapted for the web. As International Director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), Ronnie Cummins works to promote healthy, just, regenerative systems of food,…
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Earth Day Reading: 13 Essential Books
This year, people all around the world are celebrating a milestone—the 50th anniversary of this international day of action for our environment. Why not celebrate Earth Day by reading about our great planet? We’ve compiled 13 books to get you started! In Courting the Wild Twin, Dr. Martin Shaw invites us to seek out our wild…
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How to Make Biochar
For something that looks like a lump of charcoal, biochar certainly has a great press agent. The subject of books, articles, blog posts, research papers, workshop presentations, conference talks, and various top-ten-ideas-that-will-change-the-world lists. Its potential ability to address a variety of global challenges is indisputably large. So, how exactly do you make this strange material?…
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An Update on Passive Solar Living from James Kachadorian
Not only are Chelsea Green authors experts in their fields, from organic farming to solar living to green building, but they’re also part of our extended family. So it’s always nice when we get an update on how things are going! The following note is from James Kachadorian, author of The Passive Solar House. To…
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Our Favorite Summer Reads
Wondering what to read this summer? Don’t worry, we have you covered! Grab your towel and claim the best pool chair or relax at your homestead with one of these perfect summer reads. Whether its nature reads, to healing your gut, everything wild, or inspirational books you’ll have your nose in a book all summer long…
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Silvopasture: What in the world is it?
Have you heard of silvopasture? This system of managing grazing animals in a temperate forest ecosystem is quite common in Europe but it didn’t quite make its way over to North America with the colonists. They must not have realized the benefits of silvopasture: healthier animals, better soil, less pest control and mowing, and climate…
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Taking Permaculture Beyond the Garden Gate: Q&A With Toby Hemenway
The Permaculture City begins in the garden but takes what we have learned there and applies it to a much broader range of human experience; we’re not just gardening plants but people, neighborhoods, and even cultures. Author Toby Hemenway (Gaia’s Garden) lays out how permaculture design can help towndwellers solve the challenges of meeting our…
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Solar Cooker & Dehydrator: How to Design Your Own
In today’s world, nearly everything we use, from phones and computers to cars and kitchen appliances, requires energy derived from fossil fuels. Wouldn’t it be nice to offset some of that energy use by harnessing the renewable power of the sun? Josh Trought, founder of D Acres—an educational center in New Hampshire that researches, applies,…
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Replacing Windows? Understand Your New Glass Options
Having been in my passive solar home for 35 years, my original Alcoa windows were showing their age. The time had come to upgrade. My current experience of selecting which window and glass type to purchase turned out to be more formidable than I anticipated even as a professional in solar home design. There now…
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Losing Mineral Treasures: Can We Afford to Keep Plundering the Planet?
Mineral treasures that took millions, even billions of years to form are now being squandered in just centuries—even decades. A central question that has been vigorously debated for the last two centuries is simple: Are we going to run out? Ugo Bardi, author of Extracted: How the Quest for Mineral Wealth is Plundering the Planet…
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Building A Solar Oven: A Weekend DIY Project
Want to cook your food for free? By building a simple and affordable solar oven, you can use the power of the sun to slow-cook beans and stews and more. This step-by-step guide, illustrated by Rebekah Hren, will show you how to build the oven plus some tips on how to use it. Happy solar…
Read MoreWaste, An Excerpt from The Carbon-Free Home.
Ever wonder why we humans insist on wasting our human waste? Well, no. Probably not. But I have. And so have Stephen and Rebekah Hren, authors of our new release The Carbon-Free Home: 36 Remodeling Projects to Help Kick the Fossil-Fuel Habit. The following excerpted chapter makes clear that—given the right technologies—we can put our…
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Heat Your Home and Water with the Wind
Paul Gipe, wind energy expert and author of Wind Energy Basics: A Guide to Home- and Community-Scale Wind Energy Systems, introduced me to the idea of using the power of the wind to heat your home or hot water. Solar domestic hot water systems have been gaining in popularity in recent months due to the…
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Building for the Future: Fire-Resistant Green Building
The following is an excerpt from When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency by Matthew Stein. It has been adapted for the Web. In October 1993, when a vicious wildfire broke out in Laguna Beach, a southern California beach town, firefighter John Henderson was called down from his home…
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US Leads World in Wind Production (Sort of): A Green Milestone
The US has just passed a significant milestone: according to the Global Wind energy Council (h/t EcoGeek), last year the US overtook Germany to become, for the first time, the leader in wind power capacity. Of course, the US isn’t the only country increasing its wind power. Worldwide, according to Steve Sawyer, Secretary General of…
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Build Your Green Roof with Sod, Turf, or Straw
The following is an excerpt from Serious Straw Bale: A Home Construction Guide for All Climates by Michel Bergeron and Paul Lacinski. It has been adapted for the Web. As an alternative to conventional roofing, the idea of a green cover over a house can be very attractive. You might choose a living roof for…
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Prepping for an Earthquake: How to Improve Your Home’s Earthquake Resistance
The following is an excerpt from When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency by Matthew Stein. It has been adapted for the Web. Ask anyone who has been through a major earthquake, such as the Loma Prieta or Northridge quakes, and they will tell you that a serious quake…
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Evaporative Cooling Box: A DIY Project
Learn how to make an evaporative cooling box from home this weekend with these helpful & simple tips! The following is an excerpt from The Carbon Free Home: 36 Remodeling Projects to Help Kick the Fossil-Fuel Habit by Stephen & Rebekah Hren. It has been adapted for the Web. How to Make An Evaporative Cooling…
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Using a Hybrid Solar & Wind System: Tips for Living Off-the-Grid
The following article is excerpted from Wind Power by Paul Gipe. Prior to the development of interconnected wind turbines, wind generators had historically been used for powering remote sites where utility power was nonexistent (see figure 1 1-1, Off-the-grid wind systems). These home light plants used wind machines and banks of batteries sized to carry…
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Ten Surprising Facts About the Energy We Use
The days of cheap oil energy have come to an end. What once was simple and cheap (i.e. driving to vacation) has become difficult and expensive. The skyrocketing cost (and limited supply) of energy has forced us to re-examine the energy we use in our daily lives. Below is a quick list of 10 facts…
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