Would you be smiling if you were riding in a jury-rigged truck that had an emergency evacuation button on the left and a giant and a tank of highly flammable hydrogen fuel behind the seat? It was par for the course at the FutureTruck Competition, hosted by Ford Motor Company and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
A suspension bridge sways 52 feet above a forested ravine. Students sprawl face down on its metal grating, fear changing to awe as they observe the verdant scene below. At a new school called IslandWood near Seattle, Washington, kids are being immersed in nature, then challenged to be stewards of their surroundings.
Surviving in scattered areas around California, the red-legged frog was declared threatened in 1996 under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). The resulting effort produced the second-largest critical habitat area ever mapped—4.1 million acres sprawling over the state’s Central Valley and Sierra Nevada foothills—and since then, the frog has transformed from a treasured icon of Gold Rush California into a symbol of the ongoing fight over federal species protection.
The nine staff members of Eugene, Oregon-based Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (E-LAW) have a disproportionate impact around the world. Since its founding in 1989 by grassroots lawyers from 10 countries, the organization has grown into a network connecting 300 lawyers and scientists in 60 countries.
While President Bush’s terrible environmental record would presumably hand John Kerry a golden campaign issue, the Democrat avoids the topic, possibly because polls show green issues are not occupying a major part of the voters" attention. When asked, most people say the candidates have similar positions on environmental issues.
Light electric vehicles can save energy, cut congestion and spare the air, and have gained attention in the last decade for their positive environmental potential. But in practice, they haven’t quite caught on.
Seahorses may have the best love lives of any fish in the ocean. These delicate, swirled-tail members of the <I>syngnathid</I> family (pipefish, sea dragons) are frequently depicted in mythology, rapturously entwined. But this millennia-old dance may soon be over, as seahorses are increasingly endangered.
It has never been easier to fly. Internet-based services and third-party affiliates like Travelocity.com and CheapTickets.com now offer plane tickets at all-time lows, conveniently purchased with a simple click of the mouse. While these fares may seem like a dream come true for low-budget travelers, the resulting surge in air traffic carries with it major environmental costs.
The rock piles outside the Western Mineral Products plant were too good to pass up. "We all played over there," recalls Kevin Reich, who moved to the neighborhood as a sixth-grader in 1979. But the rock piles were the by-product of processing vermiculite ore mined by W.R. Grace & Company in Libby, Montana, and they’re now known to contain asbestos.
The interconnection between environmental awareness and better lives for poor women is clear. Women the world over, in developing nations on every continent, are working to protect the environment and improve their lives—and proving that the two are not mutually exclusive.
