Never learned the difference between mitochondria and monotremes? No matter—you may still have a shot at a side career in science. These days, conservation organizations and government agencies are increasingly turning to average citizens to help monitor water quality in local streams, track bird migrations, and restore habitats.
Sustainable development is a popular environmental catchphrase, but it’s not always clear what sustainability looks like beyond demonstration projects such as recycling centers or the occasional "green" building. Now North Americans are starting to look at Sweden for both models and methods of sustainability.
Sinking a gigantic, smelly whale carcass to the bottom of the ocean is an adventure that most of us would not even contemplate undertaking, but it’s one that has been casting a fascinating light on a hitherto unimagined world beneath the waves. For scientific studies are showing that, in death, whales give life, their giant, slowly decaying carcasses supporting communities of fauna that make so-called "whale falls" among the most diverse habitats in the deep sea.
If the contents of U.S. landfills (and litter along roadways) are any indication, the bottled water industry is booming (see "Message in a Bottle," cover story, September/October 2003). Every day, 30 million used water bottles are tossed away as more and more Americans avoid their taps in favor of handsomely packaged plastic bottles boasting "pure" and "natural" H2O. In 2004, only 15 percent of bottled water containers were recycled.
According to a recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health, particulate pollution can be directly linked to increasing the risk of cardiovascular problems and major heart failure in diabetics. The study, led by Harvard professor of environmental epidemiology Joel Schwartz, was published last June in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association (see […]
On May 26, federal court judge James Redden ruled, for the second time, that the federal salmon plan for the Columbia and Snake Rivers is unlawful (see "American Rivers," In Brief, July/ August 2000). In May 2003, Judge Redden had asked the Bush administration to rewrite the first plan. Redden takes issue with the National […]
Has the landmark federal cleanup legislation Superfund been a success or failure from the perspective of environmentalists?
If our "mega-cities" coverage in this issue doesn’t convince our readers and the substantial audience of international politicians and journalists also receiving it that the world has much bigger problems on its hands than terrorism, then I don’t know what will. On September 11, 2001 some 3,000 people died in one single savage act in one day. Yet around the world 10 times that many children die in one day, every day.
I read your cover story "Is the Green Movement in the Dumps?" (May/ June 2005), and I have some feedback as a lifelong green, educator and policy guy. George Lakoff has it right, but if he has to be paid $350,000 to "re-frame" the issues in plain English, then we are already dead. We are […]
The scent of sage and the pounding hooves of abundant wild game are a memory to the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Shoshone Indians in Utah…
