Cold enough for ya? Weather.com says it’s 19 degrees, but the wind chill makes it feel like 3 degrees. I’m gonna go all Andy Rooney and ask, didja ever wonder how they figure out how the wind chill makes it feel?

Wind chill adds a dramatic dimension to weather reporting, not unlike “black ice” or the alarming “storm watch” crawls on local news shows. Its menacing tone perhaps best illustrated by the fact that, in 2007, someone made a horror movie called Wind Chill.

Daniel Engber finds the index irritating, and worse, meaningless. His article “The Wind Chill Blows” orignially appeared on Slate three years ago, but recirculates as a must read when the temprature drops. Engber advocates for putting a deep freeze on the term “wind chill factor” and joins us to tell us why.

Slate.com: “The Wind Chill Blows”

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Wheel barrels, baby cribs, canoes. Don’t have one of your own? Somebody has one out in the garage. There's a new fix for that.

A pack of websites are facilitating the exchange of goods and services. Whether it’s fresh produce from a local garden or a working snow blower, online exchange forums are popping up in neighborhoods throughout the country.

But are commodity-loving Americans really ready to give up all their stuff, or borrow someone else’s?Janelle Orsi, co-author of the recent book, The Sharing Solution, thinks so. And Justine Fenwick, founder of GoGoVerde, a site where users can swap goods and services, also joins us.

(Photo by Hot Meteor via Flickr/CreativeCommons)

Carbon trading is now the fastest-growing commodities market on Earth. More than $300 billion worth of carbon has been traded since emission caps were agreed upon in 2005. One market analysis predicts that if President Obama’s plans for a cap-and-trade system gets a green light in the U.S., the demand for carbon credits could soar to a $2-3 trillion market. Advocates declare cap-and-trade as good for the environment and the economy.

Investigative reporter Mark Schapiro has been looking into those promises and unraveling how the price of emissions and projected emissions are assesed. Mark uncovered some critical flaws in how offsets are assessed, priced, and traded in the burgeoning commodities market. As part of our Next Green Thing series, we’re talking with Mark about his reporting which is featured in the February issue of Harper's.

NPR: Cap And Trade And The New Carbon Economy

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It used to be that couples fought about who cooks dinner and taking out the trash. With a rise in environmental awareness, add eco-disputes to the list of grievances.

Therapists around the country are reporting rises in domestic spats over everything from recycling to longer showers. For a closer look we're calling Dr. Thomas Doherty, a clinical psychologist in Portland, Oregon who's been helping couples resolve their environmental disagreements. And he joins us as part of our Next Green Thing series.

The New York Times: Therapists Report Increase in Green Disputes

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