ARGONNE, ILLINOIS—The spinning drum didn’t look like much, but by sorting one form of scrap from another it was pointing the way to an important new frontier for recycling. Here on the grounds of the Argonne National Laboratories near Chicago, a pilot recycling plant is trying to convince cars to go the extra mile in donating their rusting carcasses to new products. The goal? The fully recycled automobile.
As originally hinted two months ago, Chinese government officials announced last week that the world’s most populous country will double its reliance on renewable energy sources by 2020. Currently China derives about 7 percent of its energy from renewable sources like hydro-electric, solar and wind power, but plans to derive 15 percent of its energy from these so-called alternatives within a decade and a half.
The National Biodiesel Board (NBB), a trade group representing the burgeoning American biodiesel industry, reported last week that production and consumption of biodiesel is expected to jump threefold this year in the U.S. The industry expects to churn out 75 million gallons of the alternative fuel in 2005, as compared to the 25 million gallons produced in 2004.
From 1979’s The China Syndrome to 2004’s The Day After Tomorrow, numerous films with controversial environmental themes have enticed grown-ups to theatres over the past few decades. But the pickings are a little slimmer when it comes to green flicks for kids.
E Magazine does not as a rule cover conferences–our space is too precious to offer blow-by-blow accounts of speeches. But this newsletter allows us to bend the rules, and the Internet gives us breathing space to keep you informed at rather greater length than is possible on the printed page. So here are detailed reports from two important gatherings, one in the U.S. and the other from Rome, the eternal city.
In an effort to generate revenue to rein in the ballooning federal deficit, the House Resources Committee has approved a federal budget package calling for an end to a decade-old moratorium on the sale of public lands to mining companies. Committee Chair Dick Pombo said that the contentious provision would add $2.4 billion or more to federal coffers over five years.
While China’s economic flowering might be benefiting millions of people, it is also degrading their quality of life. The European Space Agency released satellite data last week showing that the air in the Chinese capital Beijing and its neighboring provinces contains the highest levels of nitrogen dioxide in the world. Analysts estimate that such elevated pollution levels probably account for 400,000 premature deaths in the region every year.
It is indeed true that sales of sport utility vehicles (SUVs)—not to mention pickup trucks and vans—have plummeted in recent months in the U.S. Undoubtedly rising oil prices are playing a big role, and sales of the Ford Explorer, Lincoln Navigator, GMC Yukon and Hummer H2 are all down 50 percent or more.
Chlorine is a highly efficient disinfectant, and it is added to public water supplies to kill disease-causing bacteria that the water or its transport pipes might contain. “Chlorine has been hailed as the savior against cholera and various other water-borne diseases, and rightfully
Despite environmentalists" warnings, Americans spend large amounts of time and money on products that eliminate moss from their manicured lawns. This, along with unchecked commercial harvesting and damage by pollution, has caused a serious decline in the low-profile plant, even though moss is an important component of many ecosystems, from cave walls to the forest floor.
