Despite the breathtaking vistas of its unique, semi-arid mountain-desert, the Namaqualand region of northwestern South Africa is woefully impoverished. But a handful of progressive Connecticut educators are working with African communities to build a foundation for global sustainability. Jerry Birdsall (right) directs Connected Cultures’ outreach programs, bringing South African students to the U.S. and building […]
Nova Scotia’s Solar Sewage Solution One of Bear River, Nova Scotia’s biggest tourist attractions is its sewage treatment plant. Pleasing to the eye and almost completely odorless, the 80,000-gallon facility is located right in the heart of the small town’s tourist district. Every year, close to 2,000 people visit the plant. Bear River became the […]
Native Americans across the continent continue to struggle against environmental and social injustice. Tribal lands are disproportionately ravaged by mining and forestry industries, and every site in America currently proposed to store nuclear waste is on Native lands, according to the advocacy group Honor the Earth. Along with the destruction of traditional culture and the […]
A Threatened Ecosystem? Contacts Regional Water Quality Control Board Surfrider Foundation San Diego
Airline Recycling is a Hit-and-Miss Proposition Call it a fly-by-night operation. A flight attendant zips down the aisle, grabs an empty soda can from an airline passenger, mumbles any old answer when asked if it will be recycled, and stuffs the can in a trash bag. There’s really no way of knowing if the soda […]
Urban Community Gardens Fight to Save Their Space In the heart of downtown Manhattan, peeking out from between towering brick high-rises, is a little green oasis called the Liz Christy Garden. Inside, urban sojourners can watch fish and turtles glide beneath the surface of a pond. For others, the garden offers a rare opportunity to […]
Winter flooding in the Los Angeles area is often so severe that lives and homes are routinely lost in mudslides. Yet, the thirst for a stable water supply has defined this desert city. In 1913, the local water company built an ingenious but ethically dubious aqueduct to drain the Owens River 200 miles away into […]
After a Series of Tragic Fires, Loggers Go on the Offensive Wildfires ravaging the American West have citizens, civic leaders and environmentalists searching for answers. Many blame our country’s past attitude towards fire, and a U.S. Forest Service (symbolized by the venerable Smoky Bear) that has been suppressing healthy, natural burning for too long. Fuel […]
It’s a no-brainer, really: You get the big guys—governments, hospitals, universities, big corporations, everyone who buys in volume—to demand green products and attributes. As a result, suppliers are forced to green up their products if they want the business. Thus they invest in doing so, and the resulting sales volume creates a large-enough production of […]
It’s right there in President Clinton’s 1998 Executive Order 13101. "Agencies," it says, "are encouraged to use all of the options available to them to determine the environmentally preferable attributes of products and services
" Unfortunately, the key word is "encouraged," rather than "required," and that means the federal government is moving at its usual incredibly slow pace.
