Down to earth

We know, we know, we know: another magazine doing another issue about the environment. You maxed out on that months ago, tired of all those glossies guilting you into saving the world by buying chartreuse eye shadow, planting a tree in the tropics or building a bamboo fence.

That’s why our Green issue is for real New Yorkers. You’re time-pressed and jaded, and the idea of hemp panties makes you itch, but you are interested in anything that makes life easier—and if that happens to be enviro-friendly, well, all the better. (The concept of stripping down both literally and figuratively inspired our cover image by installation artist Spencer Tunick, photographed at the ultragreen Queens Botanical Garden.)

Inside, we’ll tell you how you can make life simpler and save the world by doing nothing, or doing the bare minimum, or going overboard—and how each improves your life and the planet’s. We also look at New York today—how green are those green buildings?—and in times past, when people were less worried about the ozone and more concerned with manure.

Speaking of waste, we also investigate corporate B.S. and meet High Impact Man, a Queens bartender who doesn’t give a crap about any of this. Lastly, we take a good look at ourselves, our paper and our own enviro-sins.

This week’s a good time to think about everything global, as festivals big (Live Earth, featuring the Police, hits Giants Stadium and the world on Saturday 7) and small (Citysol 2007, with music and art, tents up at Stuyvesant Cove Park, July 12–15) come to the tristate area to rub our noses in the issues. To find out where you stand, turn the page.—Michael Freidson