More than 80 percent of American households use chlorine bleach to whiten their clothes and clean inside their homes, but most consumers don’t realize that the use of this seemingly innocuous cleaning additive could be polluting their home as well as the great outdoors.
Environmentalists are accusing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of buckling to industry pressure to relax standards governing the testing of human health responses to pesticide exposure. The agency’s new rules–advertised to "categorically" protect children and pregnant women from pesticide testing–reportedly allow for several troubling exceptions, including sanctioning the use of "abused and neglected" kids as test subjects and allowing for "ethically deficient" human research if it is considered crucial to "protect public health."
With Hurricane Katrina shutting down an estimated five percent of American oil refining capacity, and oil prices already at an all-time high, investors are starting to look seriously at renewable forms of energy as the next big thing. Share prices in several small American companies producing solar panels and related equipment–including Evergreen Solar, DayStar Technologies, Energy Conversion Devices and Spire–have more than doubled over the past year. Meanwhile, Cypress Semiconductor hopes to raise more than $100 million for a spin-off IPO of its solar subsidiary SunPower this fall. Analysts think that the damage from Katrina will only help these companies raise more money via the public markets and close the cost gap between traditional forms of power and renewable sources.
My cousin, Rebecca Mark, is an English professor at Tulane University in New Orleans. Her home on Pine Street is only a few blocks from the historic university, and from what she’s heard it took on three and a half feet of water.
Environmentalists have been worried about CD jewel case disposal ever since compact discs first became popular in the 1980s. Jewel cases are made out of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), a petrochemical-based plastic that is notoriously difficult to recycle and has been linked to elevated
No single storm or its intensity can be attributed to climate change alone, but scientists do believe that warmer ocean temperatures as a result of global warming may be intensifying the strength of hurricanes—and therefore could have contributed to Katrina’s fury.
The Hurricane Katrina fiasco has been blamed on President Bush, on poorly prepared or corrupt state and local governments, and even (by Rush Limbaugh) on a “culture of entitlement” that persuaded people they should stay in their homes and let the feds take care of them. But blaming it on environmentalists? That’s a new one.
The director of renewable energy for China’s national policy-making bureau told an international energy conference in Beijing last week that his country is considering boosting its commitment to solar, wind, geothermal and hydroelectric power by as much as 50%.
Apparently, some of the world’s largest automakers were listening when California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he had a dream of a "hydrogen highway" running through his state and beyond. Last week, General Motors, Honda and BMW acknowledged that they would each be producing small runs of hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars for California’s roads within five years. Analysts expect most of the initial production models, probably numbering in the hundreds of vehicles statewide, to be used as part of public and municipal fleets.
Where can I find carpeting without the strong odors and health concerns of conventional synthetic materials?
