DaimlerChrysler and Ford Launch Sustainability ProjectsThe northern Brazilian state of Par?, set in the largest contiguous tropical rainforest in the world, is four times the size of Germany but has a tiny fraction of that industrialized country’s economic activity. That’s why defenders of the rainforest say it’s important to build a sustainable economy in Brazil’s […]
A Toxic Trail Leads to the Now-Closed Defense Depot The United States military produces nearly a ton of hazardous wastes every minute, an amount that surpasses even the biggest multinational corporations. More than 120 military sites have been placed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Superfund National Priority List. Locating toxin-laden military installations near many […]
Laurel Hill Offers Biodiversity in the Shadow of the New Jersey Turnpike With more than 600,000 drivers each day, the northern half of the New Jersey Turnpike is among the most widely traveled roads in America. For the most part, it’s not a pretty sight. The industrial wastelands, abandoned factories and former landfills that pass […]
Arriving in Copenhagen by sea, the first thing travelers see of Denmark is a row of 20 enormous wind turbines gently spinning above the waves nearly two miles from shore. Completed last December, the Middelgrunden Wind Farm is the world’s largest offshore wind power facility. Its wind machines, each with blades 100 feet long, together […]
Virginia Tries to Duck Responsibility for Protecting Horseshoe Crabs Horseshoe crabs—actually more related to spiders than crabs—have gotten along fine, without help from human beings, for 300 million years or so, paleontologists estimate, predating even the dinosaurs. But the twentieth century has been a rough one for the horseshoe crab. It began with their existence […]
What is the environmental impact of cruise ships? —David Haviland, Ann Arbor, MI Chris Murphy Illustration For several million passengers each year, an ocean cruise can be the ultimate vacation. But according to the activist group Bluewater Network, "from 1993 to 1998, cruise ships were involved in 104 detected and confirmed cases of illegal discharges […]
Everyone at Lake Tahoe is hoping that history—or at least a very specific historical fact—will repeat itself. Tahoe—a 23-mile-long, 12-mile wide, nearly 1,600-foot-deep lake nestled in the Sierra Nevada—regained its lost clarity after most of the surrounding forests were clear cut in the 1800s and erosion was rampant. That’s particularly good news now, considering that […]
Putting Grounds in the Ground? Starbucks sells more than 10 million cups of coffee worldwide every week, according to spokeswoman Helen Chung. That much coffee leaves an awful lot of grounds to dispose of, and so it was heartening to learn that the manager of a Starbucks in Freehold, New Jersey was, at least for […]
In the case of coffee production, the old ways are the best ways. Traditionally, coffee is grown in the shade of tropical overstory trees, which enrich the soil and reduce the need for chemical fertilizers. The practice preserves forest habitat for migratory songbirds, and is friendly to organic production. But by 1990, more than half […]
“Most people don't realize that there are caribou in the lower 48 states,” says wildlife biologist Tim Layser, “and that they are the most endangered population of large mammals in the country. Once spread throughout the West, they all disappeared within a single lifetime.” In an attempt to save the species, a cooperative effort between […]
