Reinventing the Zoo
It’s No Longer Enough to Put Endangered Species on Display and Call it Conservation
Save Wildlife. Close the Zoos.
I never much enjoyed the zoo. As a child, the prospect of a day’s visit with my classmates sounded fun, but beyond the attraction of a day off from school, singing on the bus, and the cotton candy, the experience was usually pretty depressing. The place stunk like a huge cat box, and the animals […]
Toxic Technology
The High-Tech Industry is Poisonous to Low-Wage Immigrant Workers In February 2000, Garrett Brown of California’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration (Cal-OSHA) found that a high-tech plant in Fremont, California was poisoning its workers with arsenic. Brown learned that American Xtal Technology (AXT), while filling semiconductor contracts for the Department of Defense and the National […]
Africa Underwater
Nigeria’s Coastline is Besieged by Global Warming New research is sounding the alarm, predicting that climate-related sea level rise is likely to put 80 percent of Nigeria’s coastline at risk of being swept away by the surging waves of the Atlantic Ocean. In a research study entitled, "Perception and Reality: Assessing Priorities for Sustainable Development […]
Piece By Piece
Middlebury College Recycles Paper—and Its Old Buildings "I had my first college class in that room right there," says Chad Malone, pointing to a ground-floor chamber stripped to a concrete shell and filled with rubble. "Chem 104. This was a terrible building. Cold, cold." Very few people get to trash their old college classrooms (at […]
Clear Water: Can Native Americans Save Northern Idaho’s Most Popular Lake?
Henry SiJohn, square-faced and bespectacled, peered across the broad waters of Lake Coeur d’Alene, the spiritual center of his Coeur d’Alene tribe. The water shimmered a deep blue, making for a pretty backdrop for the numerous weddings held at a posh neighboring golf resort. Once promoted for national park status, the lake has stoked the […]
Cape Cod’s Big Wind
There’s no doubt that wind and solar are clean, efficient and renewable sources of energy, but not everyone welcomes an alternative power project in their backyard. A proposed 170-turbine wind park off the southern coast of Massachusetts has generated considerable heat, but no power yet. The planned park on Horseshoe Shoals in Nantucket Sound has […]
Greener Golfing, Safer Dry Cleaning and Discreet Diving
I love to play golf, but is it bad for the environment? —Jared Pyatt, Springfield, MO The relationship between golf courses and the environment is not a simple one. Many golf courses are public parks that help preserve native habitats and get millions of people outside. But golf courses can also be elitist playgrounds, put […]
Pig-Free in the Channel Islands
The five islands in Channel Islands National Park, off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, are a state treasure: Despite such close proximity to heavily populated Southern California, they have remained relatively undeveloped. There are 2,000 species of plants and animals in the park, 145 of them unique to the islands.
The Low Flow’s False Flush
The water-saving benefits of many aging low-flow toilets are spiraling down the drain. According to a new University of Arizona study, poor design and the tinkering of do-it-yourself plumbers have reduced the toilets’ effectiveness. There"s no question that low-flow toilets save water, but they"re under attack for not working properly.Briggs Subject to potshots by Jerry […]